Lesson Three What's Wrong with Our Press?
一、Words and Expressions
1.balance n. 平衡
Riders should have a n of balance.
His wife’s sudden death upt the balance of his mind.
（使他六神无主）
Try to achieve a better balance between work and play.
keep/lo one’s balance保持/失去平衡
It is difficult to keep one’s balance on an icy pavement.
She cycled too fast around the corner, lost her balance and fell off.
Balance 余额（常作单数）
I must check my bank balance.
2.bolster v. 支持，加强 strengthen, reinforce, support
bolster sb./sth. up
bolster one’s morale/courage 增强士气/勇气
It bolstered my belief that 加强我的信念
The government borrowed money to bolster up the economy.
政府借贷以促进经济发展。
3.cater to sth./for sb.迎合，投合
newspaper catering to people’s love of scandal
TV must cater for many different tastes.
4.degrade v. 贬低，降低身份
degrade onelf by cheating and telling lies
I felt degraded by having to ask for money. = beneath one’s dignity, lo one’s face
n. degradation
5.current events 时事
6.entrust v. 委托，托付 trust sb. to take charge of sth.
entrust sth. to sb./ entrust sb. with sth.
entrust an assistant with a task/ entrust a task to an assistant
Can I entrust you with the cret plan? 我能托付给你秘密的计划吗？
He entrusted his children to me for the day.
他托我照看一天孩子。
7.extol v. （-ll-） 赞扬，颂扬 prai highly
extol sb. as sth.把某人作为……来颂扬
extol the advantages of small business
extol one’s virtues to the sky 把某人的美德捧上天
extol sb. as a hero
8.feature 特色
double date什么意思 featureless无特色的
9.filler diantai补白；填塞物
10.franchi
（1）n.投票权，选举权 right to vote
Women were not given the franchi in Britain until the twentieth century.
（2）n.特许经营权
grant/withdraw a franchi 授予/撤销特权
（3）v.授予特权
11.footnote脚注
12.garbage垃圾
13.guinea pigs 供实验用的动物或人
14.harry v. 打扰，烦扰，骚扰 disturb, bother, annoy
harried by the press reporters被新闻记者打扰
15.inadmissable不允许的，不可承认的
16.in vain徒劳
17.justified合情合理的
just—justice—justify—justifiable
show that sth. is just, right, reasonable
You cannot justify neglecting your wife and child.
不关心你的妻儿是说不过去的。
Improved productivity justifies an increa in wages.
提高了生产力理应增加工资。
18.lust: n. strong desire, greed强烈的欲望
lust for sth.
curb 控制/gratify 满足 one’s lust
filled with the lust for power, beauty, adventure
v.贪恋 lust for/ after sb./sth.
lust after women 贪恋女色
He lusted for revenge. 他渴望复仇。
19.media新闻媒介
mass media大众传媒
20.newscast新闻广播
21.nourish v. 滋养
Most plants are nourished by water.
Well-nourished/undernourished children
nourish the feeling of hatred怀恨在心
nourish the hope that… 抱有…希望
adj. nourishing 有营养的nourishing food
n.nourishment to obtain the nourishment from the soil
22.object—subject objective—subjective
objectivity—subjectivity
23.adj. opposing: contrary
v.oppo be oppod to sth.反对…
opposite the opposite street
24.pail桶
25.partisan bit 党派性
26.peeve v. 气恼，发脾气annoy
It peeves me to be ordered out of my own hou.
从自己的家中被撵出去真是太气人了。
adj.peeved be peeved about =be annoyed about
27.precedent n. 先例
create/establish/t a precedent for sth. 开创先例
rve as a precedent for sth.为某事提供范例
There is no precedent for this action. 这次行动没有任何的先例。
without precedent 没有先例
break with precedent 打破先例
adj. precedented 有先例可援的
a decision not precedented in English law
无先例可援的判决
28.dominate—dominant—predominant—predominantly
29.profound—profoundly深刻的
30.pungent adj. 刺鼻的，辛辣的
尖刻的，刻薄的
pungent criticism/comment/satire
n.pungency adv. pungently
31.rabid adj. 狂热的，极端的 extreme, frantic, radical
rabid hate/greed
a rabid racist
32.recital 朗读；独奏会，独唱会
33.superficial adj. on the surface 表面的；肤浅的
a superficial scratch/ wound
a superficial similarity
a superficial book/ mind
have only a superficial knowledge of the subject
You are too superficial to appreciate music in this way.
adv. superficially n. superficiality
34.syndicated columns 垄断
35.tabloid 小报
36.top the list 排在名单的前面
37.virus virulent virulence virulently
virulent abu 恶意的辱骂
make a virulent attack on（the press）恶意抨击
38.wire rvices电报、电信的服务
二.Text
Newspapers have two great advantages over television. They can be ud by men as barriers against their wives. It is still the only effective screen against the morning features of the loved one, and, as such, performs a unique human rvice. The cond advantage is that you can’t line a garbage pail with a television t –it’s usually the other way around.
（1）have advantage over sth. 胜过…
control/ rule/ win/ triumph over sth.
（2）a barrier against挡住…的屏障
（3）screen against挡住…的屏障
But here are some interesting statistics from a little, and little known, survey by Mr. Rope
r called “the Public’s Reaction to Television Following the Quiz Investigations”. In it he asks every-body but me this question: Suppo you could continue to have only one of the following-radio, television, newspapers, or magazines-which would you prefer? Newspapers came in cond: Forty-two per cent said if they could only have one, they would keep television. Thirty-two per cent said if they could only have one, they would keep newspapers.
（4）react to sth.: respond
Even so, newspaper people should be much happier than the magazine people, becau only four per cent said they needed magazines, as against nineteen per cent for radio.
（5）as against: compared with和……相比
But listen to this. Mr.Roper asked the same harried people: “If you get conflicting or different reports of the same news story from radio, television, the magazines, and the newspapers, which of the four versions would you be most inclined to believe?” Thirty-two per cent believe newspapers as against thirty per cent who believe television. But the
n something really strange-happens. When Mr.Roper asked his guinea pigs which of the media they would be least inclined to believe, the newspapers topped the list. In a big way, too. Twenty-four per cent don’t believe newspapers as against nine per cent who don’t believe television.
（6）be inclined to do sth.倾向于…
The fact is that although network television still allots too little time to the vital rvice of informing the public, it does a better job in that little time than the nation’s press as a whole. And when I speak of the nation’s press as a whole, I am not speaking of the five or six splendid newspapers-and the one great newspaper-which rve the world as models of responsible public information. I am speaking of the local press which in hundreds of American communities is the only news available, aside from tho recitals of ticker tape that pass for（当作） radio news.
（7）top the listrogue排在名单的前面
遥感科学与技术Why do I think network TV does a better job of informing than the papers? Well,let's get the partisan bit over with.Television lives on advertising to an even greater extent than
newspapers,and since advertising is big business,advertising is by nature Republican.Yet nowhere in network newscasts or network commentaries on current events have I encountered the inten partisanship,the often rabid bias that colors the editorial pages of the majority of newspapers in this country.Douglass Cater,in his book The Fourth Branch of Government,confines himlf to only one pungent footnote on this subject."I have deliberately avoided," he writes,"getting into the predominantly one-party nature of newspaper ownership.It is a fact of life." This particular fact of life is a shameful one:that newspapers who duty is to inform the American public give them only one side of the issues that affect them profoundly—the Republican side.This is shameful not only for Democrats—they have survived it before and will survive it again—but for the maturity of our people.Some of the same papers which loudly extol the virtues of free enterpri and a free press are consistently failing to print the facts on which a people can form a balanced and independent opinion.That balanced and independent opinion is our only real curity as a nation.
informing,vi =informing the public,papers=newspapers
get something over with:explain
to a great extent:my summer vacation在很大程度上
live on:depend on,rely on依赖于
commercial:advertising
by nature:esntially,本质上
current events:时事
encounter:meet with,come across,遭遇
inten:strong
color:vt:dominate,characterize
confine … to…:limit to局限于,集中于
on:副词,关于,与……有关的
avoid doing sth.:避免做……
survive:stay alive in the competition
but:but also
extol:prai
a people:美国民族
independent:neutural
Now,very often,television coverage of news is superficial and inadequate.Very often the picture takes precedence over the point.But by and large the news reports and commentaries on CBS and NBC and ABC make every effort to prent viewers with more than one aspect of an issue,either by letting opposing spokesmen have their say,or by outlining the positions held by both major parties on the subject involved.
Television also provides a wide range of opinion by tting up four or five experts and letting them knock each other down.What has the local press of this nature?
12.by and large:一般来说,大体来说
13.have one's say:有发言权
14.knock sb.Down:倾轧,攻击,辩论
15.appetite for sth.:对……的需求/想知道……
16.hold an attitude /take a position:持有……的立场
17.with the exception:例外
18.at random:随意的,不经意的
19.appeal to sth.:吸引……
20.derive from:得来,来自
make every effort to do sth/spare no effort to do sth:不遗余力的做……
Fortunately for the American public,television does not tolerate the kind of distortion of fact,the kind of partisan virulence and personal peeve,that many newspapers not only welcome but encourage.In its entertainment,television caters far too much to the lowest instincts of man,particularly the lust for violence.But there is one appetite it does not feed and which the partisan newspapers of the nation do:the appetite for hate—hate of whatever is different.I do not find on television the kind of editorials chronic in the New York tabloids as well as in many local papers across the country.
distortion:slant 歪曲,扭曲
cater to/for:迎合
done什么意思chronic:lasting 长期的
A newspaper has the right—the duty even—to assume an attitude,to take a position.But
it has an equally sacred right to explain that position in the light of the opposing one,to document that position,and to bolster it,not with emotion but with fact.
Here,of cour,is where background information helps the public to draw its conclusions.TV does a great deal of this in the form of documentaries,and you can of cour say that they have the time and the money to do this and you haven't.Yet across this wide country,and with the exception of a handful of syndicated columns,I fail to find in any local paper any attempt,however minimal,to strengthen this muscle of digestion,without which news can neither nourish nor inform.It can only stuff.Between the opinions of the editor and the bare statements of the wire rvices there is nothing,nothing,that is except a collection of snippets ud as fillers between the ads and picked at random.
assume an attitude:take a position,hold an attitude 采取……的态度
in the light of:从……的角度
draw a conclusion:得出结论
in the form of:以……的形式
fail to:未能,不能
temperature怎么读One of the greatest and most justified criticisms of television has been that in appealing to the largest audience possible,it neglects minority audiences and minority tastes.This is still largely true.But there is,perhaps,one program a day and many,or cour,on Sunday which an intelligent man or woman can enjoy and derive interest from.In my trips east or west or north or south,I pick up the local paper to find this enjoyment or interest—in vain.Now,surely there's something wrong here.Many of the places I've visited—and I'm sure this is true of the whole country—have college communities where highly intelligent and talented people live,whether they are teachers or doctors or lawyers or musicians or scientists.What is there for them in the paper,usually the only paper,or their town? What features are provided for the people? What stimulation? How many times have I heard them say"if you want to e what a really bad paper is like,read our sheet"?
in vain:徒劳,白费工夫
sheet:the sheet of newspaper
贝克汉姆退役I believe that over a period of decades newspapers have become a habit rather than a f
unction.They have held their franchi so long that change has become inadmissible.I do not know,in fact,of any medium that has changed as little in the last twenty years as the daily press.And this resistance to change is the end of growth—which,in turn,marks the end of ufulness.Change means trouble,change means work,change means cost.It is easier to print wire rvices dispatches than have a reporter on the beat.It is easier to buy syndicated columns than find—and train—local talent.It is easier to let the ads dictate the format than develop a format that elevates news above dog food.It is easier to write editorial copy that appeals to emotion rather than reason.
21.resistance to sth.:抵制……
22.on the beat:四处走动
23.treat sth.with respect:采取尊重德态度
Over:during
In turn:as a result
This is,to me,a tragedy.I am a printed-word woman mylf,and I still think the word was not only in the beginning but will be in the end.No picture can ever be an adequate substit
ute.The word will prevail; that is,if you,who are its guardians,treat it with the respect it derves.For if you degrade and cheapen the word too long,the people will turn to the picture.They are beginning to turn to the picture now.Not in New York,maybe,not in Washington D.C.,or St.Louis,or two or three other cities,but in hundreds of towns across the country.Oh,they will buy your papers—to hold up at breakfast or to line the trash can or to light a fire.But not to learn.And you may wake up one day to find you have lost the greatest power entrusted to men:to inform a free people.
Substitute:代替,替代
viosSubstitute a for b:用a代替b
三、Exercis
C.Fill in the blank in each ntence with the best word or expression from the box below,changing its form when necessary:
at random in vain entrust cheapen
cater to appeal confine to on the beat
stuff pass for take precedence over substitute |
|
1.Vitamin C pills are no _______for fruits and vegetables.
2.By his nasty behavior the governor has _______himlf in everyone's eyes.
3.I tried _______to get George to join the campaign to end fox-hunting in Britain.
4.The pillow is _______with feathers.
5.The soldiers were ________with the task of putting out(spr扑灭) the fire in the forests.
6.With her excellent performance she could _______a professional dancer.
7.Fighting the Japane invaders _______everything el.
8.Tho violent films _______the worst side of human nature.
D.Circle the right word or expression in the brackets in each of the following ntences:
1.His six-year experience gave him a big (advantage,strength) over the other applicants for the job.( advantage over sth 比……有优势)
2.The rules and regulations not only apply to the graduate students,but to the school (on the whole大体上,基本上,as a whole总体上).
3.We (met,encountered) a rious tback in the battle when our supplies were intercep
ted by the enemy.
4.I was very sick and was (confined to,limited to) bed for over two weeks.
5.The local newspaper gave an extensive (coverage从覆盖面上讲,reporting从内容上讲) of the trial.
6.The singer was fully (justifiable有理由的,justified证明是正当的) in suing the newspaper for slander.
7.This magazine is intended to (attract,appeal) to millions of college students in China.
8.Jamaica (functioned,worked) as a center of the American slave trade in the 18th century until the abolition of slavery in 1833.
F:Translate the following into English:
Television has many advantages over newspapers.While watching TV,we can make u of our eyes and our ears; we can e pictures and words on the screen,and we can also hear music and words.Television does a quicker job than newspapers.But television lives on advertising to a greater extent than newspapers.Benefits make the television cater to t
he lowest instinct of man.In its entertainment,there is full of violence and x.The coverage of news is usually very superficial and inadequate.
There are also a lot of problems with the American newspapers,of which the worst is the distortion of facts,and the attack against nations,ethnics and social institutions that they dislike.
