How to Do Man-on-the-Street Interviews

    The man-on-the-street interview is an interview in which a reporter hits the streets with a cameraman to interview people on the sport. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But with these tips, your first man-on-the-street interview experience can be easy.

    ● When your boss or professor sends you out to do man-on-the-street interviews for a story, think about the topic and develop a list of about ten general questions relating to it. For example, if your topic is about environmental problems in America, you might ask, “Why do you think environmental protection is important in America?” {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    ● Hit the streets with confidence. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Say, “Excuse me, I work for XYZ News, and I was wondering if you could share your opinion about this topic.” This is a quick way to get people to warm up to you.

    Move on to the next person if someone tells you she is not intereste

    Don't get discouraged.

    ● {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Each interview that you get on the street shouldn't be longer than ten minutes. As soon as you get the answer you need, move on to the next person. Make sure that as you go from interview to interview, you are getting a variety of answers. If everyone is giving you the same answer, you won't be able to use it. A safe number of interviews to conduct is about six to ten.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    ● If your news station or school requires interviewees to sign release forms to appear on the air, don't leave work without them.

    Why do we go to zoos? Millions of people around the world visit zoos each year, but the reason is hard to explain .{#blank#}1{#/blank#} But the animals they see in zoos are little like the toys, cartoons, and decorations that fill their homes. For such children, meeting with real animals can be confusing, even upsetting.

    The great interest that children have in animals today might lead one to suppose that this has always been the case. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}That was also when zoos became an important part of middle-class life.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}They lived together with our ancestors in a shared natural environment. In the Industrial Era, the human domination (支配)of animals could be seen in the popularity of real-looking animal toys. Children rode rocking-horses that had realistic features, and they slept with bears, tigers, and rabbits that looked and felt almost real. The Twentieth Century marked a further development--the change of animals into people.

    This was the age of Babar the Elephant, Hello Kitty, and the Lion King. Parents and children had previously wanted animals that looked like animals.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    In a zoo they hope to see the living breathing versions of their character friends. They find instead unfamiliar creatures who cannot speak, smile, or interact with them. For this reason, a visit to the zoo can be disappointing for children today.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Meeting real animals reminds us forcefully of the boundary between imagination and reality.

    When we visit animals in a zoo, perhaps we will recall our true relationship not only to animals but to the entire world.

A. Animals are the best friends of the human beings.

B. Most of children are looking forward to visiting zoos.

C. Perhaps that disappointment is the best gift a zoo can offer.

D. But now they want animals that look and act like humans

E. Yet, it was not until the Industrial Era that animals became part of childhood.

F. In prehistoric times, there had been no zoos, as animals were a real part of the human world.

G. Many of those visitors are children, whose lives are already surrounded by animals' images.

    The art of academic writing is not easy to master. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Academic writing is the skilful exposition and explanation of an argument, which the writer has carefully researched and developed over a sustained period of time. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} But the joy of reading and sharing with others, one's succinctly composed piece of argument, is incomparable.

    Before beginning to write, the writer must ask himself a few questions – Why am I writing? What is it that I intend to share with others? What purpose will my writing serve? Have I read enough about the topic or theme about which I am going to write? {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Because academic writing is a serious activity – it makes one part of a shared community of readers and writers who wish to disseminate and learn from well-argued pieces of writing.

    The structure of an argumentative essay should take the form of – Introduction (which should be around ten percent of the entire essay), Body (it should constitute eighty percent of the piece) and the Conclusion (again, ten per cent of the essay). {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The body should include cogent and coherently linked paragraphs and the conclusion should re-state the argument and offer a substantial ending to the piece.

A. These questions may well get clearer and clearer during the process of academic writing.

B. The introduction should function as the hook which draws the reader in and holds his attention.

C. It is a formal skill, which requires precision and accuracy, and is perfected by continuous and dedicated practice.

D. If one is hesitant to answer even one of the aforementioned questions, one had better not write at all!

E. It may take one a considerable period of time to know the skills of academic writing, even long after his/her college graduation.

F. It is a time-consuming activity and demands patience and perseverance.

    Directions: Complete the following passage by using the sentences in the box. Each sentence can only be used once. Note that there are two sentences more than you need.

    Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they are meant to be there. They serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out who you are or who you want to become. You never know who these people may be your roommate, neighbor, professor, long-lost friend, lover or even a complete stranger whom you lock eyes with. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Sometimes things happen to you. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}But in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realized your potential, strength and willpower. Everything happens for a reason and nothing happens by chance or by means of good or bad luck.

    The people you meet affect your life. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Even the bad experiences can be learned from. In fact, they are probably the most important ones.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Appreciate every moment and take from it everything that you possible can, for you may never be able to experience it again. Talk to people you have never talked before, yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself. You can make of your life anything you wish. Create your won life and then go out and live it.

A. And the successes and downfalls you experience, create who you are.

B. At the time they may seem horrible, painful and unfair.

C. Humans have sought to discover the meaning of life for a very long time.

D. Each person has his or her own purpose and distinct path, unique and separate from anyone else's.

E. But you know that every moment they will affect you life in some deep way.

F. Make every day count.

Reading the world in 195 books

    In 2012, I set myself the challenge of trying to read a book from every country of all 195 UN-recognized states in a year. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. I created a blog called A Year of Reading the World and put out an appeal for suggestions of titles that I could read in English.

    The response was amazing. Before I knew it, people all over the planet were getting in touch with ideas and offers of help. Some posted me books. Others did hours of research on my behalf. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Even with such an extraordinary team behind me, however, sourcing books was no easy task.

    But the effort was worth it. As I made my way through the planet's literary landscapes, extraordinary things started to happen. Far from simply armchair travelling, I found I was inhabiting the mental space of the storytellers. I discovered, bookpacking offered something that a physical traveller could hope to experience only rarely: it took me inside the thoughts of individuals living far away and showed me the world through their eyes. More powerful than a thousand news reports, these stories not only opened my mind to basic information of life in other places, but opened my heart to the way people there might feel. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. Through reading the stories shared with me by bookish strangers around the globe, I realized I was not an isolated person, but part of a network that stretched all over the planet.

    One by one, the country names on the list that had begun as an intellectual exercise transformed into places filled with laughter, love, anger, hope and fear. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. At its best, I learned, fiction makes the world real.