George, the filmmaker for the evening news, had to find a story to film.  This morning his task was to give brief accounts of possible stories to the important man who spoke the nightly news, Tom Tomorrow.

"What about the military intelligence they found on the computers of the terrorists? They found all the equipment, everything the terrorists use to contact their members," said George, looking at his list of possible stories.

"Doesn't make good pictures," said Tom Tomorrow. "How can we SHOW 'intelligence.' It's just computer screens. And they make bad resolution on camera."

"But this is important. It shows progress against the terrorists. And you're the one who tells the viewer what they are looking at."

"Well, that's the theory, " said Tom Tomorrow. "But it won't get the emotions of our local viewers. They don't understand grey areas, like evidence on files. They need something…'physical'. What's next?"

"Ok," said George looking down his list. "What about these labor leaders who are guilty of taking lots of money from their credit bank?  They gave themselves loans for twice as much as all the individual workers in their membership together. Removing them to prison, now that's news."

"Not good pictures." Tom Tomorrow shook his head. "The legal policy is to release them to another person until they go to prison. They are not in chains -- so what is there to see?"

George thought. "Their faces?"

Tom Tomorrow rolled his eyes. "Their faces are always happy. They learned that. They are always smiling. They will go to prison smiling. That's no good for Tomorrow's News Tonight."

"But seeing these criminals who took workers' money…Won't that anger local viewers? Anger is an emotion."

"Well," said Tom Tomorrow. "It's a mental thing. A social thing…Well, really…to be honest, viewers are….stupid."

"Stupid?"

"Well if you say I said so I'll say I don't know what you are talking about….But, yes…Stupid. They see somebody smiling and they think the status of everything is OK."

"But you're suppose to tell them. You're the reporter. You have the authority. You aid their understanding….You're…Tom Tomorrow!"

"And you'll see the departure of Tommy Tomorrow tomorrow if I don't show them some really horrible, really physical news tonight. I have to increase our ratings."

"What kind of things do you want to show?"

"Car wrecks, a whole series of them. The bloodier the better. " Tom Tomorrow's eyes grew large. He stood up and waved his arms. "A great volume of cars crashing…that's the best kind of news. People can understand that."

"But…well I can't…I refuse to make cars crash, just to make film."

Tom Tomorrow rolled his eyes again. "A lot of people WILL do it. You're so innocent… I don't believe it. I have a lot of people who will give me exactly what I'm seeking."

George looked at Tom Tomorrow, the man who everyone listened to on Tomorrow's News Tonight. And then he got an idea. He would give Tom Tomorrow exactly the kind of news he wanted for tonight.

"Ok, I think I see a third possibility." said George, taking up his camera. "Can you stand over here by the stairs, and I'll get an establishing shot with the stairway down behind you."

"Oh, sure," said Tom Tomorrow, always happy to be on camera.

George was looking through the camera's view finder. "Could you just…uh…take a step backward?"

"Sure," Tom Tomorrow said, smiled big and looked very important.

"How about just…uh…taking one more step backward?" said George, still looking through the view finder.

Tom Tomorrow smiled even larger and looked very, very important for the camera.  "Anything for the ratings!" he said, before he took the last step back, and fell backward down the stairs.

George had every second of film of Tom Tomorrow's fall backward down the stairs. The framing was perfect. The light was perfect. The film was excellent. The news people were glad to pay George a lot of money for the film.

And from his hospital bed, Tom Tomorrow watched himself over and over, falling down the stairs on Tomorrow's News Tonight. He had been right. It was a very physical story and the local viewers understood it perfectly. In fact, the viewers loved it so much that his program had the very highest ratings for the year.

Ready-to-Use

a.      third: for the third time  " He went to the Olympics for the third time."

b.      progress: make progress on "We are making progress on building the new road."

c.     contact: keep in contact  "Please keep in contact with us with e-mail."

d.      twice: twice a day/week/year  "We eat eggs twice a week."

e.      mental: mental ability  "Lawyers must have some mental ability."

f.     guilty: guilty of something  "He was guilty of stealing horses."