ROUND #9

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. 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!

Ankara attacks: Turkey in mourning after blasts kill almost 100

Turkey is beginning three days of mourning after two blasts at a peace rally in the capital, Ankara, killed at least 95 people on Saturday, the deadliest ever such attack in Turkey.

 Obama: Republicans have ‘gone off the deep end‘

Los Angeles (AFP) - President Barack Obama said the Republican Party has "gone off the deep end" with its messy failure to elect a new speaker of the House of Representatives.

We hacked David Beckham’s phone, News of the World man admits

Greg Miskiw, head of news at tabloid paper, said voicemails of former England football captain were accessed ‘routinely, all the time, over and over again’

A jaguar on a breeding loan to Delhi zoo in India is being sent back as he is too fat to mate, keepers say.

VocabList

to be in mourning: to express sorrow and deep sadness over someone’s death

blast: explosion (of a bomb)

peace rally: public gathering of people in support of a particular view or aim (HERE: peace)

to go off the deep end: to jump into a swimming pool where you need to be able to swim  (HERE: to go too far and act in an irrational way, not thinking of the consequences)

House of Representatives: the lower chamber of the US Congress representing the people (the upper chamber is the Senat representing the States level by two senators/State)

to hack: to get into someone’s computer system illegally

tabloid paper/tabloid press: a type of newspaper with many pictures and short, easy-to-understand articles

to mate (an animal): to make an animal have sex and produce young animals

breeding: the process in which animals produce young animals (to be on a breeding loan: the animal is sent over to another zoo as a mate for breeding purposes)

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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