P13
1. humanity: human beings generally; the quality of
being humane or human
2. surrender: give up, yield, submit, capitulate,
let go, abandon
3. diversion: drawing away, turning aside, distraction,
pastime, amusement
4. wholesale: of or concerned in selling in large
quantities or at a lower prices fixed for such sales;
in too large unlimited numbers
5.
When before in human… for selling: When before in
human history have so many people spent (devoted)
so much of their time on (to) such an unimportant
object as a children’s toy? So much distraction of
so many people? When before in human history has almost
the whole nation (U.S.A.) given itself so much completely
to TV commercials ? --- TV attracts the nation to
sth. trivial (unimportant).
P14
1.
“… forced feeding on trivial fare is not itself a
trivial matter.”: “Fare” here means food in a metaphorical
sense, as in “food for thought”. The implied meaning
of the sentence is that the triviality, or inconsequentiality,
of much television program, is a serious problem that
needs to be solved. Trivial fare: of little worth
or importance; ordinary (metaphor) Fare: food, esp,
as provided at a meal. Force: impose, impel, thrust
upon, urge; perceived: notice, be aware of; recognize,
distinguish, discover; “…forced feeding on…only dimly
perceived. Imposing trivial ideas on society (the
people) itself is not an unimportant matter. (Itself
is an important thing.) Our tolerance for effort,
and our appetite for complexity are only dimly perceived:
our tolerance for working hard to understand complex
ideas and our appetite for facing up to and solving
complex problems is diminishing, and we are not fully
aware of these negative effects of television.
The Trouble with Television
l influence of TV—time-consuming thing (P1-2)
l trouble with TV—discourage concentration (importance
of concentration) (P3); TV—anarcotic (soforific drug)(P4);
capture your attention, holding your attention /on
the appeal to the short attention span (P5,6); influence
on the American people, fast idea, another way to
the fast people (P7)
l in the case of news—inefficient communication (P8);
decivilization, illiteracy (influence) (P10,11)
