自考高级英语L9练习.docVIP

Lesson Nine The Trouble with Television A prominent anchorman warns of TV’s adverse effect on America’s culture By Robert MacNeil A. Answer the following questions on the text : 1. Why is it difficult for Americans to escape the influence of television? 2. What other things could a person possibly have done in those hours spent on watching TV ? 3. In what way does TV discourage concentration ? 4. Why is the appeal to the short attention span so important to TV 5. What does the author think is wrong with TV news ? 6. Why does the author say TV is decivilizing ? 7. Why does the author say that television cannot provide right solutions to human problems ? 8. What do you think is the author’s purpose in making this speech ? Key A 1. Because they have spent too much time on television . On the average , by the age of 20 they will have been exposed to at least 2,000 hours of television . 2. They could have got their bachelor’s degree or become astronomers or engineers . They could have learned several languages fluently . They could have read Homer in the original Greek or Dostoyevsky in Russian. They could also have walked around the world and written a book about it . 3. Television encourage us to apply no effort . It seels us instant gratification. It diverts us only to divert , to make the time pass without pain . 4. Because programmers fear of losing anyone’s attention. They keep everything brief and provide constant stimulation through variety , novelty , action and movement in order to not to strain the attention of anyone . 5. It results in inefficient communication . It tends to make things ultimately boring and dismissable . 6. Because TV tends to cultivate casual assumptions that complexity must be avoided , that visual stimulation is a substitute for thought , that verbal precision is an anachronism . 7. Because everything about this nation has become more complex . But TV sells neat resolutions to human problems that usually have no neat resolutions .