背诵为王 第 二 册 第 56 课（在线收听）

Lesson56 It's the Television!
Ted had not seen his old friend Sam since they were at school together． One

day Ted saw Sam at a business meeting in a big hotel．
“Hi， Sam!” Ted said happily． “How are you?”
“I'm very well， thank you， Ted，” Sam answered， “and how are you?”
“Not too bad， thank you，” Ted said， they sat down side by side and

began to talk．
Gradually their topic turned to television．Ted said，“I think it's very

bad for people． When I was a young man， we did things ourselves — we

didn't just watch other people． In the evenings， we sang songs or played

music or cards with each other or we read the newspaper or found ourselves

something useful to do．”
Sam nodded． “Yes， that's true， and perhaps once a week or once a month

we went into the town specially to see a film in the cinema， and maybe to

buy ourselves an ice cream．”
“And now，” Ted went on， “my children watch silly films on television

almost every evening， and they don't do the work that their teachers give

them． What will they do with themselves when they leave school?”
“Yes， it's very bad， isn't it?” Sam said． “But what can we do about

it?”
“Well，” Ted answered， “I've promised myself one thing： I'm going to

sell our television set — as soon as the football season finishes at the

end of this month．”

这就是电视！
自从特德和他的老朋友莎姆离开一起读书的学校后他们就再没有见过面。一天，特德在

一家大酒店的商务会议上看到了莎姆。
“你好，莎姆！”特德高兴地说，“你怎么样啊？”
“我很好，谢谢，特德，” 莎姆回答说，“你怎么样呢？”
“我也不错，谢谢，”特德说，他们并排坐着，开始谈话。
慢慢地他们的话题转到了电视上。
特德说，“我认为电视对人们非常有害。当我年轻时，我们自己做事——不仅仅是看别

人。傍晚，我们唱歌，玩音乐，打牌，看报纸或者找些有意义的事做。
莎姆点头表示同意。”是的，的确如此，我们一星期或一个月去一次城里，专程去看电

影，或是给自己买个冰激凌。”
“可是现在，”特德继续说，“我的孩子几乎每天晚上都看电视里那些愚蠢的电影，他

们不做老师布置的功课。他们毕业后会做些什么啊？”
“是的，确实很糟糕，” 莎姆说，“但是我们又有什么办法呢？”
“是啊，”特德回答说，“我已经决定，这月末足球赛季一结束我就把电视机卖了。”