NEWSPAPER HEADLINES (Intermediate) (EXERCISE I9E55)

A headline's purpose is to quickly and briefly draw attention to the story The large type front page headline did not come into use until the late 19th century when increased competition between newspapers led to the use of attention-getting headlines. Headlines in English often use a set of grammatical rules known as headlinese, designed to meet stringent space requirements by, for example, leaving out forms of the verb "to be" and choosing short verbs like "eye" over longer synonyms like "consider". (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headline)

Match the newspaper headlines in the box with the articles below.

(A) Vanity Was Her Downfall                        (C) Unlucky Couple Throw Winning Tickets Away (B) Return to Sender                                      (D) Sand in Their Eyes

____________________________________________ A bank in Reno, Nevada, was the scene of a holdup which went wrong. The crook walked casually up to the cashier and handed her a note. It instructed her to put all the money into a bag and hand it over. The frightened woman obeyed and the crook escaped into the crowded city streets. But there was a big surprise for him when he reached home. The police were waiting to arrest him. The note he had given the cashier had been written on the back of an envelope. On the other side was his name and address.

____________________________________________ Twice a week an American riding a bicycle crossed the Canadian border carrying a suitcase filled with sand. Each time the customs officials searched the suitcase, they never found anything illegal. Sometimes they even emptied out all the sand, expecting to find jewelry, watches, or drugs. But always there was nothing but sand. They couldn’t imagine what the American was smuggling. It was many years later, long after the American had vanished from the scene, that they learned the truth: he had been smuggling bicycles.

____________________________________________ Kenyan police had no difficulty identifying and catching a master forger who produced near-perfect bank notes. Instead of printing a portrait of the president on the notes, she used a picture of herself.

____________________________________________ The Peters family was heartbroken when they realized they had won $100,000 in the lottery and they had thrown away the prize-winning tickets. Because they had not read the rules carefully, they thought their tickets were of no use. They spent all afternoon searching for the tickets at the local dump but with no luck. A man from Texas won the prize instead.

ANSWERS 

NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

(B) Return to sender.

(D) Sand in Their Eyes.

(A) Vanity Was Her Downfall. 

(C) Unlucky Couple Throw Winning Tickets Away. 

TO PRINT