1单元.docx

1、1单元Hard newsSoft newsBroadcast newsStructure Lead Headline Lead-inLanguage Readable第一单元：英语“硬新闻”导语的结构和写作第二单元：英语“软新闻”导语的结构和写作第三单元：“倒金字塔”结构和新闻稿英译过程中素材的取舍 第四单元：新闻语言的特点 第五单元：新闻标题的语言特点和翻译第六单元：广播新闻稿的语言特点和翻译第七单元：英汉与汉英笔译比较第一单元：英语“硬新闻”导语的结构和写作“硬新闻”：hard news, straight newsNow we will begin with the beginningt

2、he most difficult part of news writingand we will approach it step by step.Suppose that you are working as a reporter for a campus English newspaper, and you are asked to cover the following event: Li Jun and Wang Hao are fourth-year computer majors sharing the same dormitory room. Due to a severe c

3、ase of polio in childhood, Wang Hao has to walk with two crutches. For more than three years since they entered the university, Li Jun has been helping his roommate climb stairs, carry things, and get meals and hot water regardless of how bad the weather is. Last semester when the class had an outin

4、g, Li Jun borrowed a wheelchair so that Wang Hao could go hiking with others. Li and other students pushed the wheelchair all the way to the top of the mountain. Because of what Li Jun has done for Wang Hao over the years, the student union of the university decided at a recent meeting to award Li J

5、un the title of “Model Student” when they hold the May Fourth Youth Day student meeting the next week.In the very beginning of the story, you need a sentence that summarizes the event. In news writing, this first sentence, and often the first paragraph as well, is called lead, perhaps because it lea

6、ds the reader into the story. STEP ONE: Summarize the story in a few simple sentences. You write the following paragraph: A fourth-year computer major shares the dorm with a classmate who walks on crutches. For more than three years, he has been helping this roommate climb stairs, carry books, and g

7、et meals and hot water. The student union will award him the title of “Model Student” next week. This is very easy, so you move on to Step Two.STEP TWO: Combine the sentences into one. This is still easy and you write:For more than three years, a fourth-year computer major has been helping his disab

8、led roommate climb stairs, carry books, and get meals and hot water, so the student union will award him the title of “Model Student” next week. STEP THREE: Underline all the verbs in the sentence, and put them in reverse time order, i.e., beginning with the latest event and ending with the earliest

9、. Now, you haveFor more than three years, a fourth-year computer major has been helping his disabled roommate climb stairs, carry books, and get meals and hot water, so the student union will award him the title of “Model Student” next week. The reverse time order:(1) award(2) help(3) climb, carry,

10、getSTEP FOUR: Rewrite the sentence by following this reverse time order. The sentence becomes Next week, the student union will award a fourth-year computer major the title of “Model Student” because he has been helping a disabled roommate climb stairs, carry books, and get meals and hot water for m

11、ore than three years. STEP FIVE: Carefully edit the sentence you have written. Now you have The student union next week will award the title of “Model Student” to a fourth-year computer major who has been, for more than three years, helping a disabled roommate climb stairs, carry books, and get meal

12、s and hot water. This is already quite good. Notice that, in this example, when you take STEP FIVE, you move the time elements “next week” and “for more than three years” to places close to the verbs they modify. But you should never begin the lead with a time element. Never begin with “Next week”A

13、lead such as the one we have here performs three functions:(1) The lead summarizes the news. The summarizing is often so effective that the lead can stand by itself as a one-sentence story. (2) In summarizing the news, the lead attracts the readers attention. This is extremely important because it d

14、irectly affects the survival of the newspaper or news magazine as a business. In market competition, only the commodities that attract customers have the chance to survive.(3) The lead provides the news writer with a means of organizing a story. With an effective summary, the framework of the entire

15、 story is there. All that remains is to flesh it out with supporting detail. In this case, after STEP FIVE, the rest of the story falls in place. If you follow the steps outlined above, it will not be too difficult to write a news lead that effectively sums up the news and attracts readers. The only

16、 thing is practice, practice, and more practice. Task: Take the five steps that have just been discussed and develop the following passages into single sentences that can serve as news leads:1. A mother posted a letter of appreciation on the university bulletin board yesterday. In the letter she pra

17、ised two second-year French majors. The two students took her son to hospital after they found him collapsed on the road. Her son is only six.2. During the seven-day National Day holiday, the entire class of second-year English majors went to Huang Shan for a week. On the first day of class after th

18、e holiday, the students were too exhausted to concentrate. Some even dozed off. The professors were upset and said that the students “minds were not on their studies.” Then, the department announced that the class would have the mid-term examination in a weeks time, which is two weeks before the sch

19、edule.3. Last night, a third-year geology major ate noodles at a roadside eatery. An hour later, an acute pain developed in his stomach. His roommates believed he suffered food poisoning and rushed him to the hospital. Now, doctors say he is in stable condition.These two events are more complicated

20、than the example you have just looked at because in both cases, you have a rather long sequence of verbs. It would be good if you can come up with versions that are close to the following:A mother posted a letter of appreciation on the university bulletin board yesterday praising two second-year Fre

21、nch majors for having taken her six-year-ld son to hospital after they found him collapsed on the road.The second-year English majors will have their mid-term in a weeks timetwo weeks before schedulebecause their professors said their “minds were not on their studies” after their long tour in Huang

22、Shan during the seven-day National Day holiday. A third-year geology major is said to be in stable condition after his roommates rushed him to hospital last night when he developed symptoms of food-poisoning from the noodles at a roadside eatery. Task: Read the following story and discuss how well t

23、he lead sums up the entire story: Chinese Doctors Operate on Pandas Cataract BEIJING (AP) - Chinese doctors have removed a cataract from the right eye of a giant panda in the first such surgery of its kind, the official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday.Doctors will know in 15 days whether the 90-mi

24、nute operation with ultrasonic tools will restore sight for the 22-year-old panda, Basi, Xinhua said.Basi is no ordinary panda. Xinhua said the 186-kilogram (410-pound) animal is a “god of longevity” who has far outlived the normal panda life expectancy of 12 years.She also “is a nimble weight lifte

25、r, basketball player and cyclist” who performed on Chinese state television in the 1990s and at opening ceremonies in Beijing of the 1990 Asian Games, Xinhua said.She toured the United States for six months in the late 1980s to promote wildlife conservation and “was a great hit” on the west coast, i

26、t said.Basi was sedated for the operation by eye doctors in the southeastern coastal city of Fuzhou, Xinhua said.The cataract began growing in Basis right eye five years ago. She also suffers from high blood pressure and neural diseases, and her eyesight was “extremely poor,” Xinhua said.Note: This

27、is a story coming through the wire service. “BEIJING” is the dateline, indicating the place where a story is written, and “(AP)” is the credit line, indicating the agency that sends a story. In this case, the agency is the Associated Press. TASK: What we have been looking at are simple cases. Someti

28、mes in addition to measuring the timing of the verbs, we also weigh their importance. We may begin with the verb on which we would like readers to focus their attention and put the unimportant verbs in subordinate clauses. Consider the following example:A lead written by a student:Two sophomore stud

29、ents on Wednesday were openly selling to the freshmen the old exam papers from their previous years placement test, which they said would be used again this year with only slight changes, and they were caughttwo days before freshmen take the placement test for their College English courses. An impro

30、ved version:Two sophomores were caught on Wednesdaytwo days before the placement test for freshman College English courseswhen they were selling to freshmen the old exam papers from their previous years placement test, which they said would be used again this year with only slight changes.In this im

31、proved version, the two students getting caught, the most important element of information, occupies the central place, but the freshmen taking the placement exam and the students saying the same test paper were to be used again, the two elements of secondary importance, are mentioned as less obviou

32、s, subordinate elements. The Inverted Pyramid LeadA pyramid is very small on top but wide and broad at the bottom. Short stories are often structured like a pyramid, beginning with tiny things but reaching the climax at the end. Pyramid Inverted pyramidA news lead usually begins with the climax, i.e., with the most important elements of the story, because a hurried reader may not have time or patience to finish even this first sentence. A lead includes the answers to most of the questions a