I. Listen
Listen to the text with the help of the following notes.
1. it is more convenient ...in search of amusement elsewhere: (对四口之家来说)舒服地坐在家里，有着包罗万象的娱乐节目供选择，当然比外出到别的地方寻找娱乐活动更为方便，更合算了。
2. only to discover... disappointing: 最终发现演出是那样令人失望。此处only 表示出乎意料。
3. takes no initiative: 没有任何主动性。
4. The most distant countries...into one’s sitting -room: 最遥远的国度、最奇异的风俗了情被直接送到人们起居室。
5. flickering pictures: 闪烁为定的图像。
II. Read
Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.
1. Why Watch Television?
Matthew: Television is undoubtedly a great invention, but one of the main criticisms of it is that people just aren’t selective enough. Lesley, you’ve got a television; how do you pick out the sorts of programmes you want to watch?
Lesley: I try and look at the programmes that are on to decide which particular ones interest me, rather than you turning it on at seven o’clock and you leaving it on until half-past eleven when the programmes finish.
Matthew: Do you think of television though as a great time-waster?
Lesley: Un... I think it can be a time-waster and it depends on how particular people are about what they want to see...Mm, it can just be a sort of total amusement for someone and totally consuming without really considering what it is they’re watching.
Matthew: Aha, but how do you prevent it coming into your life and taking over your evenings and at the same time perhaps get... get out of the television some of the sort of best things... best programmes that ... that undoubtedly are on television?
Lesley: Well, I suppose one of the problems is... will depend on what a person’s life style is, and that if he has other outside interests which are equally important to him as television, he will then, you know, mm... be more careful about which programmes he wants to watch because he has time which he wants to use for other things.
Matthew: Do you think though that ... that in... in a sense television has killed people’s own er...sort of, creativity or their ability to entertain themselves because if they’re bored all they do is just turn on the television?
Lesley: Yes, I think that is a danger, and I think that... in fact is what is happening to a lot of people who use it as their ... their main ... um field of amusement and ... because they don’t have other outside interests and even when people come round they’ll leave the television on and not be, you know, particularly interested in talking to them, you know the television will be the main thing in the room.
Matthew: Peter, have you a television?
Peter: I have, in fact I’ve got two televisions.
Matthew: Do you watch them a lot?
Peter: Er...no I ...I watch very seldom er... In fact, I find that I watch television most when I’m working which requires nothing of me, then I watch television a lot. When I’ve got more energy left...um ...in my own private time, then I find I do more different things. I do things like um reading, or going out, or working on anything ...my hobbies.
Matthew: Do you think though that people can live a perfectly happy life if they haven’t got a television?
Peter: Oh yes, I think people who don’t have a television or people who don’t watch television can be expected to be more happy. You can assume I think if they never watch television they are happier people than the people who watch a lot of television, because I think that television goes with the kind of life which leaves you with nothing to spare, nothing left, you have to be given potted, passive entertainment.
Matthew: But in that case you...you seem as though you’re completely against television, is that true?
Peter: No, it’s not. I ...I have a television in fact, I have two as I said, but er I ... I ... I think there’s a dilemma, a difficult situation. Television in itself is very good; a ... a lot of the information and a lot of the programmes are very instructive, they introduce you to things you may never have though of before or never have hard about before. But in watching, it makes you very passive; you sit for hour after hour and you get very receptive and very unquestioning and it seems to me the important thing in life is to be active, to ... to do things, to think things and to be as creative as possible, and television prevents this.
III Consider
Does television play a positive or negative role in the modern word?
Arguments
1. Television is now playing a very important part in our lives.
