Life with the box

A. Television belongs to the twentieth century. John Baird from Scotland was one of the first men n send pictures of moving things by electric waves. His friends who lived a few miles away were ю1еto receive these pictures at the same time.

In 1928 he showed that colour TV was possible. Although he had discovered all this, there were other people who also wanted to make television systems and later in 1936 a system from America was first used in Britain.

B. Today in Britain and the USA television is very popular.

Ninety-nine per cent of all households own at least one TV at and over half of these also own videorecorders. Television as an enormous effect on Americans. Politicians know all about this. They try to make their big public speeches at nes when they can get the largest audiences on the evening news programmes. Advertisers, too, understand the power of television. They are willing to spend billions of dollars a year on television.

C. In Britain the average adult watches twenty-six hours of television a week and children watch twenty hours. Some Americans watch twice as much! People say too much television is bad for children because they just watch the pictures and don’t think - but they can also learn a lot from TV.

D. At present there are four television channels in operation: BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV and Channel 4. BBC1 concentrates more on programmes of general interest, such as light entertainment, comedy, sport or children’s programmes. BBC 2 provides serious programmes: drama, documentaries, classical music, including occasionally full-length operas. If we watch the news programmes, we can see what is happening all over the world.

E. The news about American television is not all bad. For one thing, Americans themselves are turning off the more violent shows and watching more comedy and news programmes. For another, the news programmes themselves are becoming more interesting. The most popular is ‘50 Minutes”. If you haven’t watched it on Sunday, you won’t know what your friends are talking about on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

1. The most popular leisure activity.

2. The invention of television.

3. British television channels.

4.Television and children.

Ex. 6 Make questions and ask your partner.

1. how/TV/operate

2. when/colour TV/start

3. when/first/use/in Britain

4. how many/a week/adult/watch

5. how many/a week/children/watch

6. what/ВВС 1/show

7. what/ВВС 2/provide

8. good or bad/for children

9. why/good

10. why/bad

Ex. 8. Read the text about broadcasting in Britain. Tell about radio broadcasting in Russia Fill in the names of the channels in the chart below. Watch your verbs (ед./мн. число).

BROADCASTING

BBC was ectablished in 1926. BBC has four national radio channels, each designed to cater for people of different interests. Radio 1 offers rock and pop music. Radio 2, apart from providing music and light entertainment, is the main channel for the coverage of sport. Radio 3 broadcasts classical music and operas, classical dramas, poetry as well as documentaries and special talks Radio 4 provides news programmes and current affairs service covering all main fields, as well a? plays, features and panel games.

The BBC also has 32 local radio stations which concentrate on local news and local affairs. There are 47 independent local radio stations throughout Britain.

The BBC External Services regularly transmit programmes in English and 36 other languages b. radio world-wide in order to give news, present British culture and developments in science and technology as well as to provide lessons in the English language. The BBC World Service broadcast by radio through the whole day in English.

…………………………………. offer(s) rock and pop music.

………………………………….. is (are) the main channel for the coverage of sport.

………………………………….. broadcast(s) classical music, operas, drama, poetry.

………………………………….. provide(s) news programmes and current affairs.

………………………………….. concentrate(s) on local news and affairs.

………………………………….. transmit(s)programmes in English/German/French

…………………………………… provide(s) lessons in……………………………………

…………………………………… Add some more.

LISTENING

The news may be full of man-made wars and natural disasters, but many Americans are more nterested in other matters. How is their favorite cop planning to catch his next criminal? How will beautiful Sally-Ann get out of the trouble she has gotten herself into? To their audiences, the characters in the weekly TV serial shows (known as soap operas) have become more important than real people.