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Turning off TV：A Quidt Hour

Many people in the United States spend most of their free time watching television. Certainly, there are many worthwhile programs on television, including news, educational programs for children, programs on current social problems, plays, movies, concerts, and so on. Nevertheless, perhaps people should not be spending so much of their time in front of the TV. Mr Mayer imagines what we might do if we were forced to find other activities.

Turning off TV: a Quiet Hour

I would like to propose that for sixty to ninety minutes each evening, right after the early evening news, all television broadcasting in the United States be prohibited by law.

Let us take a serious, reasonable look at what the results be if such a proposal were accepted. Families might use the time for a real family hour. Without the distraction of TV, they might sit around together after dinner and actually talk to one another. It is well known that many of our problems -- everything, in fact, from the generation gap to the high divorce rate to some forms of mental illness -- are caused at least in part by failure to communicate. We do not tell each other what is disturbing us. The result is emotional difficulty of one kind or another. By using the quiet family hour to discuss our problems, we might get to know each other better, and to like each other better.

On evenings when such talk is unnecessary, families could rediscover more active pastimes. Freed from TV, forced to find their own activities, they might take a ride together to watch the sunset. Or they might take a walk together (remember feet?) and see the neighborhood with fresh, new eyes.

With free time and no TV, children and adults might rediscover reading. There is more entertainment in a good book than in a month of typical TV programming. Educators report that the generation growing up with television can barely write an English sentence, even at the college level. Writing is often learned from reading. A more literate new generation could be a product of the quiet hour.

A different form of reading might also be done, as it was in the past: reading aloud. Few pastimes bring a family closer together than gathering around and listening to mother or father read a good story. The quiet hour could become the story hour. When the quiet hour ends, the TV networks might even be forced to come up with better shows in order to get us back from our newly discovered activities.

At first glance, the idea of an hour without TV seems radical. What will parents do without the electronic baby-sitter? How will we spend the time? But it is not radical at all. It has been only twenty-five years since television came to control American free time. Those of us thirty-five and older can remember childhoods without television, spent partly with radio -- which at least involved the listener's imagination -- but also with reading, learning, talking, playing games, inventing new activities. It wasn't that difficult. Honest. The truth is we had a ball.

Vocabulary

worthwhile

a. good enough for the time or effort needed; valuable 值得花时间(或精力)的;有价值的

program (me)

n. performance on radio or television 节目

educational

a. of or for education; providing education or information 教育的;有教育意义的

current

a. of the present time 当前的

social

a. of or in society 社会的

movie

n. film that one sees at a cinema 电影

nevertheless

conj. but; however 然而，不过

propose

vt. suggest 建议

broadcasting

n. the action of sending out sound (or images) by radio (or television) 广播

prohibit

v & n. forbid by law 禁止

proposal

vt. suggestion 提议，建议

actually

n. in actual fact, really 实际上

generation

n. all the people about the same age (一)代

gap

n. an empty space between two things or two parts of a thing; a wide difference of opinion, character, or the like 缺口，间隙;分歧，隔阂

divorce

n. end of a marriage by law 离婚

rate

n. 率

mental

a. of the mind 精神的;思想上的

communicate

vi. share or exchange opinions, ideas, etc. 交流意见，思想等

disturb

vt. make (sb.) worried 使烦恼

emotional

a. 感情的