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LANGUAGE ARTS 608CONTENTS
I. SECTION ONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Newspaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Spelling and Handwriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
II. SECTION TWO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Recognizing Propaganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Internalizing Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Using Auxiliary Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Spelling and Handwriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
III. SECTION THREE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Analyzing a News Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Using Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Spelling and Handwriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Author: Lila Vance Langford, M.A.
Editor-in-Chief: Richard W. Wheeler, M.A.Ed.Editor: Helen Robertson Prewitt, M.A.Ed.Consulting Editor: Rudolph Moore, Ph.D.Revision Editor: Alan Christopherson, M.S.
804 N. 2nd Ave. E., Rock Rapids, IA 51246-1759© MCMXCVI by Alpha Omega Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.LIFEPAC is a registered trademark of Alpha Omega Publications, Inc.
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to any companies whose trademarks may be listed in this material, other than their own.
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LANGUAGE ARTS 608In this LIFEPAC® you will study about newspapers. You will study the history of
newspapers, the importance of the newspaper, and the power of propaganda. You willidentify main ideas and judge propaganda used in communications media. You will alsolearn some newspaper terms, learn to analyze a news story, and write a news story ofyour own.
You will study about auxiliary verbs, contractions of verbs, tenses of verbs, and verbphrases. You will also study adverbs and the comparative forms of adjectives.
As you study this LIFEPAC, you will continue to build your spelling and handwritingskills.
OBJECTIVES
Read these objectives. The objectives tell you what you should be able to do whenyou have successfully completed this LIFEPAC.
When you have finished this LIFEPAC, you should be able to:
1. Explain how to select the main idea of an article, a story, or a report.
2. Identify and explain the difference between fact and opinion.
3. Recognize and use verbs.
4. Explain the function of a verb.
5. Form some verb tenses.
6. Describe the power and the pattern of propaganda.
7. Explain the meaning of the word internalize.
8. Identify and use auxiliary verbs.
9. Identify and use verb phrases.
10. Form verb contractions.
11. List the parts of a news story.
12. Explain how analyze a news story.
13. Identify and use adverbs.
14. Identify and use adverb phrases.
15. Define and spell new words.
16. Practice handwriting skills.
VOCABULARY
Study these new words. Learning the meanings of these words is a good studyhabit and will improve your understanding of this LIFEPAC.
adage (ad’ ij). A well-known proverb.
analyze (an’ u li-z). Examine carefully to separate the elements of anything.
ancestor (an’ ses tur). Person from whom one is descended.
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by-line (bi’ li-n). Line at the beginning of a newspaper or magazine article giving the
name of the writer.
censorship (sen’ sur ship). Act of making news reports satisfactory to a government or
to some organization.
edition (i dish’ un). All the copies of a book, newspaper, and so forth printed just alike
and issued at or near the same time.
editor (ed’ u tur). Person who has charge of a newspaper to decide what shall be
printed in it.
editorial (ed u tôr’ e- ul). An article in a newspaper or magazine that gives the opinion
or attitude of the paper on a certain subject.
gregarious (gru gãr’ e us). Fond of being with others.
headline (hed’ lin). Words printed in heavy type at the top of a newspaper article telling
what it is about.
internalize (in te.r’ nu li-z). Applying information you read or learn to your own life.
media (me-’ de- u). Plural of medium.
medium (me-’ de- um). Substance or agent through which anything acts; a means of
communicating thoughts, ideas or opinions.
opinion (u pin’ yun). What one thinks; judgment.
personnel (pe.r su nel’). Persons employed in any work, business, or service.
propaganda (prop u gan’ du). A method used deliberately to influence people to
believe certain ideas or to follow certain courses of action.
scoop (sküp). The publishing of a piece of news before a rival newspaper does.
Note: All vocabulary words in this LIFEPAC appear in boldface print the first time they are used. Ifyou are unsure of the meaning when you are reading, study the definitions given.
Pronunciation Key: hat, a-ge, cãre, fär; let, e- qual, te.rm; it, i
-ce; hot, o-pen, ôrder; oil; out; cup, pu. t, rüle;
child; long; thin; /T-H/ for then; /zh/ for measure; /u/ represents /a/ in about, /e/ in taken, /i/ in pencil, /o/in lemon, and /u/ in circus.
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I. SECTION ONE
Reading a brief history of newspapers may sharpen your awareness of theimportance of the printed page. In this LIFEPAC you will study about the history ofnewspapers. You will select the main idea of an article and explain the differencebetween fact and opinion. Propaganda is another topic you will study. You will useyour local newspaper to help you in this LIFEPAC. You will analyze a news story andwrite one of your own.
Grammar is also included in this LIFEPAC. You will review the uses of verbs. You willlearn more about tense, auxiliary verbs, and verb phrases. You will also study aboutadverbs and adverb phrases.
You will improve your spelling and handwriting skills. You will learn to spellnewspaper terms, language arts terms, and comparisons of adjectives. In handwritingyou will practice writing words with difficult joinings of w and v.
THE NEWSPAPER
The article you will read is a brief history of newspapers.Every article has a main idea. The main idea tells the most
important thing the writer wants you to know from his article.As you read this short history, decide what the main idea is.
Newspapers: Noteworthy Necessities
An old adage says, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Becausepeople are gregarious, they want to know what others are doing andthinking. They need a means for telling the news. Tribes in Africa relay
Review these objectives. When you have completed this section, you shouldbe able to:
1. Explain how to select the main idea of an article, a story, or a report.
2. Identify and explain the difference between fact and opinion.
3. Recognize and use verbs.
4. Explain the function of a verb.
5. Form some verb tenses.
15. Define and spell new words.
16. Practice handwriting skills.
Restudy these words.
adage edition opinion
ancestor gregarious scoop
censorship medium
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news across large areas of the country by beating drums. AncientEgyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Mayas carved important eventson monuments. Alexander the Great and Caesar found ways of sendingnews of their triumphs to the citizens of Greece and Rome.
A comparatively modern medium of communication is thenewspaper. A newspaper is a publication devoted to telling recenthappenings and information of general interest.
Perhaps the first recognizable ancestor of the newspaper was ahandwritten epistle, the newsletter. Appearing in Rome as early as 449B.C., it recorded the work of the Senate. Deposited in the Temple ofCeres, copies were made available particularly to officials and wealthyRomans. Added later were sporting events, political news, and socialevents. These newsletters were inscribed by educated slaves. Had itnot been for the abundance of slave labor, the printing press mighthave been invented earlier. Later, in 60 B.C., Julius Caesar ordered thedaily news to be recorded and posted in the Forum.
The earliest record of a printed newspaper is the Ti Chan (The PekingGazette) in China. It may have been established as early as A.D. 500and was printed until 1935. This newspaper was produced from carvedwood blocks rather than type. Gutenberg’s invention of printing frommovable type encouraged the development of newspapers in Europe inthe fifteenth century. These papers hardly resembled present-daypublications because they usually consisted of only one to four pagesoften printed on only one side.
The beginning of newspaper printing in England—and in the Englishlanguage—occurred on December 20, 1620, with George Veseler’suntitled news sheet. What a scoop he would have enjoyed had heknown that fellow Englishmen—Pilgrims—had that same day landed atPlymouth in the New World to establish a colony that later became oneof the United States of America!
In this new world the first newspaper was a four-page sheet printedin Boston on September 25, 1690, by Richard Pierce. In this one andonly edition a leading story told that “the christianized Indians insome parts of Plymouth have newly appointed a day of Thanksgiving toGod for his Mercy in supplying their extreme and pinching Necessitiesunder their late want of Corn, & for His giving them a very ComfortableHarvest.” The publisher, however, had not obtained a license topublish. Accordingly, the governor suppressed his paper. Fourteenyears would pass before any other colonist would attempt publicationof a newspaper.
In eighteenth-century America several people publishednewspapers. One of these papers was The Pennsylvania Gazette byBenjamin Franklin. By the outbreak of the American Revolutionary Warin 1775, thirty-five papers were being published in the colonies.
