There are two different kinds of lawyer in Britain. One of these is a solicitor [sз`lisitз]. Solicitors handle most legal matters for their clients, including the drawing up of documents (such as wills, divorce papers and contracts) and presenting their clients’ cases in magistrates’ courts. If the trial is to be heard in a higher court, the solicitor normally hires the services of the other kind of lawyer – a barrister [`bæristз]. There are only about 5000 barristers in the UK, and they are the senior branch of the legal profession. The only function of barristers is to present cases in court.
Vocabulary
employees – служащие
beat – участок
patrol – патрулировать
‘bobby’ – полицейский (Bobby уменьш. от Robert; по имени Роберта Пиля, реорганизовавшего лондонскую полицию в 1829)
Metropolitan Police Force – Столичная полиция (официальное название полиции Лондона, за исключением Сити, имеющего собственную полицию ‘City of London Police Force’)
compilation – составление
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) – Департамент уголовного розыска
cheat – обманывать
adversarial system – система, основанная на противоборстве сторон (защита и обвинение)
magistrate – судья-магистрат
proposition – утверждение, заявление
prosecution – обвинение
magistrates’ court – суд магистратов
panel of magistrates – коллектив судей-магистратов
pass judgement – вершить правосудие
impose a punishment – приговаривать к наказанию
offence – проступок, нарушение, преступление
unconditionally discharged – освобождение без каких-либо условий
conditional discharged – условный приговор (освобождение на определенных условиях)
on probation – условное освобождение на поруки
fine – штраф
community service – исправительные работы
imprison – заключать в тюрьму
death penalty – смертный приговор
remission – смягчение приговора
life sentence – пожизненное заключение
Justice of the Peace (JP) – мировой судья
accused – обвиняемый
jury – присяжные
at random – наугад
mistrial – судебный процесс, в котором присяжные не вынесли единодушного решения
appeal – апеллировать
conviction – осуждение, признание виновным
quash – аннулировать
‘not proven’ – ‘не доказано’
solicitor – солúситор
barrister – барристер
LECTURE 5
The media [`mi:djз]
Plan:
1. The Press
2. Radio and television
1. The Press
Britain's first newspapers appeared over 300 years ago. British people are the world’s third biggest newspaper buyers; only the Japanese and the Swedes buy more.
Newspaper publication is dominated [`domineitid] by the national press: nearly 80 % of all households buy a copy of one of the national papers every day. There are more than eighty local and regional daily papers; but the total circulation [,sз:kju`lei∫зn] of all of them together is much less than the combined circulation of the national ‘dailies’. The only non-national papers with significant [sig`nifikзnt] circulation are published in the evenings, when they do not compete with the national papers, which always appear in the morning. Most local papers do not appear on Sundays, so on that day the dominance [`dominзns] of the national press is absolute. ‘The Sunday papers’ are so-called because that is the only day on which they appear. Some of them are published by the same company but employing separate editors and journalists. The Sunday papers sell slightly more copies than the dailies and are thicker.
Local papers give information about films, concerts, and other things that are happening in the local neighbourhood, including, for example, information about local people who have been married or died recently. There are also many free local papers which are delivered to people’s homes whether they ask for them or not. These papers contain a lot of advertisements and also some news.
Each of the national papers can be characterized as belonging to one of two distinct [dis`tiŋkt] categories [`kætigзriz]. ‘The quality papers’, or ‘broadsheets’ [`bro:d∫i:ts], cater [`keitз] – снабжать, обслуживать, зд. предназначаться for the better educated readers. The ‘popular papers’ or ‘tabloids’ [`tæbloidz], sell to a much large readership. The tabloids contain far less print than the broadsheets and far more pictures. They use larger headlines and write in a simple style of English. While the broadsheets devote much space to `politics and other ‘serious’ news, the tabloids concentrate on ‘human interest’ stories, which often means sex and scandal. However, the broadsheets do not completely ignore sex and scandal or any other aspect of public life. Both types of paper devote equal amount of attention to sport. The difference between them is in the treatment of the topics they cover, and in which topics are given the most prominence [`prominзns]. The reason that the quality newspapers are called broadsheets and the popular ones – tabloids is because they are different shapes. The broadsheets are twice as large as the tabloids.
The daily broadsheets are: Daily Telegraph [`teligra:f], Guardian [`ga:djзn], Independent [,indi`pendзnt], Times, Financial [fai`næn∫зl] Times. The Sunday broadsheets are: Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, Observer, Independent on Sunday.
The daily tabloids are: Sun, Daily Mirror [`mirз], Daily Mail, Daily Express [iks`pres], Star. The Sunday tabloids are: News of the World, Sunday Mirror, People, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Express, Sunday sport.
The way politics is presented in the national newspapers reflects the fact that British political parties are essentially parliamentary [,pa:lз`mentзri] organizations. Although different papers have differing political outlooks, none of the large newspapers is an organ of a political party.
Most of newspapers are right-wing. These are the Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mail and the Sun. The Times, the oldest newspaper in Britain, did not formerly have one strong political view but it is now more right-wing. The Guardian is slightly left-wing. The Independent does not support any one political party, and neither does Financial Times, which concentrates on business and financial news. The Daily Mirror is left-wing.
What counts for the newspaper publishers is business. All of them are in the business first and foremost to make money. As newspapers receive no government subsidy [`sΛbsidi], their primary concern is to sell as many copies as possible and to attract as much advertising [`ædvзtaiziŋ] as possible. The British press is controlled by a rather small number of extremely large companies. This fact helps to explain two notable features.
One of these is its freedom from interference [,intз`fiзrзns] from government influence. The press is so powerful in this respect that it is sometimes referred to as ‘the fourth respect’ (the other three being the Commons, the Lords and the monarch). This freedom is ensured because there is a general feeling in the country that ‘freedom of speech’ is a basic constitutional right.
The other feature of the national press which is partially the result of the commercial interests of its owners is its shallowness. Few other European countries have a popular press which is so ‘low’. Sometimes newspapers’ pages are full of stories about the private lives of famous people. Sometimes their ‘stories’ are not articles at all, they are just excuses to show pictures of almost naked women.
The British press is not only newspapers, there are a lot of different magazines catering [`keitзriŋ] for almost every imaginable taste and specializing in almost every imaginable pastime. Among these publications there are a few weeklies dealing with news and current affairs. The best selling weeklies are those giving details of the forthcoming [fo:θ`kΛmiŋ] week’s television and radio programmes: What’s On TV, the Radio Times and TV Times. Second to them in popularity are women’s magazines: Take a Break, Woman’s Weekly, Woman’s Own, Woman, Woman’s Realm. Among men’s magazines, the most popular are Loaded, GQ and Esquire [is`kwaiз]. The leading opinion journals are The Economist, the New Statesman and Society, the Spectator and Private Life.
Vocabulary
circulation – тираж
significant – значительный
dominance – преобладание
category – категория
‘broadsheet’
cater – снабжать, обслуживать, зд. предназначаться
‘tabloid’ – таблойд, малоформатная газета бульварного толка (рассчитана на широкий круг читателей с невзыскательным вкусом)
prominence – зд. предпочтение
Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Financial Times, Observer
right-wing – зд. выражающий интересы «правых» (консерваторов)
left-wing – зд. выражающий интересы «левых» (лейбористов)
subsidy – субсидия
advertising – реклама
weeklies – еженедельники
forthcoming – предстоящий, грядущий
Esquire
2. Radio and television
In 1936 the government established the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) [`bro:dka:stiŋ ,ko:pз`rei∫зn] to provide a public service in radio. It also began broadcasting that year on the recently invented television. In 1955 the establishment of independent and commercial television and radio removed the BBC’s broadcasting monopoly [mз`nopзli].
In spite of its much reduced evening audience, BBC radio still provides an important service. Its five radio stations (BBC radio 1–5) provide: non-stop pop music, light entertainment, classical music, arts programmes and academic material (some for Open University courses), news and comment and discussion programmes, sport.
· Radio 1 began broadcasting in 1969. Devoted almost entirely to pop music, its birth was a signal that popular youth culture could no longer be ignored by the country’s established institutions. In spite of recent competition from independent commercial radio stations, it still has over ten million listeners.
· Radio 2 broadcasts mainly light music and chat shows.
· Radio 3 is devoted to classical music.
· Radio 4 broadcasts a variety of programmes, from plays and comedy shows to consumer [kзn`sju:mз] advice programme and in-depth news coverage.
· Radio 5 is largely given over to sports coverage and news.
The BBC additionally runs 38 local stations, providing material of local interests.
Two particular radio programmes should be mentioned. Soap operas are normally associated with television. but The Archers [`a:t∫зz] is actually the longest-running soap in the world. It describes itself as ‘an everyday story of country folk’. Its audience is mainly middle-class with a large proportion [prз`po:∫зn] of elderly people. Another popular programme is the live commentary of cricket Test Matches in summer.
Commercial radio offers three nationwide [,nei∫зn`waid] services: Classic FM, which broadcasts mainly classical music; Virgin 1215, broadcasting popular music; and Talk Radio UK, a speech-based service.
In addition there are 180 independent local radio stations which provide news, information, music and other entertainment, coverage [`kΛvзrid3] of local events, sports commentary, chat shows and ‘phone-in’ programmes.
An important but separate part of the BBC’s work is its ‘external services’. The BBC World Service broadcasts by radio in English and 43 other languages. The service is funded separately from the rest of the BBC, by the Foreign Office. Although the BBC has freedom in the content [`kontзnt] of what it broadcasts, the government decides in which foreign languages it should broadcast, and the amount of funding it should receive. As such, the service is a promotional [prз`mou∫зnзl] part of British foreign policy.
Television is the most popular form of entertainment in Britain. It is also independent from government interference [,intз`fiзrзns]. There is no advertising on the BBC. But Independent Television (ITV), which started in 1954, gets its money from advertisements in screens. It consists of a number of privately owned companies, each of which is responsible for programming [`prougræmiŋ] – составление программы in different parts of the country on the single channel given to it. But ITV news programmes are not made by individual television companies. Independent Television News (ITN) is owned jointly by all of them. For this and other reasons, it has always been protected from commercial influence. There is no significant [sig`nifikзnt] difference between the style and `content of the news on ITV and than on the BBC.