自考英语综合一上册 lesson 15

　　[00:00.00]Text  Unreality of TV
[00:04.49]Dr.Heinrich Applebaum recently completed a study
[00:09.85]on the effects of television on children.
[00:14.21]It is not about violence,but about
[00:18.26]how television gives children a false sense of reality.
[00:23.82]Dr.Applebaum told me,
[00:27.59]"The greatest danger of television is that it presents a world to children
[00:33.75]that doesn't exist,and leads them to expect things that never happen."
[00:41.01]"I don't understand,Doctor,"I said.
[00:45.27]"Well,let me give you one example.
[00:49.71]Have you ever seen a television show where a person in a car doesn't immediately
[00:56.37]find a parking place on the very first try?"
[01:00.92]"Come to think of it,"I said,"I haven't."
[01:05.78]"Not only is there always a parking place,
[01:10.92]but the driver doesn't even have to back into it.
[01:16.17]There are two parking spaces for him when he needs one.
[01:21.74]Children are being led to believe that when they grow up
[01:26.70]they will always be able to find a parking place available when
[01:32.45]and where they want it.
[01:36.00]"I never thought of it,but it's true.
[01:40.36]What else do they show on television which gives a distorted¹ picture of the real world?"
[01:46.84]"Have you noticed that whenever a person walks out of a restaurant or
[01:52.69]office building and says to the doorman,'Get me a taxi,'
[01:58.94]the taxi immediately arrives?
[02:03.30]I have never seen a TV show where the doorman has said,
[02:08.44]'I'm sorry.I can't get you a taxi.You'd better take the bus.'"
[02:14.69]"Of course,"I said,"I never noticed that.
[02:19.73]There is always a yellow taxi waiting somewhere off the TV screen."
[02:26.21]"Now",said Applebaum,"have you ever said to a taxi driver,
[02:32.97]'Follow that car and don't lose him'?
[02:37.23]"Not really."
[02:40.10]"Well,if you had,the driver would have told you not to talk nonsense².
[02:47.47]No taxi driver wants to follow another car
[02:52.62]because that means he's going to get into trouble.
[02:57.45]But on TV every taxi driver looks as if he had nothing better to do
[03:04.58]than to drive 90 miles an hour through rain-swept street
[03:10.75]trying to keep up with a carful of gangsters³.
[03:16.08]And the worst thing is that the kids believe it.
[03:21.43]"What else have you discovered?"
[03:25.09]"Kids have a false sense of what emergency wards⁵ of hospitals are really like.
[03:32.56]On TV shows they take a kid to an emergency ward⁴ and
[03:38.02]four doctors come rushing down to bandage his leg.
[03:43.87]In a real life situation
[03:48.02]the kid would be sitting on the bench for two hours before he even saw a nurse.
[03:55.18]On TV there always happens to be a hospital bed available when a kid needs it.
[04:02.94]What the kids in this country don't know is that sometimes
[04:08.58]you have to wait three days to get a hospital bed
[04:13.75]and then you have to pay 500 dollars before they give it to you.
[04:20.91]Applebaum said the cruelest lie of all
[04:25.95]is when TV shows a lawyer defending someone innocent⁶ of a crime.
[04:32.90]"On the screen the lawyer spends day and night looking for evidence to prove the person is innocent.
[04:40.35]The defendant⁷ might say,But I'm innocent.
[04:45.20]The lawyer would say,So what?
[04:50.48]I can't afford to find that out.I'm not Perry Mason.
[04:56.65]Then what you're saying,Dr.Applebaum,is that
[05:01.40]it isn't the violence on TV but the unreality that is doing harm to children."
[05:09.66]"Exactly.Even the advertisements are harmful.
[05:15.12]Children are led to believe that when they grow up
[05:20.18]if they use a certain mouthwash they'll find the mate⁸ of their dreams.
[05:27.63]When they don't find him or her after washing their mouth all night,
[05:33.19]they fall into a difficult situation and many of them never come out of it."

1 distorted   

adj.被歪曲的

参考例句：

• Her distorted face was ablaze with rage. 在狂怒之下，她那张扭曲的脸涨得通红。
• His face was distorted by rage. 他因发怒而脸色大变。

2 nonsense   

n.胡说，废话

参考例句：

• Go along with you! What you say is all nonsense!去你的！你说的全是废话！
• "Don't talk nonsense",she said sharply.“别胡扯”，她严厉地说。

3 gangsters   

匪徒，歹徒( gangster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gangsters offered him a sum equivalent to a whole year's earnings. 歹徒提出要给他一笔相当于他一年收入的钱。
• One of the gangsters was caught by the police. 歹徒之一被警察逮捕。

4 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

5 wards   

区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态

参考例句：

• This hospital has 20 medical [surgical] wards. 这所医院有 20 个内科[外科]病房。
• It was a big constituency divided into three wards. 这是一个大选区，下设三个分区。

6 innocent   

adj.无罪的，清白的；无害的；天真的，单纯的

参考例句：

• I'm not quite so innocent as to believe that.我还不至于简单到相信那种事的地步。
• I was very young,and very innocent.我那时非常年轻，幼稚无知。

7 defendant   

n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的

参考例句：

• The judge rejected a bribe from the defendant's family.法官拒收被告家属的贿赂。
• The defendant was borne down by the weight of evidence.有力的证据使被告认输了。

8 mate   

n.伙伴，同事；配偶；大副；v.(使)交配

参考例句：

• Where is the mate to this glove?这副手套的另一只在哪儿？
• She has been a faithful mate to him.她一直是他忠实的配偶。