A thousand words

You won't need much help with the photos themselves, of course, so I will focus on the captions instead. If you look closely, you will see that the Bangkok Post basically uses two types of captions. The first type does not contain a title and consists of one or more sentences explaining or describing elements in the photo. Here is an example from a recent issue of the Bangkok Post:

An Iraqi woman helps her children step over rubble left after overnight US and Britsh airstrikes on Baghdad.- APF PHOTO

This type of photo and caption usually accompanies a news story. In this example, you should immediately see how easy it often is to learn new vocabulary simple by reading the caption, looking at the picture - and thinking. Try this method to determine the meaning of rubble in the above example.

The second type of photo and caption stand alone as a story in themselves. Here the caption contains a title, usually a short catchy phrase or idiom. These expressions are often "word plays" - they use the words in the phrase or idiom in an unusual or amusing way. Here is an example:

SMASH HIT

The Regal Theatre lies in ruins after activists of the Shiv Sena group went on a rampage at the cinema in New Delhi in protest at the screening of the film "Fire". The militant Hindu fundamentalists claim that lesbian scenes in the film threaten to undermine Indian family traditions.- ASSOCIATED PRESS

Normally, "smash hit" refers to an extremely popular movie, song, or play. Here the story involves a movie, but it invoves a very different kind of a "smash" and "hit" - the result of a "rampage" by "militant Hindu fundamentalists". Can you figure out what these expressions mean?

Here is one final example. In this case, the title is not a play on words, since "under the hammer" refers to articles sold at an auction. As you probably know, auctioneers often use hammers when they make the final sale, using the words, "going once, going twice, sold!"

An auctioneer points to a bidder at an auction of office machines belonging to the 56 closed finance companies. The auction, organised by the Financial Sector Restructuring Authority, took place for the second day at the ITF finance company on Silom Road. The event attracted a large number of enthusiastic bidders. - SOMCHAI LAOPAISARNTAKSIN

Activity

Look at the news photos that follow and read the captions that accompany them. Try to guess the meanings of any unfamiliar words or phrases. Then do the matching exercise that follows.

NOWHERE TO GO Onlookers and would-be rescuers survey 65 long-finned pilot whales lying dead on Monday on Rheban Beach, east of Hobart, Australia, after a mass stranding on Sunday. Normally at home in deep oceanic waters, the thin, black-skinned four-metre whales were out of their usual habitat when 150 became stranded on two beaches on the southern island state of Tasmania. Rescuers saved 40. - REUTERS PHOTO * * * * * * * BURYING THE HATCHET New Aspiration Party MP Aram Lohveera (right) and Chaiyaphum governor Pairat Pojchanachai shake hands after they agreed to resolve a personal conflict mediated by Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart (centre). Mr Aram, who alleged that Mr Pairat was unhappy that he tried to block his rise to the governorship, accused the latter of threatening to take his life. - SAROT MEKSOPHAWANNAKUL * * * * * * * UNKNOWING INNOCENTS A social worker prepares to bathe children who survived in the orphanage fire. The children, temporarily housed yesterday at the Social Welfare Department's office, still could not comprehend the gravity of the incident and were curious whether their friends who perished in the inferno could join them in a Christmas party. - APF * * * * * * * TEARS BEFORE JOY A distraught Usa Silpajarn of Thailand is consoled by her mother after judges initially ruled she had lost her taekwando flyweight semi-final against Juana Wangsa of Indonesia. However, after a protest, a tape of the contest was reviewed and the judges reversed their decision, saying she had dominated the fight. Usa went on to take the silver after being beaten by Tang Huwen of Taiwan in the final. - NIBHON KANANURAKS * * * * * * * FOREVER AMBER A blackbird is sitting on eggs in the area between red and green on this traffic light in a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It took the bird three days to build her nest. The eggs she is incubating will hatch in about two weeks, and the chicks will fly away about two weeks after birth. - REUTERS PHOTOS * * * * * * * WHEEEE! Winter whether has his America with a storn. Brandon Geister, 16, of Buffalo, New York, barely hangs on to a signpost at a city bus stop. Wind gusts of 100 kph hit Brandon and the entire area along the US-Canadian Great Lakes border, with accompanying sleet, rain and freezing rain. - REUTERS PHOTO

Use the pictures and captions to help you match each word below with is most appropriate meaning.

•This lesson was prepared by Acharn Terry Fredrickson, BA Stanford, MA (TESL) University of Minnesota, Manager of the Educational Services Department at the Bangkok Post and general editor of this programme.