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EXAM
Celebrity news
In her quest to meet the rich and famous, Emma has bribed security guards, donned disguises,
and even climbed through windows! But she does not think of herself as a criminal. “I’m just
doing my job. I only get paid for good stories, so I have to take extreme measures if I want to earn
a decent income!”
Emma Worth writes for a famous gossip magazine. She is one of a growing number of
journalists
who are using their skills to hunt and capture the so‐called ‘glitterati’ unawares, in
the
hope of getting an exclusive – and preferably shocking – scoop.
Gossip‐mongering is nothing new. Indeed, sensationalist stories about the royal family (the A‐list
of their time) were published only a century after the invention of the printing press – in 1453!
However, in recent years, our celebrity obsession seems to have escalated. Last year, Heat and
Closer, the two best‐selling UK gossip magazines, sold over a million copies every week, and
new
celebrity publications and websites pop up every month. Even the traditionally more
‘serious’
press are turning to celebrities to boost sales. For example, the broadsheet newspaper
The
Telegraph now has a regular gossip column called ‘The Spy’.
But many people are critical of celebrity gossip hunters like Emma. Some stars complain that
they
are being denied a basic right to privacy, and even that their lives have been ruined by press
intrusion. And, according to one highly‐regarded news reporter, “Our appetite for gossip means
that there is less media coverage of more important issues, such as politics and the environment.
I didn’t join the profession to write kiss‐and‐tell stories. We need to stop taking this trivia so
seriously!”
1. Say whether the following sentences are TRUE or FALSE according to the text. COPY the
evidence
from the text. No marks will be given without the evidence. (1.5 points)
a) Emma worries about breaking the law.
b) People in the 1500s were just as interested in gossip as we are today.
c) Closer is a very popular UK gossip magazine.
PRUEBA/PROVA: CELEBRITY NEWS
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