Everyday Vocabulary Newspapers Test

Newspapers earn money from their price and from advertising: companies pay to show their products in the paper. The verb carries (= contains, prints) fits ads. Not editorials, because they are opinion articles and do not bring in money directly.

Circulation is the number of copies a newspaper sells or gives out, e.g. a circulation of five million daily. The number in the sentence (over five million daily) is the clue.

Entertainment means things that people enjoy and that are fun, not serious. Less serious papers are read for entertainment, not mainly for the news.

Headlines are the titles printed in large letters above the news stories. Not subtitles, which are the words at the bottom of a film screen or smaller extra titles, not big ones over stories.

Cartoons are funny drawings, so you look at them. Not jokes, because you read or hear jokes; the phrase to look at points to pictures.

Sensational means shocking and exciting, made to get people's attention, e.g. sensational photos of violence. Amusing, funny and hilarious all mean 'making you laugh', which does not fit photos of violence.

Gossip columns are parts of a newspaper with stories about the private lives of famous people. Gossip means talk about other people's private lives.

A paper's political views are its opinions about politics. No one takes them seriously because these papers are not serious ones. Not sensations, which are events that cause great excitement, not opinions.

Censorship is when a government controls what newspapers may print. The clue is a free country: there the press has no censorship.

Correspondents are journalists who send news to a paper from another place or country. The clue is sent to them … around the world. Not editorials, which are articles, not people.

A news agency is an organisation that collects news and sells it to newspapers, e.g. Reuters. News agencies is the fixed collocation; news firms or news companies are not used in this way.

Reviews are articles that give an opinion about new books, films and plays. The pattern is a review of something.

Editorials are articles that give the opinion of the newspaper itself, usually written by the editor. Not gossip columns, which are about famous people's private lives, not the paper's opinion on important issues.