Read the passage again and decide whether the statements are True or False

1. Mary Kenny was offended by Jerry Springer –The Opera.

2. Mary likes the TV shows more than the opera.

3. Mary thinks the opera is blasphemous.

4. Mary is not worried about swearing on TV.

5. Mary thinks that the intellectual quality of TV programmes is improving.

6. Mary believes that TV editors should decide not to show TV programmes that are in poor taste.

Match the words from the passage in A to words with similar meanings in B

A B

sneer/scoff awful

ghastly refuse to listen to

poignancy getting more basic and simple

cringe-making to speak in a way that shows

you think you are superior

smart-arsed sadness

rebuff making you feel embarrassed

dumbing down too clever

Imagine you are a TV executive, with powers to decide which programmes should be shown. Look at the programmes below, and decide which should be shown, and which should be censored. Discuss your opinions with classmates

1. A realistic drama set on inner-city streets in which the characters swear all the time.

2. A comedy series in which the main character is a priest who is an idiot.

3. A detective series which shows a lot of gunfights, blood and death.

4. A musical show which makes fun of the prime minister and leading politicians.

UNIT 15

WE ARE ALL TEENAGERS

Read and translate

We're all teenagers Martin Jacques on why age and wisdom have been cast out of our infantilized society.

There is a strange phenomenon. Britain is getting older. In fact, the population is older now than it has been for over a century. Yet at the same time our culture has never been more adolescent. Young people may be a dwindling minority, but they exercise an extraordinarily powerful influence on the cultural stage, from television and newspapers to film and art. The turning point, of course, was the 1960s. Until then, young people were largely ignored in a culture that was stiflingly middle-aged. A generation, who were brought up in very different conditions from those of their parents, rebelled in a way that remains unprecedented in western society. It is not difficult to explain or understand the 60s. The young were a product of the long postwar boom, not war and unemployment, and the baby boom lent them exceptional demographic weight. What is far more difficult to comprehend is why our culture, in the decades since, has become progressively more infantile. It is as if the 60s gave birth to a new dynamic, which made young people the dominant and permanent subjects of our culture. It started with the birth of pop music as a youth genre, but the concerns and attitudes of the young generation have since permeated areas that were never adolescent. One only has to think of Britart, for example, whose motif has been the desire to shock, or film, whose preoccupation with violence as spectacle is driven by the appetite of the young, to see how powerful these adolescent values have become. It is not that they are simply negative or offer nothing: on the contrary, there is much to be admired in their energy, skepticism and commitment to innovation. But they are also characterized by transience and shallowness, a desire to shock for shock's sake, and a belief that only the present is of value. A culture that succumbs to adolescence is a culture that is drained of meaning and experience, not to mention history and profundity. But why is it happening? It can be argued that the 60s unleashed a new cultural dynamic, which is still working its way through society. A new mindset was formed, which gave priority to the young. It is plausible to suggest that parents and grandparents who themselves were the rebels of the 60s are more inclined to respect, and defer to, the sensibilities and demands of youth. And this tendency has been reinforced by a new technological dynamic, manifest in the internet, mobiles and the like, which has left older generations feeling a little left out, and lent credence to a misplaced technological determinism among the young. There is more than a grain of truth in all this. But as the proportion of young people steadily declines, one would still expect the sheer weight of growing age to assert itself. So far there is absolutely no sign of this. In fact, extraordinarily, the opposite is happening. The underlying reason for all this could not be more fundamental. It concerns the western condition. For over half a century we have only known prosperity, never experienced mass unemployment, never fought wars except on the edges at other people's expense, never known the extremes of human existence, comfortable in a continent that has enjoyed, for the most part, a similar existence and, having turned its back on grand visions, opted for the quiet life. Yet it is extremes, personal or political or both, that teach us the meaning of life. Without them, the excesses of the young provide a little of the excitement otherwise lacking. The outcome is a growing shallowness. Britart may shock, but it hardly provides us with a deeper insight into the human condition. Hollywood movies may entertain, but they barely ever enlighten. An adolescent culture is one that lives on the surface, unencumbered by memory, light on knowledge and devoid of wisdom.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1181