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Part 7
READING AND USE OF ENGLISH
Exam task
You are going to read a newspaper article about
online versions of printed publications. Six paragraphs
have been removed from the article. Choose from the
paragraphs A–G the one which fits each gap (1–6).

to use.

The end of print

may take some
1 Look at these digital versions of printed reading material. Discuss
these questions, giving reasons. time
1 Which is more convenient: print or digital? Which is more Peter Preston
enjoyable?
2 Which of the digital versions do you think are free? Which Transition. It’s a pleasant word and a calming
websites have a ‘paywall’, i.e. you have to pay for access? concept. Change may frighten some and
3 Will any of the print versions have disappeared within ten years? challenge others. But transition means going
surely and sweetly from somewhere present
2 Quickly read the main text in the exam task and then options to somewhere future. Unless, that is, it is
A–G. Which of the following have recently been rising, and which newspapers’ ‘transition’ to the online world, an
have been falling? uncertain and highly uncomfortable process –
because, frankly, it may not be a process at all.
1 sales of news & current affairs magazines
2 sales of printed books 1
3 sales of European printed newspapers
4 online advertising in newspapers
All of which may well be true, depending on
5 worldwide sales of printed newspapers
timing, demography, geography and more.
3 Read the third Quick step, then look at the words in bold after After all, everyone – from web academics to
print analysts – says so. Yet pause for a while
gaps 1, 2 & 3 and in options A, B & C. Answer these questions.
and count a few little things that don’t quite fit.
1 What kind of expressions are they?
2 How can each expression help you match the option to the gap? 2
3 Which similar expressions are used after gaps 4–6, and at the
beginning of D–G? As for news and current affairs magazines
– which you’d expect to find in the eye of
4 Do the exam task, using the expressions in Exercise 3 to help you. the digital storm – they had a 5.4% increase
to report. In short, on both sides of the
Atlantic, although some magazine areas went
Quick steps to Reading and Use of English Part 7
down,many showed rapid growth.

3
any topic links.
Yet, when booksellers examined the value of
expressions and matching verb tenses. the physical books they sold over the last six
months, they found it just 0.4% down. Screen or
paper, then? It wasn’t one or the other: it was
both.

10 UNIT 1 READING AND USE OF ENGLISH

 A In other words, print is also a crucial tool in selling
internet subscriptions. And its advertising rates raise
4 between nine and ten times more money than online.

And even within Europe, different countries B Tales like these of young people abandoning newspaper-
have different stories to tell. There’s Britain, reading are wildly exaggerated. Turn to the latest
with a 10.8% drop in recent years (and a 19.6% National Readership Survey figures and you’ll find nearly
fall for quality papers), but in Germany the 5,000,000 people aged between 15 and 35 following the
decline has only been 7% all round – with a main national dailies.
mere 0.8% lost to quality titles. And France
shows only a 3.1% fall (0.8% at the quality end C Such varying national trends may well reflect a situation
of the market). far more complicated than the prophets of digital
revolution assume. America’s media analysts used to
argue that booming online advertising revenues would pay
5
for change and, along with lower production costs, make
Already 360 US papers – including most of the online newspapers a natural success. But now, with digital
biggest and best – have built paywalls around advertisements on newspaper sites actually dropping
their products. However, the best way of back, such assumptions seem like history.
attracting a paying readership appears to be a
deal that offers the print copy and digital D One is the magazine world, both in the UK and in the
access as some kind of joint package. US. It ought to be collapsing, wrecked by the move to the
tablets which fit existing magazine page sizes so perfectly.
6 But, in fact, the rate of decline in magazine purchasing
is relatively small, with subscriptions holding up strongly
Of course this huge difference isn’t good news and advertising remarkably solid.
for newspaper companies, as maintaining
both an active website and an active print
E But surely (you say) it is bound to happen eventually.
edition is difficult, complex and expensive. But
Everybody knows that print newspaper sales are
newspaper brands still have much of their high
plummeting while visits to the same papers’ websites
profile in print; adrift on the web, the job of
keep on soaring. Just look at the latest print circulation
just being noticed becomes far harder.
figures. The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and many of
the rest are down overall between 8% and 10% year-on-
year, but their websites go ever higher.

F You can discover a similar phenomenon when it comes to

books. Kindle and similar e-readers are booming, with
Exam tip sales up massively this year. The apparent first step of
transition couldn’t be clearer.
Fill in the gaps you find easiest first to reduce the
number you have to choose from. G So if sales in that area have fallen so little, perhaps the
crisis mostly affects newspapers? Yet again, though, the
messages are oddly mixed. The latest survey of trends
by the World Association of Newspapers shows that global
circulation rose 1.1% last year (to 512 million copies a
Part 1 day). Sales in the West dropped back but Asia more than
made up the difference.

Collocations
1 In each of 1–6, which three verbs form collocations with the words on their right?
1 show / put / present / schedule a TV programme
2 publish / submit / send in / contribute a photo to a magazine
3 broadcast / perform / read / report the news on TV
4 carry / print / feature / show a newspaper story
5 draft / edit / broadcast / research a magazine article
6 run / cover / promote / tell a news story on TV

READING AND USE OF ENGLISH UNIT 1 11

 2 Complete the collocations in italics with the Exam task
correct form of verbs from Exercise 1. In
some cases more than one answer is possible.
For questions 1–8, read the text below and decide which answer
1 The writer will have to the article (A, B, C or D
down to 1,000 words. beginning (0).
2 That’s a lovely photo. Why don’t you Example: 0 A grasp B capture C seize D trap
it to a nature magazine?
3 Both channels their main news
bulletin live at ten o’clock. Should the media earn money from content they
4 The documentary was for 21.00, but don’t own?
will be shown at 21.30 instead.
5 It’s best to an article, make any Although digital cameras and camera phones have made it
changes, and then write a final version.
easier to (0) B newsworthy events, it is social media that have
6 Channel 19 has decided not to the
revolutionised citizen photography. With news regularly breaking
story.
on social (1) , some journalists are now turning to them as
7 Our reporter Carla Montero has been
(2) of images as fast-moving events occur.
this story since the crisis began.
8 The web edition of the paper is the
story on its front page. Unfortunately, some reporters have published user-generated
content (UGC) without permission. Despite official guidance that
Quick steps to Reading and Use of English images (3) on social media can be used without permission
Part 1 if there are exceptional circumstances or (4) public interest,
debate continues about whether this is ethical.
quickly read the text without filling in any
gaps.
With research (5) that around one in ten people would film or
that collocate with the missing word.
photograph a news event, it is clear that UGC has a major role
to (6) in the future of the media. However, if the media is to
prevent its relationship with the public from souring, steps must
be (7) to ensure that people are properly rewarded for their
3 Read quickly through the exam task. How
work and that permission is always (8) .
does the text answer the question in the
title?
4 Look at the example. Which word in the first
1 A networks B complexes C frames D structures
sentence goes with capture?
5 Underline words that might go with missing 2 A bases B sources C roots D springs
words 1–8. Then do the exam task. 3 A deposited B planted C imposed D posted
6 Discuss these questions. 4 A sharp B strong C heavy D fierce
1 If you witnessed a news event, would you
5 A indicating B displaying C presenting D expressing
photograph it? Would you submit the
images to the media? Why/Why not? 6 A serve B apply C play D face
2 How would you feel if the media published
pictures from your Facebook page (for 7 A climbed B made C walked D taken
example) without permission?
8 A applied B sought C demanded D searched

Exam tip

Pencil in the words you choose on the question paper. This will make
it easier to check the text makes sense when you finish.

12 UNIT 1 READING AND USE OF ENGLISH