The Media
Senior 2 · English
The Media
Lesson 2 of 4
25 min
A radio news bulletin tells a whole country what has happened today, often in two or three minutes. To do that, newsreaders use a fixed structure, a special tense (the present perfect) for fresh news, and a clear voice in which every important word is stressed correctly. In this lesson you will study a practice bulletin, learn why news begins in the present perfect and then moves to the past simple, and learn to divide words into syllables and stress them.
This bulletin was written by Ganzaa for practice. The events are invented, not real news. Ask someone to read it aloud like a newsreader, or record yourself reading it. Listen once for the three headlines, then again for the details.
Good evening. This is the seven o'clock news.
The headlines. Heavy rain has damaged about forty houses in the Western Province. The national under-17 football team has qualified for the regional finals. And a new public library has opened in Musanze.
First, the weather emergency. Heavy rain has fallen across the Western Province for the third day in a row. District officials say that about forty houses have been damaged in two sectors, but no one has been injured. Families whose homes were damaged spent last night in a nearby school, and residents have been asked to stay away from river banks.
In sport, Rwanda's under-17 team has qualified for the regional finals. The team beat its opponents two goals to one yesterday afternoon. The captain scored the winning goal in the eighty-eighth minute.
And finally, a new public library has opened in Musanze. More than three thousand books have been donated, and the library will be open every day from eight in the morning until seven in the evening.
That is the news at seven. More rain is expected tonight in the west and north of the country.
How many houses have been damaged?
About forty.
When did the under-17 team win their match?
Yesterday afternoon.
What are residents near rivers asked to do?
Stay away from river banks.
Form: have / has + past participle: has damaged, have qualified, has opened, has fallen.
Why news starts with it. The present perfect connects a past action to now: the result is new and important today. Notice that the headlines give no time: "A new library has opened in Musanze."
Then the past simple takes over. As soon as the reporter gives a finished time (yesterday, last night, in the 88th minute), the verb changes to the past simple: "The team beat its opponents yesterday afternoon."
Wrong: The captain has scored the winning goal yesterday afternoon.
Why it is wrong: "yesterday afternoon" is a finished time, and the present perfect cannot be used with a finished time.
Right: The captain scored the winning goal yesterday afternoon. Or, with no time: The captain has scored again!
Irregular past participles to learn: fall → fallen, beat → beaten, speak → spoken, write → written, give → given, see → seen.
A syllable is a unit of sound with one vowel sound at its centre. To divide a word, count the vowel sounds, not the vowel letters: news has one syllable, news-pa-per three, jour-nal-ist three, in-for-ma-tion four.
Helpful division patterns: split between two consonants (bul-le-tin, head-line); keep prefixes and suffixes whole (re-port-er, broad-cast-ing).
In every word of two or more syllables, one syllable is stressed: it is louder, longer and higher. Useful rules:
Tip
Fresh news = has/have + past participle. Add a finished time = past simple. A newsreader never says "has scored yesterday".
Stress check: say the word as if calling someone across the football pitch. The syllable you naturally shout is the stressed one.
Present perfect or past simple? (a) The President ___ (open) a new hospital. (b) The President ___ (open) a new hospital last Tuesday.
Solution: (a) has opened: fresh news, no time given. (b) opened: "last Tuesday" is a finished time.
Write the past participle: fall, write, beat.
Solution: fallen, written, beaten.
Divide into syllables and mark the stress: bulletin, education, reporter.
Solution: BUL-le-tin; ed-u-CA-tion; re-POR-ter.
Noun or verb? Mark the stress: (a) Journalists must record interviews carefully. (b) She broke the school record.
Solution: (a) verb: re-CORD; (b) noun: RE-cord.
Write a one-minute bulletin with three headlines about your school or village (sport, a club, the weather). Use the present perfect in the headlines and the past simple for details with times. Underline the stressed syllable in every long word, then read it aloud at a steady speed.
Model answer: Good morning. This is the S2 school news. The headlines: the debate club has won the district competition; the new water tank has arrived; and the rain has stopped at last. First, the debate club. Our team beat three schools on Saturday and received the trophy in the evening. In other news, the water tank was delivered yesterday, and it will be installed this week. That is the news. Have a good day.
Remember
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