On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.
—David Ogilvy
Indeed, headlines are arguably more important than the article itself… They need to be tricky, unique, creative, super-clickable, irresistible and even sexy:) …. so as to grab people’s attention in just a few seconds. BUT, also for that reason, headlines are often rather difficult to understand for non-native speakers of English.
So, why not expand your vocabulary by scanning the headlines DAY by DAY?
Below you will find recent headlines taken from various newspapers, with terms and expressions well worth learning. As you will see, Greece and the UK have dominated the headlines these days.
Guess the meaning of the expressions marked in red and check your answers in the VocabList below. Enjoy!
CU tomorrow for the next round of headlines!
Cameron keeps ministers on tight rein
Tsipras takes Greece to edge of precipice
http://www.ft.com/world/europe/brussels
Tsipras calls Merkel and Hollande’s offer ‘blackmail'
Defiant Greek PM calls referendum to break bailout deadlock
Merkel's whip-hand in Europe
ECB doesn’t cut off Greek banks, for today
Greece meeting kicks off with EU in 'uncharted waters'
Leaders set to cherry-pick EU digital strategy, again
VOCABLIST
to keep sb/sth on tight rein: to have a lot of control over someone/something
to take sb/sth to edge of precipice: to cause a very dangerous situation likely to fail (precipice: a very steep slide of a mountain)
blackmail (noun): forcing people to give money or do something by threatening them (also used as a verb: to blackmail)
to break deadlock : to finish (break) a situation in which agreement cannot be reached as neither side will change its position
bailout: financial help
to hold the whip-hand: to have the most power in a situation
to cut off: to close, to shut
to kick off: to start
in ‘uncharted waters‘: in a new, unknown field (of activity) / situation
to cherry-pick: to choose (pick) only the best things/parts from something (negative)
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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