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Nora Ephron, The Boston Photographs

Nora Ephron, The Boston Photographs

Read The Boston Photographs and check your comprehension by answering the following questions. Then “submit” your work.

1. Which of the following is not in the set of pictures about which Ephron writes?

a fireman

a young woman

the child’s grandmother

a child

2. Most of the public reaction to the published pictures

was negative.

was critical of the Boston fireman’s unsuccessful efforts.

praised the technical excellence of the pictures.

was positive and approving.

3. What was the overriding concern of the Washington Post regarding the pictures?

whether to publish the pictures at all

whether to publish the third picture of the series

how to display them

whether to show them in black and white or color

4. What, according to the author, was the real issue at stake in the lesson of the Boston photographs?

ghetto life

censorship

responsible journalism

compassionate reporting

5. Why is photojournalism often more powerful than written journalism?

Most people don’t read the text.

Much of journalism is dry and uninteresting.

Ultimately, pictures prove to be less graphic than words and are easier for people to take.

Pictures sometimes have the power to disturb when words do not.