The Influence of TV on Children

Exercises.

THE POWER AND DANGERS OF TELEVISION

MASS MEDIA

Unit XIII

E.g. We often speak about her. — She is often spoken about.

Use the Passive Voice.

Не was talked about. Не was sent for. He was waited for. He was looked at. He was listened to. He was laughed at.

А також:

The house wasn't lived in. The bed wasn't slept in.

_

1. The senior students laughed at the freshman.

2. The group spoke to the headmistress yesterday.

3. The young mothers looked after their babies with great care.

4. Nobody lived in that old house.

5. They sent for Jim and told him to prepare a report on that subject.

6. We thought about our friend all the time.

7. The doctor will operate on him in a week.

8. The teacher sent for the pupil's parents.

9. They looked for the newspaper everywhere.

10. Nobody slept in the bed.

11. The neighbour asked for the telegram.

12. Everybody listened to the lecturer with great attention.

I. Listen and read. [ w ]

we walk swan tweed

work ward swore twist

why wood swine where

way was twice which

west win twelve whale

war sweet twenty wine

wool swift weather

1.No sweet without some sweat.

2.Winnie is as weak as water.

3.It was a wonder the weather was so wet.

4.Walter always knows what he wants.

5.Why worry?

6.Where is the wagon? The wagon with the water.

7.I want water.

II. How to exchange opinions.

How to ask someone's opinion:

What do you think of / about …?

What do you feel about …?

What's your opinion of / about …?

How do you find this…?

How do you feel about …?

Why do you think …?

How to express an opinion:

I feel (that)…

I think (that) …

I believe (that) …

I consider (that)

In my opinion.

If you ask me …

I am not convinced but …

My view is that …

As far as I know…

III. Read the opinions about television and say which of them you agree or disagree with. Give your reasons.

- When television is good, nothing … is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse.

Newton Minow.

- Some television programmes are so much chewing gum for the eyes.

John Mason Brown.

- I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can’t stop eating peanuts.

Orson Welles.

IV. Answer the questions.

- Why is television the most popular entertainment in people's home life today?

- How much time do you spend on watching TV every day? And your relatives? Which member of family is most addicted to watching TV?

- How many TV channels have you got?

- What TV programmes do you watch to get information about current events and about the latest achievement in science and culture?

- How often are educational programmes produced on television?

- What kinds of films, concerts are presented by entertainment channels and programmes?

- What is your favourite TV programme and why?

- Why do you like / dislike these programmes?

- Do you like / dislike advertisement intervals during TV programmes?

- Does TV shape our live? How?

- Do you think your life would be more or less interesting without TV?

V. Read the dialogue. Say what arguments for and against TV are offered in it and with which opinions you agree (disagree).

A.: TV is doing a lot of harm. We begin to forget how to occupy our spare time. For example, we used to have hobbies, we used to meet our friends, and we used to go to the cinema, theatre and sporting events. We used to read books and listen to music. Now all our free time is given to TV.

B.: Well, nobody makes you watch TV. If you don’t like it, switch off your TV set. But why do you forget what a great amount of information we get. I think we must watch TV to be well informed. It gives wonderful possibilities for education. Besides, there are a lot of programmes. We can choose what we want to see.

A.: Yes, I agree. But I am always under the impression that little by little TV cuts us off from the real world. It's so easy to sit in our armchair watching others working. We get too lazy, we choose to spend a fine day glued to our sets, rather than go out into the world itself. TV prevents us from communicating with each other. Only when we spend a holiday far away from civilization, we quickly discover how little we miss television.

B.: No, I disagree entirely. It's an absurd idea that TV makes you its slave. It enriches our intellect, gives us opportunities to see the best actors and performances, to hear the latest news, to listen to political discussions. To my opinion TV is a great force in the world.

VI. Work in pairs.

Act out a conversation in which you can use some of these common arguments for and against TV.

FOR:

1. TV brings the world to our living room. We see people, learn of their customs, occupations, problems.

2. We become better informed by watching documentaries science programmes.

3. We see great events which will pass into history. We can see famous people.

4. We learn a lot about the arts.

5. TV helps us to relax after a hard days work. WE can then cope better with the next day's work.

6. TV programmes gather big audiences and provide useful topics of conversation.

AGAINST:

1. Some pupils do their homework in front of the TV screen, others rush their homework so they can watch TV. The quality of the work is affected. Some pupils don’t do their homework at all.

2. Many people do not concentrate when viewing – so their time is wasted.

3. Many boys and girls watch TV on Sunday afternoon. When outside activities would do them so much good.

4. Some children have made watching TV their main leisure activity.

5. TV may lead to poor health through rushed meals, lack of sleep, lack of exercise and eyestrain.

6. People begin to forget the art of conversation. They sit glued to the TV – screen instead of visiting their friends and relations.

7. Many children no longer read books.

8. TV kills conversation in families.

9. TV has led to an increase of violent crimes among young people.

10. There are more entertaining than informative programmes on TV now.

VII. Tick the programmes you watch most often and cross out those you never watch.

a) feature films j) soap operas

b) quiz shows k) nature documentaries

c) talk shows l) political debates

d) news programmes m) sports programmes

e) current affairs n) criminal coverage

f) analytical programmes o)modern musical programmes

g) classical music concerts

p) beauty contests

h) cartoons

i) detective series

VIII. Below is a list of adjectives commonly used to express opinions about films or TV programmes. Sort them out in two groups, one negative and the other positive and use them to explain your programme preferences.

old-fashioned dull thrilling

difficult to understand boring sentimental

depressing truthful complicated

informative naïve entertaining

interesting exciting funny

superficial

romantic

objective

violent

Model sentences: I never watch "Business News", it is so complicated and difficult to understand. I prefer watching "Comedy Club". It's so entertaining!

IX. Read the following text. Express the main idea of it and add your own ideas.

The influence of TV on children is a problem common to all developed countries, and Ukraine is not exception. According to sociologists, almost 90 percent of schoolchildren spend their time watching TV.A teenager spends between one and half and four hours watching TV. To produce programmes that are interesting and informative is not a simple task and a great deal is being done in this field. Producers and writers of children's programmes try to make sure that their viewers are not turned into passive recipients; their aim is to encourage the youngster to do something useful, to something good.

X. Read the composition below and write an essay reflecting the situation with TV in your country. Guiding questions will help you to cope with your work.

A lot of people think that TV in my country has improved over the last few years. On the other hand there are people who think it has got worse.

Only ten years ago the only TV channels were the state – owned stations. Nowadays in almost every part of the country you can receive a lot of channels. In addition you can buy a satellite dish or pay to receive cable TV.

But does this mean that the quality of TV programmes has improved. There are a lot of movies, game shows, sports programmes and so – called reality shows in which real people talk about dramatic things that have happened to them. So if you like a lot of choice and want to be entertained more than anything else, you would probably say that TV has improved. If you think of TV as an educational aid, you are probably very disappointed with it. Despite the large number of channels, there are few documentary programmes.

There are also fewer programmes about art and classical music.

So TV has improved in terms of the number of channels and the choice of programmes, but in my opinion, it does not provide as much information as it used to, which is its main purpose.

Guiding Questions.

1. Has the national and local TV in your country improved or got worse?

2. How much TV channels can you TV set receive?

3. Have you got a satellite dish? Is it expensive to install it?

4. Is cable TV available in the area where you live? Do you have to pay much to use it?

5. What can you say about the quality of channels?

6. Are you more interested in entertaining or informative function of TV?

7. Have you ever used TV as an educational aim?

8. What is the role of TV in your life?

XI. Imagine that you were offered to run a youth channel on TV. Decide on the following:

2. What would you call your channel?

3. Are you going to make it different from the other channels?

4. What programmes do you want to have on your channel?

5. When will the programmes begin and finish?

6. What programmes are you going to show in prime time?

7. Will there be any commercials?

8. What kind of films would you show on your channel?

XII. Make a presentation about the channel you are going to run.

GRAMMAR EXERCISES.

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