For questions 1-7, markY(for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N(for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG(for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage.
The Trouble With Television
It is difficult to escape the influence of television. If you fit the statistical averages, by the age of 20 you will have been exposed to at least 20,000 hours of television. You can add 10,000 hours for each decade you have lived after the age of 20. The only things Americans do more than watch television are work and sleep.
Calculate for a moment what could be done with even a part of those hours. Five thousand hours, I am told, are what a typical college undergraduate spends working on a bachelor&39;s degree. In 10,000 hours you could have learned enough to become an astronomer or engineer. You could have learned several languages fluently. If it appealed to you, you could be reading Homer in the original Greek or Dostoyevsky in Russian. If it didn&39;t, you could have walked around the world and written a book about it.
The trouble with television is that it discourages concentration. Almost anything interesting and rewarding in life requires some constructive, consistently applied effort. The dullest, the least gifted of us can achieve things that seem miraculous to those who never concentrate on anything. But Television encourages us to apply no effort. It sells us instant gratification(满意). It diverts us only to divert, to make the time pass without pain.
Television&39;s variety becomes a narcotic(麻醉的), nor a stimulus. Its serial, kaleidoscopic (万花筒般的)exposures force us to follow its lead. The viewer is on a perpetual guided tour: 30 minutes at the museum, 30 at the cathedral, 30 for a drink, then back on the bus to the next attraction—except on television., typically, the spans allotted arc on the order of minutes or seconds, and the chosen delights are more often car crashes and people killing one another. In short, a lot of television usurps(篡夺;侵占) one of the most precious of all human gifts, the ability to focus your attention yourself, rather than just passively surrender it.
Capturing your attention—and holding it—is the prime motive of most television programming and enhances its role as a profitable advertising vehicle. Programmers live in constant fear of losing anyone&39;s attention—anyone&39;s. The surest way to avoid doing so is to keep everything brief, not to strain the attention of anyone but instead to provide constant stimulation through variety, novelty, action and movement. Quite simply, television operates on the appeal to the short attention span.
It is simply the easiest way out. But it has come to be regarded as a given, as inherent in the medium itself; as an imperative, as though General Sarnoff, or one of the other august pioneers of video, had bequeathed(遗留;传于) to us tablets of stone commanding that nothing in television shall ever require more than a few moments&39; Concentration.
In its place that is fine. Who can quarrel with a medium that so brilliantly packages escapist entertainment as a mass-marketing tool？ But I see its values now pervading this nation and its life. It has become fashionable to think that, like fast food, fast ideas are the way to get to a fast-moving, impatient public.
In the case of news, this practice, in my view, results in inefficient communication. I question how much of television&39;s nightly news effort is really absorbable and understandable. Much of it is what has been aptly described as "machine-gunning with scraps." I think the technique fights coherence. I think it tends to make things ultimately boring (unless they are accompanied by horrifying pictures) because almost anything is boring if you know almost nothing about it.
I believe that TV&39;s appeal to the short attention span is not only inefficient communication but decivilizing as well. Consider the casual assumptions that television tends to cultivate: that complexity must be avoided, that visual stimulation is a substitute for thought, that verbal precision is an anachronism. It may be old-fashioned, but I was taught that thought is words, arranged in grammatically precise.
There is a crisis of literacy in this country. One study estimates that some 30 million adult Americans are "functionally illiterate" and cannot read or write well enough to answer the want ad or understand the instructions on a medicine bottle.
Literacy may not be an inalienable human right, but it is one that the highly literate Founding Fathers might not have found unreasonable or even unattainable. We are not only not attaining it as a nation, statistically speaking, but we are falling further and further short of attaining it. And, while I would not be so simplistic as to suggest that television is the cause, I believe it contributes and is an influence.
Everything about this nation—the structure of the society, its forms of family organization, its economy, its place in the world— has become more complex, not less. Yet its dominating communications instrument, its principal form. of national linkage, is one that sells neat resolutions to human problems that usually have no neat resolutions. It is all symbolized in my mind by the hugely successful art form. that television has made central to the culture, the 30-second commercial: the tiny drama of the earnest housewife who finds happiness in choosing the right toothpaste.
When before in human history has so much humanity collectively surrendered so much of its leisure to one toy, one mass diversion？ When before has virtually an entire nation surrendered itself wholesale to a medium for selling？
Some years ago Yale University law professor Charles L. Black. Jr., wrote: "... forced feeding on trivial fare is not itself a trivial matter-" I think this society is being forced-fed with trivial fare, and I fear that the effects on our habits of mind, our language, our tolerance for effort, and our appetite for complexity are only dimly perceived. If I am wrong, we will have done no harm to look at the issue skeptically and critically, to consider how we should be residing it. I hope you will join with me in doing so.
1. In America people do sleeping and watching televisions more than anything else.
2. From the passage we know the time an average American spends on watching TV could have made the person learn to become an astronomer or engineer.
3. The trouble with TV is that it distracts people’s attention and encourages them to make no efforts toward their life.
4. TV programmers base this operation on the attraction of long-span attention of audiences.
5. According to the author the improper television operation in American society will be likely to make things eventually boring.
6. Americans will face a serious problem of illiteracy due to the negative impact of TV.
7. In American society literacy is a certain right that cannot be deprived.
Bike trailers are now becoming a popular mode of t...
Bike trailers are now becoming a popular mode of transportation. If you are wondering what a bike trailer is, it is a motorless wheeled frame. attached to your bicycle. Its primary function is to help the bike rider in carrying additional load.Instead of carrying the load on the bike, it can now be carried on the bike trailer which greatly reduces the strain placed on the bike. It is convenient, easy to use and it helps you live an active lifestyle.
Bike trailers are an alternative to carrying different sorts of loads. Instead of using your car to go to the nearby grocery store perhaps, why not use your bike trailer？ It not only saves you money from the gas which should have been spent by your car, it also does the job of carrying your groceries.
Planning to get a bike trailer？ Make sure to decide on what you are going to use it for first. Different bike trailers are made for different uses. There are a variety of bike trailers being commercially manufactured.The general trailers available in the market today are the general cargo trailer which is used to carry different sorts of loads from groceries to furniture, child passenger trailer which is used to carry a child, pet trailer which is used to carry cats or dogs, and canoe trailers which are used to carry long and narrow loads like canoes and surfboards.
If you want a trailer to carry cargo all around, then a cargo trailer would definitely suit your needs. If you want to take your child along with you while you ride your bike, then check out the different child trailers available in the market.
There are two types of bike trailers in the market today based on the number of wheels. The first is the single wheel trailer which can carry light to medium loads. It is popular among hikers since it is great for trail riding and narrow surfaces. It is also stable when making sharp turns at high speeds. The other type of trailer is the two-wheel trailer which obviously has two wheels. It can carry heavier loads than the single wheel type. When making sharp turns at high speeds it may roll over, so be sure to slow down before making the turns.
Caring for your bike trailer is easy and comparable to that of a bike. Cleaning the trailer requires water, soap and wax. Regularly check the tires for abnormalities like low air pressure or wear and tear for this may cause accidents.
When you are out riding in your bike trailer, keep in mind that it is different from riding a bike. The responses are different. You may notice that your bike may be a bit unresponsive due to the extra load.Be sure to take trial runs in non-busy roads to get you acquainted with the new riding conditions.
Riding at night is more dangerous than riding during the daytime. Make sure that you have a front light and a rear light and that both are switched on. Be sure also to have front, back and side reflectors so that you would always be visible to traffic.
41. The passage mentions all the following aspects about a bike trailer EXCEPT ______.
A. its maintenance B. its price
C. its definition D. its uses
42. Which of the following is an advantage of a bike trailer over a car？
A. It can help reduce the weight on your riding.
B. You don’t have to check the tires regularly.
C. You don’t have to spend money on gas.
D. It can carry groceries for you.
43. A two-wheel trailer should be a better choice than a single wheel trailer when ______.
A. you carry heavy loads
B. you ride on a narrow surface
C. your additional load is not heavy
D. you make a sharp turn at high speed
44. Which of the following is a difference between riding in a bike trailer and riding a bike？
A. You need to check the tires regularly for a bike trailer.
B. It is easier to ride in a trailer than riding a bike.
C. A trailer requires water and wax for cleaning.
D. A trailer cannot react as quickly as a bike.
45. What is the writer’s purpose in writing this passage？
A. To provide information about bike trailers.
B. To advertise for a new mode of transportation.
C. To arouse your interest in more active lifestyle.
D. To advise you to be careful when riding in a bike trailer.
