【正文】 humorous atmosphere will relieve the readers? emotion. And it will arouse the readers? desire to dig out what exactly the news talk about. This is a very important function of irony in English news headlines which creates ironically humorous atmosphere to catch the readers? eyes. The second role of irony in English news headlines is to satirize and deepen the news theme. An impressive headline is meaningful to the whole news. It can leave a deep impression on readers, which let reader notice that the news is worth taking time to read. Irony deepens the news theme which exactly fit in the English news headline. Example 2: Supergonorrhea?s spread ?causing huge concern?. (BBC) In Example 2, gonorrhea has been ignored for a long time. People don?t see gonorrhea as a threat to their health even to their life. People always had regrets after catching gonorrhea and realized the terror of it. But before it, people just don?t care about it and they do whatever they want. In front of the carnal desire, everything seems nothing. People do not pay enough attention to the preventive actions of gonorrhea. The news headline actually doesn?t mean to say the disease cause a huge concern. What the headline truly wanted to say is people don?t 廣師天河學院本科畢業(yè)論文 5 concern about that disease. And this piece of news headline satirizes the real situation of how people treat gonorrhea. And it mentioned that people should pay more attention to it because once get the disease there is no way to get rid of it. Satiric irony makes the news headline bee more vivid and impresses the readers. Then it deepens the news theme which elevates the whole news. III. The Characteristics of Irony in English Civic News Headline People are increasingly concerned about civic news. A lot of television and news websites are also paying attention to civic news audience service. Civic news is an effective way for news media improving attraction and influence of news in the increasingly petitive situation. Because of the civic news viewpoint, deep original interview, and vivid and readable style of witting, civic news are weled by the broad masses of readers, and became a news style which is strengthen proximity, readability, and serviceability. Being a part in English civic news headlines, irony plays a key role in English civic news headlines. It criticizes the civic problems, expresses the civic situation and describes the civic events. Criticize Civic Problems with Ironic Humor English civic news headline is similar with other English news headline. But it tends to focus on the civic issues. The description of the English civic news uses more popular and easytounderstand language. Part two of the paper has already clarified the characteristics of irony in English news headline. Obviously, the characteristics of irony in English civic news headlines are almost the same as those in other English news headline. But English civic news headlines still has some differences between them. And the following passage is going to analyze the characteristics of irony in the English civic news headline. One of the characteristics of irony in English news headline is to criticize civic problems with ironic humor. As mentioned above, one of the functions of irony in English news headline is creating humorous atmosphere. It also works in the English civic news headline. But English civic news headline has its unique way to be humorous. There are some examples to prove it. 6 Example 3: A sober man who takes 1,000 photos a day and spends 5 hours anizing them on 8 hard drives (Daily Mail). Example4: More than money: Employees in China demand cleaner office air (Reuters). In example 3, that a man takes 1,000 photos a day and spends 5 hours anizing them on 8 hard drives is totally insane but the news still thinks that man is sober. The news headline ironically says the man is out of his mind. A normal sober people just can?t waste his time on something vacuous. The news headline didn?t point out the man39。 第二部分是介紹反語的基本定義和反語與英文新聞標題的關系。 隨著人們生活水平的不斷提升， 他們越來越關注民生狀況和其問題。s meaning by the deliberate use of language which states the opposite of the truth, denies the contrary of the truth, or drastically and obviously understates a factual connection.” (Muecke 80) Henry Watson Fowler, in The King39。 shall not understand, amp。 反語作為 一種修辭手法， 除了被廣泛地運用在文學 作品中 ，在新聞標題中也占了一席之地。所以本論文淺略地研究分析英文民生新聞標題中的反語。 inprehension.(Fowler 156) The American Heritage Dictionary?s secondary meaning for irony: “incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs”. (Houghton 215) This sense, however, is not synonymous with incongruous but merely a definition of dramatic or situational irony. It is often included in definitions of irony not only that incongruity is present but also that the 廣師天河學院本科畢業(yè)論文 3 incongruity must reveal some aspect of human vanity or folly. Thus the majority of American Heritage Dictionary39。 特征 。 English civic news headline。最后的一部分就是總結全文。s wrong habit straightly. On the contrary, the news headline seems to support that man?s actions. This kind of measure can slightly criticize the man?s behavior and brings up the humorous atmosphere which relaxes the tension and forts the readers. This is a typical example of English civic news headline which brings the humor to the readers and attracts their eye balls. In example 4, the news headline literally tells us the air in China is very expensive, even more valuable than money. But actually people do not pay for air. As long as they breathe, they can get the air. The news headline does not mean that the air is more expensive than money. It actually wants to tell the readers that the air is free and infinite. But people are destroying the environment, which makes the quality of the air bad. The pollution makes people cannot brea