unit four turning off tv: a quiet hour designed by shi yuan book Ⅰ the first two periods listening...
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Unit Four Turning Off TV: A Quiet Hour
Designed by Shi Yuan
BookⅠ
The First Two Periods
Listening and Speaking
Listening and Speaking
• video• Group discussion• Background information • Listening Practice• Oral Practice• Assignments
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Group Discussion
1. Please divide yourselves into groups of 4 or 5 students for each.
2. Have a discussion focusing on one of the following questions for 5 minutes.
3. Choose one out of each group to present your group discussion. When the student gives his or her presentation, please come to the front of the classroom.
4. Others listen carefully and grade the performance of the speakers.
5. The speakers grade their own performance.
6. The teacher grades the performance of each speaker.
Direction:
•1. Which one is your most favorite? Why?
• 2. Do you like watching TV? Why or why not? Which programs do you like most? Can you give us some recommendations?
• 3. Did you ever find watching TV getting in the way of your study and daily activities? If yes, what did you do then?
Background information
Who invented television TV: Past and Present Big Three of the networks CATV Typical TV programming Generation Gap Divorce Rate
Who invented television?
• John Logie Baird 1888-1946 • Born in Helensburgh, he was a student of electri
cal engineering. In 1922 he began television research with makeshift equipment. In 1926 he first demonstrated television to a number of scientists in his flat in London.
电视机：约翰•洛吉•贝尔德 1888-1946
生于苏格兰海伦斯堡，约翰•洛吉•贝尔德的专业的电子工程。 1922 年他开始用简易设备从事电视的研究。 1926 年，他正式在伦敦自己的住所向众多科学家展示研究成功的电视。
TV: Past and Present
A demonstration of television was held at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, and during the 1940s networks were established and television sets began to be sold. But, for a while, radio still had complete control of the entertainment industry.
• It was in the 1950s that television started to take the place of radio in the United States, and in the early 1960s over 750 TV stations were telecasting to about 52 million sets with the result that the American TV audience included almost every family.
The Big Three of the networks are:
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC)
CATV
• What is generally known as “cable TV ( 有线电视 )” is actually a system of “community antenna television (CATV)” ( 社区天线电视系统 ). Cablevision, transmitted via direct cables （定向电缆） connected to each television set, offers viewers a large choice programs, as well as excellent reception.
Typical TV programming 典型电视节目 The local stations show a few programs they
produce themselves, but the majority of what they telecast is network programs. The following is a broad, general guide to local commercial TV programming:
6 - 9 a.m. informational programs (news, interviews, panel discussions ( 小组讨论— 三五人在电台或电视台 就某一问题进行的公开 讨论 ) of issues, etc.)
9- noon game shows
noon – 1 p.m. News
1-4p.m. soap operas (continuing drama serials emphasizing romantic problems), sports, etc.
6-7 p.m. News
7:30–10p.m. situation comedies, dramatical and musical programs, TV serials, movies, sports. Etc.
11:30 p.m. — movies, interviews (In large cities, TV stations will broadcast programs 24 hours a day. In the medium-sized and small c
ities, programs will be broadcast approximately 6 a.m. until 2 a.m.)
• Generation Gap
• The term is used to mean differences in ideas, life styles and attitudes between older and younger people, differences which will be result in a lack of understanding between them and frequently lead to confrontations.
• The “generation gap” is one of the most widely discussed and controversial problems of recent years. Some doubt whether such a “gap” exists. They don’t believe the younger generation is set apart from the older generation by a wide gap.
• Many others, on the other hand, insist a gap between parents and children is unavoidable and the generation gap today, if anything, is worse than it has ever been before. The reason they give is that the tremendous explosion of knowledge in the twentieth century has made life for young people today so very different form life as it was when their parents were young.
• Divorce Rate
• High divorce rate is a major social problem in the US. At present, it is estimated, about one quarter to one third of all American marriages end in divorce. Although different in opinions, some studies indicate that there are more cases with the following reasons:
• A) low incomes• B) inadequate education• C) marriage at a very young age
• The immediate result that arises from the high divorce rate is an increasing number of single parent homes.
Listening Practice---Blank-filling
Many people in the United States spend most of their free time watching television. Certainly, there are many worthwhile programs on television, including news, educational programs for children, programs on current social problems, plays, movies, concerts, and so on. Nevertheless, perhaps people should not be spending so much of their time in front of the TV. Mr. Mayer imagines what we might do if we were forced to find other activities.
Turning Off TV: A Quiet Hour I would like to that for sixty to ninety minutes eac
h evening, right after the early , all television broadcasting in the United States be prohibited by law.
proposeevening news
• Let us take a , look at what the results might be if such a proposal were accepted. Families might use the time for a real family hour. Without the of TV, they might sit around together after dinner and actually talk to one another. It is well known that many of our problems — everything, in fact, from the to the high divorce rate to some forms of mental illness — are caused at least in part by failure to communicate.
We do not tell each other what is disturbing us. The result is emotional difficulty of one kind or another. By using the quiet family hour to discuss our problems, we might get to know each other better, and to like each other better.
serious reasonable
distraction
generation gap
On evenings when such talk is unnecessary, families could rediscover more active . Freed from TV, forced to find their own activities, they might take a ride together to watch the . Or they might take a walk together (remember feet?) and see the neighborhood with fresh, new eyes.
With free time and no TV, children and adults might rediscover reading. There is more entertainment in a good book than in a month of TV programming.
Educators report that the generation growing up with television can barely write an English sentence, even at the college level. Writing is often learned from reading. A more literate new generation could be a product of the quiet hour.
pastimes
sunset
typical
A different form of reading might also be done, as it was in the past: reading aloud. Few pastimes bring a family closer together than gathering around and listening to mother or father read a good story. The quiet hour could become the story hour. When the quiet hour ends, the TV networks might even be forced to come up with better shows in order to get us back from our newly discovered activities.
At first glance, the idea of an hour without TV seems radical. What will parents do without the electronic baby-sitter? How will we spend the time?
But it is not at all. It has been only years since television came to control American free time. Those of us thirty-five and older can remember childhoods without television, spent partly with radio — which involved the listener’s imagination — but also with reading, learning, talking, playing games, inventing new activities. It wasn’t that difficult. . The truth is we had a ball.
radical twenty-five
at least
Honest
Oral practice
What are the disadvantages of watching too much TV?
Assignments
• Read the new words again and again after class, next time you are supposed to read them aloud in class.
• Read the text and do Ex. 1-2.• Preview Reading skill and do related ex.• Do translation work.