Have you ever read an item of news in a newspaper?

If you havent, you may not

imagine how difficult it can be and if you have, you may not have understood a lot.
Heres an explanation on newspaper writing. Read it carefully and afterwards check
your level of understanding by reading some news, youll see then that its not that
difficult, after being explained, of course!
Newspaper headlines are not always complete sentences. Many headlines
consist of noun phrases with no verb.

MORE POWER CUTS

(There are/will be more power cuts)

TERROR ALERT IN CAPITAL

(There is/was a terror alert in the capital)

Articles and the verb be are often left out in headlines.

HUSSAIN PAINTING OBSCENE, SAYS MINISTER

(The Hussain painting is obscene, says the Minister)

OLD MAN SCALES EVEREST

( An old man, has scaled Mt. Everest)

In headlines, simple tenses are often used instead of progressive (-ing forms)
or perfect forms. The simple present is used for both present and past
events.

FORMER PM PASSES AWAY

(Former PM has passed away.)

BLIND GIRL CLIMBS EVEREST

(Blind girl has climbed Everest.)

The present progressive is used to talk about changes. Be is usually

eliminated.

EARTH GETTING WARMER, SAY SCIENTISTS

(Earth is getting warmer)

TRADE FIGURES IMPROVING

(Trade figures are improving)

Headlines often use infinitives to refer to the future.

PM TO VISIT CANADA
(The PM is going to visit Canada)

BUSINESS SCHOOLS TO TAKE MORE STUDENTS

(Business schools are going to take more students)

For is also used to refer to future movements or plans.

INDIAN TROOPS FOR IRAQ?

(Are Indian soldiers going to be sent to Iraq?)

MORE TESTS FOR STUDENTS

(More tests are in store for students this year)

Auxiliary verbs are usually dropped from passive structures, leaving only
past participles.

SIX PEOPLE KILLED IN EXPLOSION

(Six people have been killed in an explosion)

INDIAN HELD FOR MURDER

(An Indian is being/has been held for murder)

Note that forms like held, found and attacked are usually past participles with
passive meanings, not past tenses.
Compare:

NUCLEAR DEAL ROW: PM ATTACKED

(PM has been attacked because of a nuclear deal fight.)

NUCLEAR DEAL ROW: PM ATTACKS OPPOSITION

(PM has attacked his opposition because of a nuclear deal fight)

A colon (:) is often used to separate the subject of a headline from what is
said about it.

POWER CRISIS: GOVERNMENT TO ACT

(The Government is going to act over the power crisis)

BUILDING COLLAPSE: DEATH TOLL RISES

(The death toll from the building collapse has risen)

Word stress en ingls

Word stress en ingls quiere decir la slaba tnica. Es muy importante y conviene
prestarle atencin. Verdad que en espaol sonara rarsimo decir camion
acentuando la slaba ca en lugar de on? Pues lo mismo sucede en ingls. Una
palabra como mobile tiene su word stress en mo y no en bile como suelen
pronunciar muchos alumnos.
Para ir mejorando vuestra pronunciacin es primordial estudiar la word stress, pero
cmo lo podemos hacer, os preguntaris pues bien, os aconsejo que siempre
que salga una palabra nueva, que nunca habis odo, comprobis la word stress,
en un diccionario online, por ejemplo, la podis escuchar y subrayaros la word
stress y os la estudiis.
En este post os propongo estudiar la word stress en ciertas palabras algo
complicadas. Por qu complicadas? Porque se dan en palabras que pueden ser
sustantivo y verbo a la vez, y la word stress cambia dependiendo de la categora
de la palabra, sustantivo o verbo. Un ejemplo:
increase como verbo tiene su word stress en la slaba crease, mientras que
siendo sustantivo, la tiene en in.
Austerity Britain
There has been a riot in London recently. Maybe you have seen it on the TV news.
It started as a student protest against rising tuition fees, as you can see in the top
picture. But it finished as a riot, with smashed windows and violence.
So why are the students so angry? They are furious that the government is
planning a big rise in the cost of University courses. At the moment, students who
go to university have to pay up to 3,230 per year for their courses. They also have
to pay for their living expenses and books. The new government plans would
increase the maximum amount of tuition fees to 9,000. In other words, the fees
could triple!
The students are particularly angry with the Liberal Democrat party, and their leader
Nick Clegg, because before the General Election in May 2010, the Lib Dems
promised to vote against rises in tuition fees. Now that they are in a Coalition
Government with the Conservative Party, the Lib Dems have voted in favour of the
fee increases.
The students organised a march to protest against these changes. There was a
huge turnout for the protest, and some of the protesters decided to attack the
Conservative Party Headquarters, at Millbank. They smashed the windows and
entered the building, and finally climbed up to the roof. One of the students threw a
fire extinguisher from the roof at some police officers below.
The newspapers say that the march was hijacked by anarchists, but many of the
students who were photographed and filmed on CCTV at the riot were very young
and did not even cover their faces. Many of them have now been arrested by the
police.
There will probably be more protests in Britain over the coming months. Perhaps
we will have a winter of discontent with many strikes about governments recent

austerity budget. Because of the financial problems in the UK, caused by the credit
crunch, there will be big cuts in all areas of government spending, leading to high
unemployment and homelessness.
There is a big debate in the UK about whether the Government is doing the right
thing with their austerity budget. Of course we need to cut spending and reduce our
debt but is the government going too far? Lets see what happens

Undeline the following words and underline the stressed syllable in each
word.

increase

protest

progress

decrease

reject

export

import

present

There are some words that have the same spelling but a different
pronunciation. For example:
1. a) the Lib Dems have voted in favour of the fee increases.
b) The new government plans would increase the maximum amount of tuition fees
to 9,000
2. a) It started as a student protest against rising tuition fees
b) The students organised a march to protest against these changes
Why are these words pronounced differently? It is because we are using the same
word as both a noun and a verb.
In sentence (a) of each example above, the word is a noun. These nouns
are increase and protest.
In sentence (b) of each sentence above, the word is a verb. These verbs are
increaseand protest.
We have a rule in English about this:
If a noun or an adjective has 2 syllables, the word stress is usually on
the first syllable
If a verb has 2 syllables, the word stress is usually on the second syllable.

Lets look at some other examples.

1. You will progress a lot with your English if you follow this rule. (verb)
You will make a lot of progress with your English if you follow this rule. (noun)

2. There has been a decrease in the number of visitors to the museum. (noun)
The number of visitors to the museum has decreased. (verb)
3. He rejected the plan.
This bowl was a reject, so I bought it at half price. (note: the noun a reject means
something that was rejected due to deficiency)
4. Steel is one of Britains main exports. (noun)
Britain exports a lot of steel (verb)
5. Britain imports a lot of food during the winter. (verb)
Food is a major import for Britain during the winter. (noun)
6. Everyone was present at the meeting. (adjective)
He gave me a birthday present. (noun)
I will present my ideas to the company tomorrow in a presentation. (verb)
Of course, there are exceptions to the rule about word stress in 2-syllable
nouns and verbs. Some words have the same word stress for both the noun and
the verb. Examples of these are:
1. I answered the telephone. (verb)
I will give you my answer tomorrow. (noun)
2. I can just picture you as a politician. (verb)
I like that picture. (noun)
3. He travels a lot. (verb)
He told me all about his travels in Asia. (noun)