Unit 6: Television: How It Affects Us

UNIT 6
1.
READING
You have to read the following text at home
Television: How it Affects Us
How does television affect our lives? It can be very helpful to people who carefully
choose the shows that they watch. Television can increase our knowledge of the
outside world; there are high-quality programs that help us understand many
fields of study: science, medicine, the arts, and so on. Moreover, television benefits
very old people who can’t often leave the house, as well as patient in the
hospitals. It also offers non-native speakers the advantage of daily informal
language practice; they can increase their vocabulary and practice listening.
On the other hand there are several serious disadvantages to television. Of course,
it provides us with a pleasant way to relax and spend our free time, but in some
countries, people watch the “boob tube” for an average of six hours of more a day.
Many children stare at a t.v. screen for more hours each day than they do anything
else, including studying and sleeping. It’s clear that the tube has a powerful
influence on their lives and that its influence is often negative.
Recent studies show that after only thirty seconds of t.v., a person’s brain “relaxes”
the same that it does just before the person falls asleep. Another effect of television
on the human brain is that it seems to cause poor concentration. Chidden who view
a lot t.v. can often concentrate on a subject for only fifteen to twenty minutes; they
can pay attention only for amount of time between commercials.
1
Another disadvantage is that t.v. often causes people to become dissatisfied with
their own lives. Real life does not seem as exciting to these people as the lives of
actors on the screen. To many people, t.v. becomes more real than reality, and their
own lives seem boring. Also many people get upset or depressed when they cannot
solve the problems in real life as quickly as t.v. actors seem to. On the screen, actors
solve the problems in a half-hour program or thirty-second commercial.
Before a child is fourteen years old, he or she views eleven thousand murders on
the tube he or she begins to believe that there is nothing strange about fights,
killing, and other kinds of violence. Many studies show that people become more
violence after certain programs. They may even do the things that they saw in a
violent show. An example is the effect of the movie The Deer Hunter. After it
appeared on t.v. in the United States, twenty-nine people tried to kill themselves a
way similar to an event in the film.
The most negative effect of “boob tube” might be people’s addiction to it. People
often feel a strange and powerful need to watch t.v. even when they don’t enjoy it.
(Taken from INTERACTIONS, Kirn, 1985)
 Difficult Words
Provide the possible meanings of the following words in the Indoensian
language.
1. to affect = …………………………………………
2. to benefit = …………………………………………
3. pleasant = …………………………………………
4. disadvantage = …………………………………………
5. violence = …………………………………………
2. COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
2
To check your understanding, answer the questions below in a separated paper!

1. What is the main idea of the text?
2. What does the word stare in line 11most nearly mean?
3. What does it in paragraph 3 line 2 refer to?
4. What does it in paragraph 3 line 3 refer to?
5. What are the effects of television on human brain?
3. ORAL REPRODUCTION
Discuss with you friends about the following questions:

1. How many hours do you watch television every day?
2. Which show do you like most? Why?
3. Which shows/ programs don’t you like? Why?
4. Does t.v. help you in any way? If so, how?
4. GRAMMAR FOCUS
How does television affect our lives?

The sentence taken from the text is a question or interrogative in Simple Present
Tense.
Interrogatives in Simple Present Tense
A. For subjects
Purpose Question word Predica

Person Who te
does not like accounting?
Thing What makes you happy?
Specific What class is not interesting?
thing
Choice Which (house) is yours?
Possesive Whose class is the most difficult one?
Number How many people study in this university?
3
Wh word or How Verbal Predicate …?

Wh word or How Non-verbal Predicate …?
B. For non-subjects
Purpose Question Word Clause

Place Where is your house?
Object Whom does she like most in this
class?
Object What (subjects) do you like very much ?
Time When do you drink coffe?
Manner How is she now?
Reason Why are they always absent on
Monday?
Wh-Word or How do/does subject …?
Wh-Word or How is/are/am subject …?
5. SPEAKING
¢ Activity 1
Ask your friend about information of his/her family. Change roles. Use
Wh- questions. Use the model below: Start like this:
 Example 1
Reporter : Excuse me, who is at home everyday?
Badu : My sister and I.
Reporter : Why are you at home today?
Badu : Because …………
Reporter : and why is your sister at home too?
Badu : Because, she ………..
Reporter : and who goes to school?
Badu : My Brother himself
Reporter : How does your brother go to school?
4
Badu : He goes to school by bus. Etc.
 Example 2
Make statement about the activities of your family. Please respond the
statement using only Wh-questions. Follow this model:
A : I study at home today.
B : Who studies at home today?
A ; Why do you study at home today?
B : Because………
¢ Activity 2
Tell with another partner about your friend’s activities of his/her family.
6. WRITING
5
31
Write down what you have talked about with your frien

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UNIT 6

You have to read the following text at home

Television: How it Affects Us

To check your understanding, answer the questions below in a separated paper!

Discuss with you friends about the following questions:

How does television affect our lives?

Purpose Question word Predica

Wh word or How Verbal Predicate …?

Purpose Question Word Clause

Badu : He goes to school by bus. Etc.

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