-
It is difficult to escape the influence of
you fit the statistical averages,by
the age of 20 you will have been
exposed to at
least 20000 hours of can
add
10000 hours for each decade you
have lived
after the age of 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 these thousand
hours,I
am told,are what a typical college
undergraduate spends workings on a
bachelor's 10,000 hours you could
have learned enough to become an
astronomer or could have
learned several languages it
appealed to you,you could be reading
Homer
in the original Greek or
Dostoyevsky in
it didn't,you could
have walked
around the world and
written a book about it.
The
trouble with television is that it
discourages anything
interesting and rewarding in life
requires some
constructive,consistently
applied
dullest,the least gifted of us
can achieve things
that seem miraculous
to those who never
concentrate on
television
encourages us to apply no
sells us
instant diverts us only to
divert,to make the time pass without
pain.
Television's variety
becomes a narcotic,not a
serial,kaleidoscopic exposures
force us
to follow its 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 alloted arc on the older of
minutes or
seconds,and the chosen
delights are more of
the car crashes
and people killing on
another,In
short,a lot of television usurps 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--it
the prime
motive of most television
programming
and enhances its role as a
profitable
advertising vehicle .Programmers
live
in constant fear of losing anyone's
attention--anyone' 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
simply,television operates on the
appeal to the
short attention
span.
It is simply the
easiest way 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
to us
tablets of stone commanding that
notheing in
television shall ever
require more than a few
moments'
concentration.
NOTES:
1. A.
prominent anchorman warns of TV?s
adverse effect on America?s culture .
a.
prominent
：
outstanding
，
easily seen
，
important
，
distinguished
突出的，显著的，重要
的，杰出的。
如：
a prominent position /
writer
显赫的地
位、著名作家。
acquire / gain
prominence
出人头地。
b. anchorman
：（广播
，电视）（新闻、体育
等节目的）主持人。
c.
adverse
：
unfavorable
，
contrary
不利
的，负面的。
如：
adverse circumstances
逆境；
adverse
effect
负面影响；
a theory adverse to the facts
与事实相反的理论。
developments adverse to our
interests
与
我们的利益相反的发展。
adversary
：（竞争中的）对手。
2. if you fit the
statistical averages
，
……
假
若你处于平均数
……
如；
on
an
（
the
）
average
< br>平均起来，一般
来说：
On
（<
/p>
an
）
the
average
，
I finish
reading
a book three weeks .
一般而言，我平均三星期读完
一本书。
He smoked about
ten cigarettas a day on
an average
.
他平均一天抽十根香烟。
3.
（
be
）
exposed to
：
lay open to
使暴露
于
……
如：
Don?t expose children to
ill effects of
the Internet
.
不要让孩子受因特网的负面影响。
Her youth and beauty could
expose her to
danger .
她的年轻美貌可能为她招致危险。
如；
exposure
：
n . He threatened me
with
public exposure
.
他威胁我要把我曝光。
Much exposure to different
cultures is part
and parcel of
education .
大量接触不同文化是教
育的主要组成
部分。
4.…… it discourages concentration .
discourage
（
prevent
）
sb. from ……
使
……
放弃
如；
The bad weather discouraged them from