CURS 3, JURNALISM, ENGLEZA, MEDIU, 21 OCT 2009

I. GRAMMAR: WILL OR WOULD

1. Tick the correct sentence in each pair:
1 a. Everything will be much quicker when we will get the new computer
system.
b. Everything will be much quicker when we get the new computer
system.
2 a. I promised Mum Id go straight home after the concert.
b. I promised Mum Ill go straight home after the concert.
We use will to talk about future possibilities or predictions which we believe will happen,
especially based on an existing situation or evidence:
If you dont water the plants, theyll die. (its a certain fact)
My journey to work will be much easier when the new tram line opens. (the line is
already being built, so the consequences are quite certain)
* We only use will to talk about the possibility or prediction, not in the if/when clause. (
not when the new tram line will open)
We use would to describe hypothetical possibilities which are uncertain, unlikely or
impossible, often based on situations which do not yet exist or can never exist:
Id buy more organic products if they werent so expensive. (but they are expensive)
In my opinion, it would be disastrous to let this project go ahead. (no decision has been
made yet, so the consequences are only a possibility)
We also use would to talk about a time in the future from a point in the past:
They planned that they would meet at midnight.
2. Choose the correct form to complete each sentence:
1. It will be/would be nice to go away for longer, but I cant get more time
off work.
2. She told me she will call/would call if there was a problem.
3. If this rains continues/will continue much longer, the river will flood.
4. Based on current estimates, the number of mobile phone users will
double/would double in the next five years.
5. Dave will be/would be furious if he knew what youd done.
6. If everything goes/will go to plan, well have everything finished by
Friday.
7. He promised he will be/would be back in time for my birthday.
8. More people would use public transport if the services were/would be
more reliable.
(Julie Moore, Common mistakes at Proficiency.and how to avoid them)

REPORTED SPEECH (2)

Explanations:
Reporting questions:
* We can report questions with verbs like ask, wonder and want to know.
Where do you live? he asked.
He asked me where I lived.
(NOT where I did live)
Do you live in Athens? he asked.
He wanted to know if I lived in Athens. (NOT if I did live)
* Look at more examples of Wh- questions (using when, what, why, how etc). Study the
tense changes and word order carefully. Notice that the word order in a reported question
is like a normal statement, with the subject before the verb.
Where is the bus station? she asked.
She asked where the bus station was.
(NOT where was the bus station)
What are you doing? he asked.
He wanted to know what I was doing.
Why did you go there? she asked.
She wondered why I had gone there.
Where have you come from? he asked.
He asked me where I had come from.
* Look at more examples of Yes/No questions (Do you, Did you, Are you etc). When we
report Yes/No questions we use if or whether.
Does the London train stop here? she asked.
She asked me if the London train stopped here.
Did you speak to Rachel? he asked.
He wanted to know whether I had spoken to Rachel.
Are you a student? she asked.
She asked me if I was a student.
Reporting commands and requests
* Commands are reported with tell and the infinitive.
Wait! Wait!
I told him to wait.
* Requests are reported with ask and the infinitive.
Please wait!
I asked her to wait.

Other reporting verbs

* The last unit used say as the reporting verb, but there are many others. Here are
some of the most common.
Advise
Agree

Apologize for
Ask
Congratulate on
Decide
Deny
Invite
Offer
Promise
Refuse
Remind
Suggest

I wouldnt buy that car, Janos, if I were you.

I advised Janos not to buy the car.
Ok, Ill give you a lift, said Jenny.
Jenny agreed to give her a lift.
Yes, Jill, I think youre right, said Mike.
Mike agreed with Jill.
Im really sorry for being so late, said Maria.
Maria apologized for being late.
Do you think you could help me, Sue?
I asked Sue to help me.
Well done, Tina, youve passed the exam!
I congratulated Tina on passing her exam.
Ill have the fish soup, please, said Bill.
Bill decided to have the fish soup.
No, I didnt take it! I wasnt even there!said Alice.
Alice denied taking it.
Would you like to come to the cinema on Saturday, Pam?
I invited Pam to the cinema on Saturday.
Shall I carry your case, Dawn? said Peter.
Petter offered to carry Dawns case.
Ill definitely be home by eight, said Ann.
Ann promised to be home by eight.
No, I wont open the door! said Carol.
Carol refused to open the door.
Dont forget to send your mother a birthday card, Joe.
I reminded Joe to send his mother a birthday card.
How about spending the day at the beach? said Carlos.
Carlos suggested spending the day at the beach.

* Reporting verbs can have one or more different patterns. A good dictionary
shows this information.
Verb + to infinitive:
Verb+ object + to infinitive
Verb+ -ing form:
Verb+ preposition + -ing

agree, decide, offer, promise, refuse

advise, ask, invite, remind
deny, suggest
apologize for, congratulate on

Practice
1. Put one suitable word in each space.
a) Fiona asked me whether I was going to school or not.
b) David asked his mother . she . be coming home.

c) Peter asked usweeven been to Hungary.

d) Costas asked meImany photographs.
e) Maria asked a policemanthe museum was.
f) Dora asked her sistershe..fed their dog.
2. Complete each question in direct speech, ending as shown.
a) Jack asked me whether I was having lunch or going out.
Are you having lunch or going out? Jack asked me.
b) Carol asked Ann what she had done the day before.
.., Ann? asked Carol.
c) John asked us if we often went sailing.
..? John asked us.
d) Christine asked me how many German books I had read.
..? Christine asked me.
e) Kevin asked Sue if she was going to change schools.
., Sue? asked Kevin.
f) Alice asked me who I sat next to in class.
? Alice asked me.
3. Rewrite each sentence in reported speech, beginning as shown. Do not change the
meaning.
a) Are you staying here all summer? the little girl asked me.
The little girl asked me if/whether I was staying there all summer.
b) What does procrastinatemean? I asked my teacher.
I asked my teacher
c) Have you done your homework, or not? my mother asked me.
My mother asked me
d) When is your birthday? I asked Sue.
I asked Sue .
e) Did you remember to lock the door, my father asked me.
I asked Sue.
f) Why have you turned off the television? Ellen asked me.
Ellen asked me.
4. Use a verb from the box to rewrite each sentence in reported speech, beginning as
shown. Do not change the meaning.
advised
promised

appologized
refused

congratulated invited
suggested

offered

a) Ill definitely be at your house before 8.00, Sue, said Mike.

Mike promised Sue he would be at her house before 8.00.
b) Would you like to come to the cinema, Jean? asked Chris.
Chris..
c) I wouldnt eat too much if I were you, Dave, said Patsy.
Patsy.

d) How about going for a walk? said Nick.

Nick
e) Im terribly sorry for breaking the window, said Carol.
Carol.
f) Shall I do the washing-up? said Bill?
Bill..
g) Well done, youve passed your driving test, said Tinas mother.
Tinas mother.her
h) No, I wont open my mouth! said Pat.
Pat.
(Michael Vince, Intermediate Language Practice)
II. VOCABULARY: WORD FORMATION (2)
4. Complete each word with a word formed from the word in bold.
a) I cant sit on this chair. Its really uncomfortable.
comfort
b) Ann has left home and is in. of her parents.
depend
c) These old envelopes are re.so we can save money.
use
d) Not being chosen for the team was a great dis..
appoint
e) Maria and Louis have a really good.ship.
relate
f) Being un.. means that you share with others.
self
g) Not taking exercise is rather un
healthy
h) David has a really un..temper, and gets angry easily.
control
i) These trousers wont get smaller. Theyre un
shrink
j) They didnt give Garry the job as he was in
experience
5. Complete the sentence with a word formed from the word in bold.
a) Harry asked for a receipt and the cashier gave him one.
receive
b) Nina wants to be a .and join the government.
politics
c) No one knows the exact .of the water here.
deep
d) You have to have a lot of .to go fishing.
patient

e) .is a serious matter, and you have to think about it.

marry
f) Tom sent in his .for the job the next day.
apply
g) Helens mind is filled with all kinds of unusual..
know
h) There was nofor the crash of the airliner.
explain
6. Complete each sentence with a word formed from the word in bold.
a) The theft of the diamonds baffled the police.
thief
b) Most people have no real ..in ghosts.
believe
c) Tina had no ..that anything was wrong.
suspect
d) We measured the ..of the room with a ruler.
long
e) Our teacher was really .when she found out.
anger
f) George won a medal for .
brave
g) Looking in the mirror too much is an example of
vain
h) Do you think you have the .to pass the test?
able
(Michael Vince, Intermediate Language Practice)
III. NEWSPAPERS
Around 200 million newspapers are sold in the UK each week and millions more
free paper are read. Britain has 21 national newspapers, 89 regional dailies and more than
1500 local weeklies. In fact, nowhere in the world are newspapers read so much for
example, the British buy three times as many papers per head as France.
THE SHAPE OF THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY
Newspapers published in Britain fall into one of the following categories:
*national newspapers are sold across the whole country and give space to stories which
affect or are relevant to the nation as a whole and stories from abroad;
*regional newspapers cover issues and events affecting one part of the country or a city,
as well as giving space to the major national and international stories of the day; with one

or two exceptions, such as papers distributed free to London Underground commuters,

they are paid for;
*local newspapers report on a smaller area or community in a great deal more detail than
a regional or a national newspaper. An increasing number of local newspapers are funded
through advertising and are distributed free to all homes and business within that
catchment area. Others are paid for.
Very important or unusual stories, such as murder, would be likely to be covered
in all three types of paper but a scout jamboree would only be featured in the local
newspaper, although it might be printed in the regional title if there was space available
after the big issues had been covered.
Some national and regional titles are published daily, either early in the morning
or later in the afternoon while others may only come out weekly or twice-weekly such as
national Sunday newspapers and local titles. On a daily title, three or four updated
versions, called editions, of the newspapers may be published.
(Sarah Niblock, Inside Journalism)

In Bias* Test, Shades of Gray

(The New York Times Science)
Last year, a team of researchers at Harvard made headlines* with an experiment
testing unconscious bias at hospitals. Doctors were shown the picture of a 50-year-old
man sometimes black, sometimes white and asked how they would treat him if he
arrived at the emergency room with chest pains indicating a possible heart attack. Then
the doctors took a computer test* intended to reveal unconscious racial bias.
The doctors who scored higher on the bias test were less likely than the other
doctors to give clot-busting* drugs to the black patients, according to the researchers,
who suggested addressing the problem by encouraging doctors to test themselves for
unconscious bias. The results were hailed* by other psychologists as some of the
strongest evidence that unconscious bias leads to harmful discrimination.
But then two other researchers, Neal Dawson and Hal Arkes, pointed out a
curious pattern* in the data. Even though most of the doctors registered some antiblack
bias, as defined by the researchers, on the whole* doctors ended up prescribing the clotbusting drugs to blacks just as often as to whites. The doctors scoring low on bias had a
pronounced preference for giving the drugs to blacks, while high-scoring doctors had a
relatively small preference for giving the drugs to whites meaning that the more
biased doctors actually treated blacks and whites more equally.
Does this result really prove dangerous bias in the emergency room? Or, as critics
suggest, does it illustrate problems with the way researchers have been using splitsecond* reactions on a computer test to diagnose an epidemic of racial bias?
In a series of scathing* critiques, some psychologists have argued that this
computerized tool, the Implicit Association Test, or I.A.T., has methodological problems
and uses arbitrary classifications of bias. If Barack Obamas victory seemed surprising,

these critics say, its partly because social scientists helped create the false impression
that three-quarters of whites are unconsciously biased against blacks.
The I.A.T., which has been taken by millions of people on an academic Web site,
measures respondents reaction times as they follow instructions to associate words like
joy or awful with either blacks or whites. It generally takes whites longer to associate
positive words with blacks than with whites, although some do show no bias. (To meet
one of these exceptional cases, go to TierneyLab, at nytimes.com/tierneylab.)
The test is widely used in research, and some critics acknowledge that its a useful
tool for detecting unconscious attitudes and studying cognitive processes. But they say
its misleading for I.A.T. researchers to give individuals ratings like slight, moderate
or strong and advice on dealing with their bias when there isnt even that much
consistency in the same persons scores if the test is taken again.
One can decrease racial bias scores on the I.A.T. by simply exposing people to
pictures of African-Americans enjoying a picnic, says Hart Blanton, a psychologist at
Texas A&M. Yet respondents who take this test on the Web are given feedback
suggesting that some enduring* quality is being assessed*. He says that even the scoring
system itself has been changed arbitrarily in recent years. People receiving feedback
about their strong racial biases, Dr. Blanton says, are encouraged in sensitivity*
workshops to confront these tendencies as some ugly reality that has meaning in their
daily lives. But unbeknownst* to respondents who take this test, the labels* given to them
were chosen by a small group of people who simply looked at a distribution* of test
scores and decided what terms seemed about right. This is not how science is done.
Two of the leading I.A.T. researchers, Anthony Greenwald of the University of
Washington and Mahzarin Banaji of Harvard, say that some of the past criticism about
their measurement techniques has been useful. But they dismiss most of the current
objections as moot* because the I.A.T.s validity has been confirmed repeatedly.
In a new a meta-analysis of more than 100 studies, Dr. Greenwald, Dr. Banaji and
fellow psychologists conclude that scores on I.A.T. reliably* predict peoples behavior
and attitudes, and that the test is a better predictor of interracial behavior than selfdescription. Their critics reach a different conclusion after reanalyzing the data in some
of those studies, which they say are inconsistent and sometimes demonstrate the reverse
of what has been reported. They have suggested addressing the scientific dispute over
bias and the researchers arguments about the legal implications for affirmative-action
policies by having the two sides join in an adversarial collaboration.
One critic, Philip Tetlock, a psychologist at the University of California,
Berkeley, said he had found prominent research groups and scholars willing to mediate
joint experiments. But so far nothing has happened and each side blames the other. Dr.
Greenwald says he tried proposing a joint experiment to Dr. Tetlock only to have it
rejected. Dr. Tetlock says that he tried a counterproposal and offered to work out a
compromise, but that the I.A.T. researchers had refused two invitations to sit down with
independent mediators.
After all the mutual invective in the I.A.T. debate, maybe its unrealistic to expect
the two sides to collaborate. But these social scientists are supposed to be experts in
overcoming bias and promoting social harmony. If they cant figure out how to get along
with their own colleagues, how seriously should we take their advice for everyone else?

Bias[ bais] = tendinta, inclina

Make headlines [meik hedlains] = to be in the headlines = a fi in centrul atentiei
Take a test [teik test] = a da un test
Clot-busting [klot- bsti] = distrugere (bust) a cheagurilor (clot)
Hail [heil] = a saluta
Pattern[ ptn] = model, tipar
On the whole [on houl] = per total
Split-second [split seknd] = fractiune de secunda
Scathing [skeii] = nimicitor, usturator, distrugator
Enduring [indjuri] = trainic, de durata
Assess [ses] = a evalua
Sensitivity [ sensitiviti]= sensibilitate
Unbeknownst [nbinounst] - prov. din unbeknown = necunoscut, obscur, nestiut
Label [leibl] = eticheta
Distribution [ distribju:n] = repartizare, clasificare
Moot [mu:t] = discutabil
Reliable [rilaibl] = de incredere