VOA常速英语2016--儿童早教节目，是对是错？

儿童早教节目，是对是错？

These days it seems like American television and videos have us in their clutches from cradle tograve. On the "grave" side, the Home Box Office cable-TV show "Six Feet Under," about afamily-owned funeral home, ran for six years and still airs in reruns. There's a current reality-TV program about a funeral-home family, too, not to mention a host of shows about forensicexperts' inspections¹ of dead bodies. On the other end of life's spectrum², there have beenplenty of shows for kids ever since television debuted³ in the 1940s. Kids - five, six, 10 yearsold. But the extreme has been reached with a new online service just for babies. "BabyFirst" isnot about babies. It's for wee ones, six months, a year, two years old. Instead of just listeningto Mom or Dad sing a lullaby or goo-gooing at a dangling⁴ fish above their cribs, infants canwatch videos made just for them. The shows, with titles such as "Elephant Dress-Up" and"Shapes with Peek-a-Boo," are commercial-free, though parents who are watching with theirbabies are invited to buy products at a store on the site. According to its homepage, "BabyFirst's top child development experts have invented a way for babies and toddlers to use thecomputer themselves." As the service's executives point out, babies are already watching TV.About two-thirds of American children under two watch something on the tube every day fromtheir parents' laps or their playpens. Some baby doctors have objected to the baby-video idea.Even the most imaginative shows are no substitute for human interaction, say thepediatricians. They worry that the channel can become a cheap baby-sitter, or that someparents may bombard their tiny tots with hour after hour of shows in an effort to make themsmarter. That's ironic⁵, because we're always hearing how dumb we're becoming, watching somuch TV.

最近我们似乎总能看到从年幼到年长、各个年龄段的美国电视节目。关于年长的节目，我们有美国家庭影院频道有线电视节目《六尺之下》，内容有关家族式殡仪馆，已经开播六年，并且仍在回播中。还有一个与殡仪馆一家人有关的真人秀，更不用说数不胜数的专家尸检节目。与上述年龄段相对的，是自20世纪40年代以来就层出不穷的儿童节目。从5岁、6岁到10岁，不一而足。但是登峰造极之作还是一个针对婴儿的新兴在线儿童早教节目。这个节目名为《宝贝第一》，却不止与宝贝们有关。这个节目的对象有刚出生的小不点、6个月、1岁和2岁大的孩子。这些孩子除了可听爸爸妈妈唱摇篮曲或者逗躺在摇篮里的他们，还可以看专为他们准备的这款节目。这款节目有很多名字，比如《给可爱小象穿衣衣》、《躲猫猫》，都是免费的。不过节目中也会提到，家长可以去主页上买儿童产品。主页上说，“《宝贝第一》的儿童发育专家研发了让孩子们自己使用电脑的方法”。该节目的负责人称，这些孩子们已经在看电视节目了。在两岁以下的孩子中，有三分之二的孩子每天都在父母的腿上或者游戏围栏上看节目。

一些儿科医生反对这种让孩子看儿童节目的想法。他们指出，再有想象力的节目也抵不过人与人之间的互动。他们担心，这些电视节目会成为廉价保姆，亦或家长们出于让孩子们智力得到发育的好心而用连篇累牍的电视节目轰炸孩子们的神经，结果却背道而驰。这就很讽刺，因为我们自己已经因为看了太多电视而变得不会表达自己，却还要这样做。

1 inspections   

n.检查( inspection的名词复数 )；检验；视察；检阅

参考例句：

• Regular inspections are carried out at the prison. 经常有人来视察这座监狱。
• Government inspections ensure a high degree of uniformity in the standard of service. 政府检查确保了在服务标准方面的高度一致。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

3 debuted   

初次表演，初次登台（debut的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• In late 2003 a full-size SUV, the Pathfinder Armada, debuted. 2003年末，全尺寸SUV的探路者无敌舰队，推出。
• The album debuted at number two and quickly went platinum. 专辑一亮相就荣登排行榜第二名，很快就取得了白金销量。

4 dangling   

悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口

参考例句：

• The tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now. 结果，那颗牙就晃来晃去吊在床柱上了。
• The children sat on the high wall,their legs dangling. 孩子们坐在一堵高墙上，摇晃着他们的双腿。

5 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。