1、READING PASSAGE 13TV ADDICTIONA The amount of time people spend watching television is astonishing,On average,individuals in the industrialised world devote three hours a day to the pursuit -fully half of their leisure time,and more than on any single activity save work and sleep.At this rate,someon
2、e who lives to 75 would spend nine years in front of the tube.To some commentators,this devotion means simply that people enjoy TV and make a conscious decision to watch it.But if that is the whole story,why do so many people experience misgivings about how much they view?In Gallup polls in 1992 and
3、 1999,two out of five adult respondents and seven out of 10 teenagers said they spent too much time watching TV.Other surveys have consistently shown that roughly 10 percent of adults call themselves TV addicts.B To study peoples reaction to TV,researchers have undertaken laboratory experiments in w
4、hich they have monitored the brain waves(using an electroencephalograph ,or EEG) to track behaviour and emotion in the normal course of life,as opposed to the artificial conditions of the lab.Participants carried beeper,and we signaled them six to eight times a day,at a random,over the period of a w
5、eek ,whenever they heard the deep,they wrote down what they were doing and how they were feeling using a standardized scorecard.C As one might expect,people who were watching TV when we beeped them reported and passive.The EEG studies similarly show less mental stimulation,as measured by alpha brain
6、-wave production,during viewing than during reading.What is more surprising is that the sense of relaxation ends when the set is turned off ,but the feeling of passivity and lowered alertness continue.Survey participants say they have more difficulty concentrating after viewing than before.In contra
7、st,they rarely indicate such difficulty after reading.After playing sports or engaging in hobbies ,people report improvements in mood.After watching TV,peoples moods are about the same or worse than before.That may be because viewers vague learned sense that they will feel less relaxed if they stop
8、viewing .So they tend not to turn the set off.Viewing begets more viewing which is the same as the experience of habit-forming drugs.Thus,the irony of TV:people watch a great deal longer they plan to ,even though prolonged viewing is less rewarding.In our ESM studies the longer people sat in front o
9、f the set,the less satisfaction they said derived from it.For some,a twinge of unease or guilt that they they arent doing something more productive may also accompany and depreciate the enjoyment of prolonged viewing.Researchers in Japan,the U.K and the U.S have found that this guilt occurs much mor
10、e among middle-class viewers than among less affluent ones.D What is it about TV that has such a hold on us? In part,the attraction seems to spring from our biological orienting response .First described by Ivan Pavlov in 1927,the orienting response in our instinctive visual or auditory reaction to
11、any sudden or novel stimulus.It is part of our evolutionary heritage,a built-in sensitivity to movement and potential predatory threats.In 1986 Byron Reeves of Stanford University ,Esther Thorson of the University of Missouri and their colleagues began to study whether the simple formal features of
12、television-cuts,edits,zooms,pansSudden noises-activate the orienting response,thereby keeping attention on the screen.By watching how brain waves were affected by formal features,the researchers concluded that thease stylistic tricks can indeed trigger involutionary significance of detecting movemen
13、tIt is the form,not the content,of television that is unique,E The natural attraction to televisions sound and light starts very early in life,Dafna Lemish of Tel Aviu University has described babies at six to eight weeks attending to television.We have observed slightly older infants who,when lying
14、 on their backs on the floor,crane their necks around 180 degrees to catch what light through yonder window breaks.The inclination suggest deeply rooted the orienting response is.F The Experience Sampling Method permitted us to look at most every domain of everyday life:working,eating,reading,talkin
15、g to friends,playing a sport ,and so on.We found that heavy viewers report feeling significantly more anxious and less happy than light viewers do in unstructured situations,such as doing nothing,daydreaming or waiting in line.The difference widens when the viewer is alone.Subsequently,Robert D. McI
16、lwraith of the University of Mantitoba extensively studied those who called themselves TV addicts on surveys.On a measure called the Short Imaginal Processess Inventory(SIPI),he found that the self described addicts are more easily bored and distract themselves from unpleasant thoughts and to fill t
17、ime.Other studies over the years have shown that heavy viewers are less likely to participate in community activities and sports and are more likely to be obese than moderate viewers or non-viewers.G More than 25 years ago psychologist Tannis M.MacBeth Williams of the University of British Columbia
18、studied a moutain commutity that had no television until cable finally arrived.Over time,both adults and children in the town became less creative in problem solving ,less able to persevere at tasks,and less tolerant of unstructured time.H Nearly 40 years ago Gary A.Steiner of the University of Chic
19、ago collected fascinating individual accounts of families whose set had broken.In experiments ,families have volunteered or been paid to stop viewing ,typically for a week or a month.Some fought ,verbally and physically.In a review of these cold-turkey studies,Charles Winick of the City University o
20、f New York concluded: The first three or four days for most persons were the worst ,even in many homes where viewing was minimal and where there were other ongoing activites.In over half of all the households,during these few days of loss,the regular routines were disrupted ,family members had diffi
21、culties in dealing with the newly available time,anxiety and adaption were expressed.By the second week,a move toward adaption to the situation was common. Unforunately,researchers have yet to flesh out of these anecdotes:no one has systematically gathered statistics on the prevalence of these withd
22、rawal symptoms.I Even though TV does seem to meet the criteria for substance dependence ,not all researchers would go so far as to call TV addictive. McILwraith said in 1998 thats displacement of other activites by television may be socially significant but still fall short of the clinical requireme
23、nt of significant impairment. He argued that a new category of TV addiction may not be necessary if heavy viewing stems from conditions such as depression and social phobia.Nevertheless,whether or not we formally diagnose someone as TV-dependent,millions of people sense that they can not readily con
24、trol the amount of television they watch.You should spend about 20 minutes on question 14-26,which are based on reading passage 2 on the following pages.Question 14-18Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage?In boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet,write14 Study
25、shows that males are more likely to be addicted to TV than the females15 Greater improvements in mood are experienced after watching TV than playing sports.16 TV addiction works in similar ways are drugs.17 It is reported that peoples satisfaction is in proportion to the time they spend watching TV.
26、18 Middle-class are more likely to feel guilty about watching TV than the poor.Questions 19-23Look at the following researchers (Questions 19-23) and the list of statements below.Match each researcher with correct statements.Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 19-23 on your answer sheets.19 Byron
27、Reeves and Esther Thorson 20 Dafna Lemish21 Robert D.McIlwraith22 Tannis M.MacBeth Williams23 Charles Winick Questions 24-26Choose the correct letter,A,B,C,or D.Write the correct letter in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.24 People in the industrialised world A devote ten hours watching TV on averag
28、e .True If the statement is trueFalse If the statement is false Not Given If the information is not given in the passageA. Audiences would get hypnotized from viewing too much television.B. People have been sensitive to the TV signals since a younger age.C. People are less likely to accomplish their
29、 work with television.D.A handful of studies have attempted to study other types of media addiction.E. The addictive power of television could probably minimize the problems.F. Various media formal characters stimulate peoples reaction on the screen.G. People who believe themselves to be TV addicts
30、are less likely to join in the group activities.H It is hard for people to accept the life without TV at the beginning.B spend more time on TV than other entertainment.C call themselves TV addictsD enjoy working best25 When compared with light viewers,heavy viewer A like playing sport more than read
31、ing B feel relaxed after watching TV.C spend more time in daydreaming D are more easily bored while wasting in line.26 Which of the following statements is true about the family experiment?A Not all the subjects participate in the experiment for free.B There has been a complete data.C People are prevented from other activities during the experiment.D People can not adapt to the situation until the end.
