新闻导语(news lead)是新闻报道开头的第一段文字，也是新闻报道全文最重要的部分。它以最简练的语言把新闻报道中最重要、最精彩的内容完整地呈现出来，使读者读完导语之后就能获悉新闻报道的主要内容。新闻报道的导语一般具有六个要素，俗称5个W和一个H：Who，What, Where, When, Why和How。
一、新闻导语的分类
目前国内外学界对英语导语的分类还没有一个统一的标准，所分类别也五花八门，多少不一。但是有的分类过细，有的分类过于繁琐，各种分类之间还有重叠交叉之处，所以一般我们把英语新闻导语分为两类：直接式导语（Direct lead）和延缓式导语(Delayed lead)。
A direct lead tells readers the most important aspect of the story (the five Ws) in a direct and straightforward way, and is often used in “hard news”.
A delayed lead attracts readers by hinting the content of the story. It is usually found in news features and other “soft stories” that put more emphasis on human interest rather than timeliness of an event.
A delayed lead usually sets a scene or evokes a mood with an incident, anecdote, or example.
直接式导语要求记者在导语中把最重要的新闻事实直截了当、简洁明快地告诉读者，这种导语主要用于时效性极强的硬新闻（hard news）报道。延缓式导语，要求记者有高超的驾驭语言文字的能力，能够写出可读性强、引人入胜的报道，这种导语主要用于解释性报道、新闻特写、新闻评论等软新闻（Soft news）报道。延缓式导语按照写作方法可以分为：描述式导语、对比式导语、引语式导语、提问式导语、多成分式导语、直呼式导语、空洞式导语、华尔街日报式, 悬念式导语。
二、新闻导语的特点
The lead should be brief yet catchy, giving the reader an instant sense of what the article is about and making him or her want to read more. In a soft news story , however , the lead should present the subject of the story by allusion (暗示;引喻) . This type of opening is somewhat literary. Like a novelist, the role of the writer is to grab the attention of the reader.
新闻导语是新闻的“导读之语”，是整个新闻报道的核心，是新闻报道内容的高度浓缩与概括。所以，一条好的新闻导语有如下几个特点：
1. 结构紧凑、信息量大。新闻导语是用最简洁的语言把报道中最重要的事件概括出来，在导语中记者尽可能用最少的词语，表达最多的内容，用一两句话说清楚导语的全部的或几个基本要素。
2. 简明扼要、叙述清楚。导语是新闻内容的概括和浓缩。英语导语通常只用一句话说清楚新闻报道中的主要事实和结果。
3. 内容充实、生动形象。新闻导语精炼简洁地概括了新闻主要事实，所以不能写得空洞无物，也不能过于详细，所以语言要详略得当，言之有物。
4. 充满活力、引人入胜。新闻导语要能对读者产生一种吸引力，让读者有一种欲罢不能的感觉。所以，好的新闻导语不仅具有高度的概括性和浓缩性，还要语言形象生动，充满活力，多用动态动词。
三、 实例分析
下面我们用实例来说明每一种导语。
1.直接式导语（Direct lead）
直接式导语也称作概括性导语（Summary lead），是新闻报道写作中最常用的、最普遍的一种形式， 尤其适用于“倒金字塔”结构的硬消息。其特点就是在第一段写出导语的六个要素，即：5个W和一个H。当然，在导语中有的记者回答全部六个问题，有的只回答其中的部分问题。
For instance:
(1) Israel launched a major ground invasion of the Gaza Strip on Saturday night, moving in tanks, infantry (步兵) and artillery (炮兵) units after eight days of relentless air attacks failed to halt Hamas rocket fire (火箭炮) from the narrow coastal territory.
在这条导语中，记者回答了全部的6个问题。
Who： Israel
What: launched a major ground invasion
When: on Saturday night
Where: the Gaza Strip
Why: to halt Hamas rocket fire
How: moving in tanks, infantry and artillery units
(2) At least 1,000 rioters clashed with the police on Sunday in a regional capital in western China after days of rising tensions between Muslim Uyghurs and Han Chinese, according to witnesses and photographs of the riot.
在这条导语中，记者只回答了5个问题。
Who： at least 1,000 rioters
What: clashed with the police
When: on Sunday
Where: in a regional capital in western China
Why: rising tensions between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese
2．描述式导语 (Descriptive lead)
描述式导语指报道的第一段描写与新闻事件有关的某个细节，制造气氛，烘托主题，确定基调，让读者身临其境般地阅读理解新闻报道。
For instance:
GUN SHOTS, car horns and firecrackers rang out across the snowy streets here yesterday as Kosovo declared itself the newest nation in the world.
在这条导语中，记者详细地描述了人们鸣枪、放烟火、汽车鸣笛的喜庆氛围，以说明人们对科索沃独立的支持。
3. 对比式导语（Contrast lead）
有时，一篇新闻报道要凸显两个极端的事实，过去和现在、大与小、好与坏、悲与喜等情形。这时就可以使用对比式导语，以突出新闻报道的主旨。
For instance:
In two elections this week, voters tossed incumbents (现任\在职官员) out of power. One election made barely a ripple internationally. The other broke like a tsunami over the entire world. The response to each vote should teach us the danger of pretending that elections alone can make democracy happen.
在这条导语中，作者对比了一周内的两次选举。尽管两次选举都更换了现任领导人，但是一次选举在国际上影响甚微，而另一次选举则在全世界掀起了“海啸”，影响巨大。
4. 引语式导语 (Quotation lead)
引语式导语主要是引用新闻报道中人物关键性的、或代表性的谈会话，以增强报道的真实性、可信性或权威性。引语式导语又分为两种：“完整引语式导语”（full quotation lead）和“部分引语式导语”（partial quotation lead）
For instance:
1. “We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 . . . that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not.” --- Hasan Nasrallah,
2. President Bush told Iraq's prime minister and his cabinet Tuesday that "we'll keep our commitment" not to withdraw troops from the country until the new government is capable of defending itself.
例一是“完整引语式导语”，例二是“部分引语式导语”。
5. 提问式导语 (Question Lead)
一般来说，记者在新闻报道中是回答问题而不是提出问题。但是记者可以通过提问题来推迟对问题的回答。这样可以引发读者思考，激发读者兴趣，然后用事实回答问题。
For instance:
Who killed Benazir Bhutto? Despite formal admission of responsibility by al-Qaeda, we may never know for sure. In one recent conversation she told me that she had “solemn warnings” from a dozen groups who saw her as the main obstacle to their dream of transforming Pakistan into an “Islamic state”, whatever that means.
6. 多成分式导语 (Multi-element lead)
多成分式导语是指一个导语中有多个价值相同，或重要性相同的新闻事实。接着后面的段落会提供每一个新闻事实的细节。
For instance:
In Chicago, an ambulance driver refused to transport a patient for an abortion. In California, fertility specialists (生育专家) rebuffed (断然拒绝) a gay woman seeking artificial insemination (人工授精). In Texas, a pharmacist turned away a rape victim seeking the morning-after pill (紧急避孕药).
这条导语提供了三个价值相同的新闻事实。
7. 直呼式导语（Direct address lead）
直呼式导语也叫作“人称式导语”（Personal lead）是指记者以一种和读者直接对话的方式，写出的导语，这种导语缩短了记者和读者之间的距离，令读者有一种亲切感。
For instance：
If you thought the Dubai port deal marked a record high in Washington cynicism, think again. Nothing can match the spectacle of politicians scrambling for cover (“幌子”\“伪装” ) during a spike (peak) in gasoline prices. And this time the panderfest (拉拢人心，拉拢选民, 拉票战) has gone all the way to the Oval Office (美国白宫内总统的办公室). President Bush has joined the braying (粗声粗气地讲话或大笑） congressional hordes by ordering the Energy and Justice departments and the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation into possible gasoline price fixing.
8. 空洞式导语（Punch lead）
空洞式导语是指泛泛介绍一种情况而不具体说明人物、事件、时间、地点，即：毫无实质内容的导语。它只起到一种“引出话题”或“铺路”的作用。后面的第二段或第三短才提供具体的细节。这种导语在二次大战以后曾非常流行，很多报纸上的所有报道几乎都用空洞式导语。
For instance：
A senior CIA official, meeting with Senate staff in a secure room of the Capitol last June, promised repeatedly that the agency did not violate or seek to violate an international treaty that bars cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees, during interrogations it conducted in the Middle East and elsewhere.
But another CIA officer -- the agency's deputy inspector general, who for the previous year had been probing allegations of criminal mistreatment by the CIA and its contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan -- was startled to hear what she considered an outright falsehood, according to people familiar with her account. It came during the discussion of legislation that would constrain the CIA's interrogations.
这是一条典型的空洞式导语，两段里只泛泛地介绍了两位CIA官员，具体是谁全然不知。后面第三段才作了详细的交代。
9. 华尔街日报式导语（Wall Street Journal lead）
这种导语的特点就是第一段先给出一个典型的例子，由该例子引出一个更大的，普遍性的问题或事件，接着是问题或事件所带来的后果，最后提出解决方法。
For instance：
Greg Hayworth, 44, made a good living in his home state, California, from real estate and mortgage finance (按揭贷款；抵押融资). Then that business crashed, and early last year the bank foreclosed (取消抵押品的赎回权) on the house his family was renting, forcing their eviction (（租地，租房等的）收回;被逐出).
Now the Hayworths and their three children represent a new face of homelessness in Orange County: formerly middle income, living week to week in a cramped motel room.
这条导语以Greg Hayworth一家为例说明美国次贷危机导致很多家庭被迫搬出没有还清房款的房子，住进条件极差的汽车旅馆这一普遍问题。
10. 悬念式导语（Suspended –interest Lead）
悬念式导语是指记者在导语中给读者提供新闻事件的一点惊人的或戏剧性的细节，制造悬念，以吸引读者继续读下去。
For instance:
The history of recent trade meetings—from Seattle to Doha to Cancun to Hong Kong—shows that something is wrong with the global trading system. Behind the discontent (不满) are facts and theories.
这条导语的最后一句话Behind the discontent are facts and theories制造了一个很好的悬念，读者不禁要问：什么事实？什么理论？
Exercise: Read the following news leads and find out as many elements as possible in each of them.
1. BEIJING (AP) ----China suspended military exchanges with the United States and threatened sanctions against American defense companies Saturday, just hours after Washington announced $6.4 billion in planned arms sales to Taiwan.
Who:
What:
Where:
When:
Why:
How:
2. URUMQI ---- At least 140 people were killed and 828 others injured in riots that erupted in the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Sunday night, officials said Monday.
Who:
What:
Where:
When:
Why:
How
3. NEW YORK (AFP) ---– Oil prices posted a modest rise Monday, tracking a Wall Street stock rebound and amid geopolitical concerns as key producer Iran test-fired missiles ahead of talks over its atomic program.
Who:
What:
Where:
When:
Why:
How:
4. NEW YORK----A torrential downpour sent water surging through New York's subway system and highway tunnels and across airport runways Wednesday, leaving thousands of commuters stranded and one big question: How could 3 inches of rain bring the nation's largest mass transit system to a halt?
Who:
What:
Where:
When:
Why:
How:
5. SHANGHAI----Torrential rains that have caused some of the worst flooding in 50 years and killed scores of people continued to batter a huge swath of southern China on Tuesday near one of the biggest manufacturing zones in the country.
Who:
What:
Where:
When:
Why:
How:
6. EDINBURGH, Scotland----Scotland freed the terminally ill Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds Thursday, allowing him to die at home in Libya despite American protests that mercy should not be shown to the man responsible for the deaths of 270 people.
Who:
What:
Where:
When:
Why:
How:
7. SEATTLE---Doctors and scientists from the University of Washington will get a glimpse of what it would be like to do remote surgery in space when a portable medical robot they created will be tested next month in an underwater environment designed by NASA to simulate zero gravity.
Who:
What:
Where:
When:
Why:
How:
8. KABUL----A suicide car bomb exploded near the main gate of the NATO-led international military mission Saturday, killing three Afghans and wounding 70, officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Who:
What:
Where:
When:
Why:
How:
9. SHANGHAI, June 6 (Reuters)-----A three-year-old girl is being held hostage by a middle-aged man at a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Shanghai, official Chinese media reported on Wednesday.
Who:
What:
Where:
When:
Why:
How:
10. HANOI, Vietnam ----Typhoon Lekima slammed into Vietnam's central coast today, killing two people, destroying hundreds of houses and unleashing floods in one of the country's poorest regions.
Who:
What:
Where:
When:
Why:
How:
本文来源：https://www.2haoxitong.net/k/doc/90f2bd06b90d6c85ed3ac61e.html
文档为doc格式