Unit 11 Breaking News

Unit 11 Page 102 READING exercise 5 IT'S ALL FAKE NEWS With the increase of fake news, it can be hard at times to know whether the news we read is true or not. What started as people spreading funny stories over the internet has become something much more serious. At its very worst, fake news is used to make up stories that try to change people's opinions. It is also used to cover or 'hide' uncomfortable stories that some people might not want to answer questions about. These days, fake news can make a big difference to the world. It is, perhaps, the most serious problem facing the world's media. But fake news is nothing new. It has always been with us. In the past it wasn't such a big problem, though. People used it more for a bit of fun, as these famous examples show. In 1917 two young cousins, Elsie Wright and Frances Grifths, were having fun taking photos in the garden with Elsie's father's camera. When Mr Wright developed the photos, he saw that they showed the girls playing with fairies. The girls insisted the fairies were real. Elsie's father said he thought the girls were playing a joke on him, but EIsie's mother believed they were real. The photos were shown to the famous author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who also decided they were real. For years many people were fooled. The truth was only discovered in the 1980s when Elsie finally admitted that the fairies were just made out of paper. For many years people thought that Loch Ness, a large lake in Scotland was home to a giant creature. In 1934, a doctor, Colonel Robert Wilson, announced that he had proof that it existed. He said that while he had been driving past the lake, he had seen the monster in the water. Luckily, he had had his camera with him and had been able to take some photos. The photo fooled many people until 1984, when it was proved to be fake. On the day before Halloween, in 1938, many Americans were listening to the radio when suddenly the programme was interrupted. The announcer said that aliens had invaded the world. Lots of people started to panic. They left their homes and they were going to look for somewhere safe to hide. In fact, what they had heard was the beginning of a radio play of a famous novel by HG Wells, War of the Worlds, which is all about an alien invasion.

Page 105 LISTENING exercise 10 and 11 Some journalists report on politics, some report from football grounds. Some journalists report from the law courts, others report on wars from the other side of the world. Warren Faidley is a journalist with a difference. He's an extreme weather journalist. Don't confuse him with a weatherman, who studies the weather and predicts what's going to happen tomorrow. Warren is a weather journalist. He's there when the weather is the news. For more than 25 years, he's been following and filming tornadoes and blizzards, giant hailstorms and floods. Wherever there is bad weather, Warren Faidley is never far behind. An extreme weather journalist is always close to danger. Of course, Warren always tries to stay safe. He doesn't look for trouble, but trouble always seems to find him. In his career, he's had many last-minute escapes. The closest he ever came to death, however, was when he was a 12-year-old child. He was by the side of a river with a friend watching a flood. Suddenly, the side of the river collapsed, and he found himself in the fast-flowing muddy floodwaters. He thought he was going to die, but luckily he managed to grab onto a rock and pull himself out of the water. Warren's interest in extreme weather began when he was a small child. In his autobiography Storm Chaser, he describes several occasions when he came face-to-face with scary weather conditions. For example, there was one time when he and his father were chased by a huge storm while they were out sailing in a small boat. His father later told him he thought they were going to die. Warren was always interested in photography and at college he worked as a part-time photojournalist. He reported from many dangerous places and quickly learned how to use a film camera in difficult conditions. His lucky break came when one day he took an amazing photo of lightning striking a gas farm. The photo was published by Life magazine and suddenly everyone was interested in his work. Warren was now able to follow his dream and become a weather journalist. These days Warren is often seen on American TV news programmes reporting on incidents of extreme weather. He's also become an expert on how to survive in these situations and has written a book called The Ultimate Storm Survival Handbook based on his experiences. He's also started a charity called The Storm Angel Foundation which helps educate children about the dangers of extreme weather.

Page 106 READING exercise 3 THE DANGER OF LIVE TV Live interviews can be a dangerous thing. Over the years, many live news reports have been interrupted by people who want to get their faces on TV. Sometimes the journalists stop their reports and tell the people to go away, but most of the time they just carry on professionally and pay no attention to what's happening behind them. As technology gets better, more and more TV interviews are done using communication software such as Skype. An interviewer in the TV studio can interview someone who is sitting at their computer in their own home. It's a lot safer, you might think. Problems are rare and the interviews often go well. But things don't always go quite as planned. Just ask Professor Robert E. Kelly, an American politics professor at a South Korean university. One day, Professor Kelly was being interviewed live on the BBC. He was speaking from his home in Busan, South Korea, where he had set up his computer in his home office. The interviewer, James Menendez, was asking him to explain recent political events in the region. Suddenly the door behind him opened and Dr Kelly's young daughter, Marion, came in and danced her way over to her father. The interviewer mentioned that they had been joined by one of the professor's children, and as Dr Kelly put his arm out to try and stop his daughter from coming any closer, they were joined by another of his children. This time it was his baby son, James, who entered the room in a baby walker and rolled across the floor behind the professor. Dr Kelly tried to keep calm and carry on talking. He wanted his children to leave the room, but he couldn't stop the interview. Seconds later, Dr Kelly's wife, Jung-a Kim, came running into the room to his rescue. She grabbed one child in each hand and dragged them out of the room while the professor continued to offer his apologies. Finally, his wife reappeared on her hands and knees – trying to avoid being seen by the webcamera – to close the door behind her. Very embarrassed, Dr Kelly apologised and the interview continued. Of course, this 40 seconds of live action was soon uploaded on to the internet and watched by millions all over the world, and immediately the professor, his wife and children became very famous. Indeed, the next time Professor Kelly was on the BBC, they wanted to interview Jung-a Kim, Marion and James, too. Page 107 PRONUNCIATION exercise 1 Could you put your bag down over there, please. Excuse me. Could you repeat that? Yes, could you put that bag down over there! I mean, could you repeat that politely? I'm terribly sorry. Could you put your bag down over there, please? Page 107 PRONUNCIATION exercise 3 Could you put your bag down over there, please. Excuse me. Could you repeat that? Yes, could you put that bag down over there! I mean, could you repeat that politely? I'm terribly sorry. Could you put your bag down over there, please?

Page 108 DEVELOPING SPEAKING exercise 1 Hey, Sandra. Check this out. It's a tweet from Sam Johnson, and it's about your brother, Mark. Really? Let me see. 'Our match against Charlton school yesterday finished 1-1. We didn't win because Mark Smith missed an easy goal. Don't even know why he's in the team.' What! That's unfair. And I know for a fact that Mark scored our only goal. I'm going to have a word with Sam. No, don't do that. It's not worth it. But it makes me so angry! Sam can't just post whatever he wants to post. Look, he's over there. I'm going to talk to him. Hey, Sam. What's up? Oh, I think I know. My tweet about your brother, I guess. Well, yes. Why did you write that? And why didn't you say that he actually scored a goal? I can write what I want. And anyway, I don't think your brother's a good player. But we're talking about being truthful. He scored the goal. I think that's probably more important than his miss. I'm just saying he isn't a good footballer. That's the truth. Get over it. And he walks away! Incredible. OK, I'm going to write a tweet now. Here we go. 'I'm really cross! Sam Johnson tweeted something completely untrue about my brother. I think it's because he's jealous.' No, Sandra. Don't say you're angry. Just tell people what he said. You're right. I'll change it. 'I asked Sam Johnson why he tweeted something untrue and unfair about my brother. He was like, "It just came into my head and I wrote it." Any thoughts, guys? Let me know!' That's it. Let's see what your friends think. Look – someone's already replied.