英语高级口语教程(3)

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 thought of before or never have

heard 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.

2. Children and Television

Housewife: What do I think of television? Um, um, well, um, it keeps the family at home,

the kids don't go out at night so much now, they come straight in from school

most of them, they run in and straight, well the television's on when they come

in, I watch it myself during the afternoon. Er, well it's company really and,

er, well, then the kids come home, they eat their tea, I have no trouble with

them eating their tea because they just ...

well, they don't even look at what they eat, they just sit down and, erm, they

eat it and they like the programmes and, and it keeps them quiet while I' m cooking

the tea for their dad when he comes home an hour later and tea is ready when the

news is on when he comes in, and, er and the news is on or perhaps the football

match or something, er, they have to be quiet then, they're not very interested

in that themselves, they like the cartoons and things but, em, yeah, well, I think

television's great, er, we get on much better in the house now, um, well, we've

got things to talk about, erm, you know, if I miss a programme, er, if I'm cooking

or something in the kitchen, I miss a bit of what's going on, I mean I have the

door open so I can hear, but if I miss a bit then they will tell me, and then

perhaps later or perhaps the next day we'll have a chat about it, you know. It

gives us something to talk about really. Um, I don't think it hurts the kids,

I don't think it's a problem, you know, like, er, it stops them, makes their eyes

go funny or something, I don't think it’s a problem like that. I don't think

it's a problem at all. They've... they've learned a lot from television, I think,

they're always piping up with questions and learning a lot from the television.

3. Television Is Doing Irreparable Harm

"Yes, but what did we use to do before there was television?" How often we hear statements like this Television hasn't been with us all that long, but we are already beginning to forget what the world was like without it. Before we admitted the one-eyed monster into our homes, we never found it difficult to occupy our spare time.

We used to enjoy civilized pleasures. For instance, we used to have hobbies, we used

to entertain our friends and be entertained by them, we used to go outside for our amusements