A、Doing something worthwhile and rewarding. B、Scaring the people walking in the street. C、Attracting people’s attention. D、Criti

M: Have you seen this story in The Herald? It says The Times is closing down in three months’ time.
W: Gary, that’s good news, that newspaper is terrible. I won’t miss it.
M: What do you mean? The Times is the best newspaper in the city. If that closes, we’ll only have The Herald and that City Journal which is too awful for words.
W: You only like The Times because it takes up to 20 pages every day with sports. This is a newspaper which puts the horoscopes on the bottom of the front page. I think that tells you how serious it is.
M: Come on. That’s hardly fair now, is it? Remember the campaign they did last year to save the children’s hospital. You can’t tell me you didn’t think that was a worthwhile thing to do.
W: They only did that because they knew it would strike a nerve with the average guy in the street. You know, saving a children’s hospital. It’s like the ultimate in populist journalism. Do you remember reading their article a couple of months before criticizing the local authorities wasting money on out-of-date healthcare facilities, including the very same children’s hospital? They have only ever written what they think will sell more newspapers.
M: Well, it obviously didn’t work if they’re closing, did it?
W: No, and thank heavens for that. The City Journal is a great paper and you don’t like it because it doesn’t devote 5 pages every day to baseball stats.
M: This is a baseball city. We’ve got a great team. Why shouldn’t we read about it? Where are we going to get the results now? The Journal puts all the results in one tiny box on the back page and The Herald gives them maybe a half page. It’s almost as if they feel ashamed at having a successful team here. I just don’t see why people buy The Journal.
W: Err, maybe because it has authentic journalists working there, journalists who know something about what is going on in the rest of the country and the rest of the world. I think a newspaper needs to meet all the needs of its readers, not just those who like sports. The Journal did a great piece on famine in Africa last week, did you read it?
M: No, I can’t say I did. I think they should leave that stuff for the national papers or for the TV news. If I buy a local newspaper, I don’t want to read about the famine in Africa Those articles are only written by the ambitious journalists who are fishing for jobs in the national press.
W: Oh, you’re so cynical.
1. Why does Gary prefer The Times to The Herald and City Journal?
2. According to the woman, what is the purpose of The Times’ campaign of saving the children’s hospital?
3. According to the conversation, what can we learn about the City Journal?
4. What can we learn from the conversation?
5. In the man’s view, what should local papers report?