unit4 making the headlines

UNIT4

Making the headlines

1 It isn't very often that the media lead with the same story everywhere in the world.

Such an event would have to be of

enormous

（巨大的）

international

significance

（意义）

. But this is exactly what occurred in September 2001 with the terrorist

attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. It is probably not

exaggerated

（夸张）

to say that from that moment the world was a different place.

2 But it is not just the historical and international

dimension

（层面）

that made

9/11 memorable and (to use a word the media like) newsworthy. It was the shock

and

horror

（惊骇）

, too. So striking, so

sensational

（ 耸人听闻的）

, was the news

that, years after the event, many people can still remember exactly where they were

and what they were doing when they first heard it. They can remember their own

reactions: For many people across the globe their first

instinct

（本能，直觉）

was

to go and tell someone else about it, thus providing confirmation of the old saying

that bad news travels fast.

3 And so it is with all major news stories. I remember when I was at primary school

the teacher announcing

pale- faced

（面色苍白）

to a

startled

（受惊吓的）

class of

seven year olds

President Kennedy

is dead

. I didn't know who President Kennedy

was, but I was so upset at hearing the news that I went rushing home afterwards to

tell my parents (who already knew, of course). In fact, this is one of my earliest

memories.

4 So what exactly

is

news? The objective importance of an event is obviously not

enough

—

there are plenty of enormous global issues out there, with

dramatic

（戏剧

性的）

consequences, from poverty to global warming

—

but since they are ongoing,

they don't all make the just international, but

odd

（奇怪的）

, unexpected, and (in the

sense that it was possible to identify with the

plight

（困境）

of people caught up in

the drama) very human.

5 Odd doesn't mean huge. Take the story in today's

China Daily

about a mouse

holding up a flight from Vietnam to Japan. The mouse was spotted running down the

aisle

（通道）

of a plane in Hanoi airport. It was eventually caught by a group of 12

technicians worried that the mouse could chew through wires and cause a

short

circuit

（短路）

. By the time it took off the plane was more than four hours late.

6 Not an event with momentous international consequences, you might say, (apart

from a few passengers arriving late for their appointments in another country), but