Topic5RhetoricalEffects(III)选编.ppt

英美报刊文章选读 Chengqiang Feng fengchengqiang@ 2011.10.08 Topic V Use of figures of Speech and Rhetorical Effects Skills: Teaching EFL/ESL Students How to Read Time and Newsweek J. Ignacio Bermejo (Spain) Using Highlighted Information to Get the Gist of the Story Journalistic stories offer several ways to grasp the gist of the story: the headline, the first paragraph (lead) that expands the information of the headline, the picture and the caption, the subheadings, the charts and other visual information. In Time and Newsweek headlines are usually eye-catchers that imitate the technique of advertising gimmicks by engaging the reader in a quick intellectual game based on alliteration (Hunting the Hackers, Newsweek February 21, 2000), rhyme (Behind the Hack Attack, Time February 21, 2000), hints or puns that try to establish a double or sometimes triple channel of communication -a complicity- with the reader at a glance. Using Highlighted Information to Get the Gist of the Story They very often make a reference to the title of a famous film, song, book, to an idiom or to a common expression, for example, in Newsweek January 24, 2000, the cover says Citizen Case, and in the articles inside you can find Desperately Seeking a Deal, Something Old, Something New, CASE Study. In the issue of February 21, 2000, you almost hear the tune as you stumble over So Many Causes, So Little Time, and in Time October 11, 1999, you can read All the Kings Women, Forgive Us Our Debts, A Cinema Very Near You, The Real Thing, Every Breath you Take, A Brave New Web, or Silicon Valet. Memory retrieval and association of ideas is a popular intellectual game among the readers of these American magazines, but our students will probably be confused by these conceptual loops as appetisers, so learners should always read the headline together with the subheading, the caption, the highlighted sentences, the quotations and the visual information, if they want to understand the main idea in the story.