A selection of headlines from stories in the news. They use English in a way that you might think is intended to confuse but it’s all perfectly clear to the native speaker.
The Sun used the headline ‘It’s Fur Cop’ on a story which got the animal-loving English public outraged. They tracked down the woman caught on CCTV dumping a cat into a wheelie bin. Mary Bale (45) from Coventry was filmed scooping up four year old tabby Lola and putting her in the bin. Lola was trapped for 15 hours before her owners found her and freed her unhurt.
The headline is a play on the phrase ‘It’s a fair cop’ which is used when someone has been caught doing something wrong, using the word ‘fur’, the dense coat of fine silky hairs on mammals, instead of the word ‘fair’.