P4
1. narcotic: taking away pain and causing sleep; painkiller, drug, soporific, tranquilizer
2. stimulus: activator, energizer, excitant, stimulant, incentive, spur, /obstacle, handicap
3. serial: episode, episodic/ episodical
4. caleidoscopic: (scenes and color) changing quickly and often
5. exposure: bringing to light; laying open, bring out in the open; vista; show, display
6. Television’s variety…its lead: The various programs on TV function as a kind of drug which make the viewers sleepy instead of causing them excited. The serial of different programs, with its frequently changing scenes and stories, keep drawing the attention of the viewers.
7. perpetual: lasting forever, permanent, eternal, abiding, ceaseless, incessant, uninterrupted, unremitting, /temporary, brief, transitory
8. allot: assign, allocate, allow, consign, appoint, give out, distribute, portion out, dispense/ withhold, retain, keep deny, refuse
9. chosen delights; selected programs (on TV)
10. usurp: seize illegally, take unlawfully, steal, grab, encroach upon, infringe upon
11. In short…surrender it: In a word, a lot of television programs make the viewers watch its programs in such a passive way that they do not (cannot) concentrate their attention, which is one of the most important abilities of mankind.
12. Except on television…: The only difference of the tour on the television screen is that it is much shorter.
P5
1. enhance: heighten, magnify, raise, boost, redouble, add to / diminish, reduce, lessen, decrease, minimize strengthen, depreciate
2. vehicle: medium; means, agent, agency, instrument, tool, intermediary
3. Capturing your attention…vehicle: The most important purpose of most television program design is to draw the attention of the viewers and keeping holding it and, by doing so, to increase (intensify) the role of television programs as a means of making money through advertisement.
4. strain: exert oneself, overexert, fatigue,/ exhaust, burden, drudge, impair
5. stimulation: excitement
6. novelty: originality, newness, uniqueness, innovation.
7. Quite simply…span: Obviously, the key point of TV programs is to draw the attention of the viewers from one short period to another short period.
P6
1. imperative: urgent, which must be done; the use of a verb to express a command;
2. as though: that; as if
3. …as a given, as inherent in the medium itself: as a fixed, characteristic quality of the medium
4. Tablets of stone: Biblical allusion. The Ten Commandments (The ten Mosaic Laws《十诫》) said to be inscribed on a stone tablet have the power of commanding, morally, what should or should not be done.
5. Gernral Sarnoff: nickname for David Sarnoff (1891-1917). Of Russian descent, Sarnoff was director general of Radio Corporation of American for years, He was also known as the Father of American TV.
6. august: causing feelings of great respect, noble and grand, majestic, dignified, signified, distinguished, eminent, solemn, supreme, superb, lofty/ unawesome, unimpressive, mean common, ignoble
7. bequeath: hand down, endow, leave, will
8. tablet: a shaped flat pieces of stone or mental with word cut into it
9. command: to direct (a person…) with the right to be obeyed; order
10. It is simply the easiest way out.. moments’ concentration: Obviously, it (television operates on the appeal to the short attention span) is the easiest way to catch and hold the viewers’ attention. However, it is thought to have become a fixed (patterned) way, an inseparable (essential, intrinsic) way in TV programming; it is taken as an order, as if had been given by General Sarnoff or some other distinguished founders of video had set up some everlasting rules for us that in television programming nothing shall draw the viewers’ attention more than a few moments. (everything in TV program shall appeal to the viewers’ attention just for a few moments.)