Text Analysis and Comment

Sports in America: Colleges and universities

1. Why does Michener consider the American
college and university sports system unique?

2. Where is Michener critical of the system?

3. What role do sports play in American
society?

4. The author uses the rhetorical device of
comparison. Give examples and show what
function they serve.

5. "... I sort of get sick to my stomach when
some faculty committee issues a statement
that my boys should be scholars first and
athletes second. Any self-respectin' man with
his head screwed on right must realize that
football consumes so much of a boy's time,
fall, winter, spring and summer, that he

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simply ain't got time to be a scholar too. If we didn't have a supply of snap courses, and cooperatin' professors who know the score, ain't no way my boys could stay in school. We hire them to play football, and we pay them well to do it, and it's only after their eligibility is used up that they got time to be scholars." (A university football coach, quoted from Michener, Sports in America, p.228)

In the light of this quotation, what would you suggest to solve the problem?

Comprehension

Baseball

Decide whether the following statements are

true or false and correct the false statements.

1. The ball used in the game of baseball is
covered with leather.

2. There are eleven players in a baseball team.

3. Fielders used to wear gloves, but now they
catch the ball in their bare hands.

4. The team which fields is called the battery.

5. A player does not score a run unless he runs
round all the bases before the next ball is
pitched.

6. There is more than one umpire.

7. The batter is out if he hits the ball into the
crowd.

8. After three players are out, the teams change
positions and the batters become the
fielders.

9. A player is out if he hits the ball into foul
territory and a fielder catches it before it
touches the ground.

10. If both teams have scored the same number
of runs at the end of nine innings, the game
continues until one player scores a home
run.

11. The batter can go to first base if he is hit by
the pitched ball.

12. The catcher wears a face mask because the
bouncing ball kicks up a lot of dust.

Comprehension

Running for Your Life

Which of the following statements are true, which are false? Correct the false ones.

1. Quite a number of recent books and articles
refute the notion that physical exercise
prolongs life.

2. A long-term Harvard study does not
confirm that view.

3. The study covered 35-year-old and 74-year-
old Harvard graduates.

4. Men who did not burn more than 2,000
calories per week had a lower mortality rate.

5. The study shows that people who jog four
hours per week have a good chance of
prolonging their lives.

6. According to the study, the more exercises
people do, the greater their life expectancy
becomes.

7. Another result of the study is that regular
exercise not only protects against heart
disease but against other diseases as well.

8. 30 per cent of the smokers who did regular
exercises died during the survey.

9. University athletes are likely to live longer
than their less athletic classmates.

10. Sports activities in later years affect

longevity much more than activities during the college years.

Letter Writing

Write a letter to the editor in which you express your personal opinion about physical exercise, and point out concrete examples which either support or refute the findings of the Harvard study.

260 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP

6. Preparing an Interview

Lousy at Sports

Imagine that this revelation of a prominent TV producer in The New York Times magazine has aroused the interest of a popular talk show host, who now uses the magazine article as the basis for his interview.

Put yourself into the position of the interviewer and prepare an introduction, in which you

• point out the importance of being a
sportsman/sportswoman or at least a sports
fan, if you want to be accepted in American
society

• remind the audience of the large number of
well-known athletes who have been invited
to the show

• introduce your guest and explain why he has
been invited.

Then prepare questions concerning

• Mark Goodson's reasons for publicly
confessing his absolute dislike of sports

• the attitude of many Americans toward men
who are uninterested in sports

• Mark Goodson's anxieties as the father of a
boy

• his job as a moderator of a sports quiz

• the offer to become a baseball reporter

• his experience of being eventually found out
at a dinner party.

15 The Media

part A Background Information

U.S.A.-A MEDIA STATE?

COMMERCIAL CONTROL OF THE MEDIA

NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES

NEW PRESS DEVELOPMENTS

Mass communication has revolutionized the modern world. In the United States, it has given rise to what social observers sometimes call a media state, a society in which access to power is through the media. The term media, understood broadly, includes any channel of information through which infor­mation can pass. Since a democracy largely depends on public opinion, all those involved in communicating information inevitably have an important role to play. The print and broadcasting media not only convey information to the public, but also influence public opinion. Television, with access to virtually every American household, which typically tunes in about six hours a day, is a powerful influence. The broadcast media, capable of mass-producing messages and images instantaneously, have been largely responsible for homogenizing cultural and regional diversities across the country. Beyond this cultural signi­ficance, the power of the media is important to politicians, who use the media to influence voters; and to businessmen and women, who use the media to encourage consumption of their products.

The relationship works in the other direction as well. The audience's opinions influence the media industry. Most newspapers, magazines, radio and television networks in the United States are private commercial enterprises and must be responsive to their audience's demands, especially for entertainment, if they are to stay in business.

Newspapers and magazines have long been major lines of communication and have always reached large audiences. Today, more than 11,000 different periodicals are published as either weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, or semiannual editions. In 1986, a total of 9,144 newspapers were published in the United States. More than 62 million copies of daily newspapers are printed every day and over 58 million copies of Sunday papers are published every week.

Readership levels, however, are not as high as they once were. Newspapers have had to cope with competition from radio and television. They have suffered a decline in circulation from the peak years around the turn of the century largely because of the trend of urban populations moving to the suburbs. Studies show that most suburban readers prefer to get "serious" news from television and tend to read newspapers primarily for comics, sports, fashions, crime reports, and local news. Nowadays, Americans consider television their most important source of news, and a majority ranks television as the most believable news source. Accordingly, newspapers have made changes to increase their readership levels. Some established metropolitan newspapers are now published in "zoned" editions for different regional

262 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP

audiences. In some cases, they have lost their readership to new weekly suburban newspapers that resemble magazines in format. To meet the public demand for more feature material, some publishers have started adding "life­style" and "home living" sections to their papers to make them more like magazines.

Circulation of Leading U.S. Magazines

General magazines, exclusive of groups and comics. Based on total average paid circulation during the 6 months prior to Dec. 31. 1986.

CONGLOMERATION

LARGE NATIONAL PAPERS AND NEWS SERVICES

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 721