Read the following and extract the necessary information.

Internet

is a network connecting many computer networks and based on a common addressing system and communications protocol called TCP/IP(Transmission Control Protocol/Inter­net Protocol). From its creation in 1983 it grew rapidly beyond its largely academic origin into an increasingly com­mercial and popular medium. By the mid-1990s the Internet connected millions of computers throughout the world. Many commercial computer network and data services also provided at least indirect connection to the Internet.

The Internet had its origin in a U. S. Department of De­fense program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects) Agency Network), established in 1969 to provide a secure and survivable communications network for organizations engaged in defense-related research Researchers and academics in other fields began to make use of the network, and at length the National Science Foundation (NSF), which had created a similar and parallel network called NSFNet, took over much of the TCP/IP technology from ARPANET and established a distributed network of networks capable of handling far greater traffic.

Amateur radio, cable television wires, spread spectrum radio, satellite, and fibre optics all have been used to deliver Internet services. Networked games, networked monetary transactions, and virtual museums are among applications being developed that both extend the network's utility and test the limits of its technology.

 

Electronic mail, abbreviation E-MAIL, are messages trans­mitted and received by digital computers through a network. An efectronic-mail, or E-mail, system allows computer users on

 

 

a network to send text, graphics, and sometimes sounds and animated images to other users.

On most networks, data can be simultaneously sent to a universe of users or to a select group or individual. Network users typically have an electronic mailbox that receives, stores, and manages their correspondence. Recipients can elect to view, print, save, edit, answer, or otherwise react to communi­cations. Many E-mail systems have advanced features that alert users to incoming messages or permit them to employ special privacy features. Large corporations and institutions use E-mail systems as an important communication link among employees and other people allowed on their networks. E-mail is also available on major public on-line and bulletin board systems, many of which maintain free or low-cost global communication networks.

(From 1997 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.)

 

5. a) Present brief information on Russian broadcasting. Consider the fol­lowing:

 

1. the main functions of television irrpur country (informa­tional, educational, entertainment); 2. news coverage; 3. kinds of programmes.

 

b) What evening's viewing would you recommend for a foreign visitor who is very interested in learning more about our country and its people?

 

6. "Children and television" is an issue about which teachers and parents are naturally very concerned.

 

a) The two extracts by American authors given below present rather con­troversial views on the problem. Read them attentively for further discussion:

 

a) There have been more than 2,300 studies and reports on the effects of television on American society. Most of them show that these effects are mainly negative. Researchers have been especially concerned about children. In the past decade, researchers have had children participate in numerous studies. They had children watch television intensively for three weeks. The results showed a drop in the children's creativity. The re-

 

searchers concluded that television makes the children lose some of their creativity.

Teachers can't get children to pay attention for any length of time because today's children want everything to be as fast and entertaining as TV. Dr Benjamin Spock, an expert in child raising, once complained that he couldn't get his grandchildren to leave the TV set when he wanted to take them to the zoo. Some of today's children are so addicted to TV that nothing else interests them. Parents have to make them turn off the TV and go out to play or read a book. They can't get them to do these traditional childhood activities without having an argu­ment over the TV.

Although most of these studies have shown the negative effects of television, some sociologists argue that television has become a part of our lives. They do not think that parents should make their children limit the amount of TV that they watch to one or two hours a day. They believe that parents should let their children decide for themselves what and how much they want to watch.

 

b) Although most studies show the negative effects of televi­sion, there are also some important positive influences. There are many excellent educational programs, especially for child­ren. Some schools have children watch certain programs in the classroom. They often get them to watch worthwhile programs at home by encouraging them to discuss what they have seen the next day in class. "Sesame Street" is a program that is watched by millions of children around the world. It uses bright colors, fast timing, and humour in order to get children to pay attention. It makes children enjoy learning about the alphabet, reading, and numbers.

Television also exposes children to different people and places. A little girl who had never seen a ballet before watched a famous ballerina on TV. This program got her to decide to become a ballerina herself. TV also increases young people's understanding of other people's views of life. Many people feel that "Roots", a program on the history of black people in the United States, is an example of this. Because viewers of this program became emotionally involved with the characters, "Roots" got some people to think more compassionately about the difficulties of black people in the United States.

 

b) Pair work. Team up with another student, work out pros and cons of children's television as they are presented in the extracts and discuss the extracts in pairs.

 

c) Speak about the effects of television on children. Consider the following:

 

1. Does television have a negative or bad influence on child­ren? If you think it does, tell how. 2. What are the effects upon the vulnerable and developing human organism of spending a significant proportion of each day engaged in this particular experience (watching TV)? 3. How does the television experience affect a child's language development, for instance? 4. What good or positive influences does television have on children? 5. How does television stimulate children's curiosity? 6. How does the availability of television affect the ways parents bring up their children? 7. Are new child-rearing strategies being adopted and old ones discarded because the television set is available to parents for relief? 8. How does watching television for several hours each day affect the child's abilities to form human relationships? 9. What happens to family lif£ as a result of family members' involvement with television?

(There may never be clear-cut and final answers to these questions.)

 

7. Below are four different opinions on the same controversial issue "Child­ren and Television".

 

a) Work in groups of 3 or 4 and assign one of the opinions to each member of the group:

 

1. Primary and secondary education have improved out of all recognition since the arrival of TV in the home and this is not only because of programmes designed for schools. Through TV a child can extend his knowledge and it provides vital food for his imagination. 2. We aire dealing with a culture of TV babies. They can watch, do their homework and listen to music at the same time. What kids can't do today is follow things too long. Today's TV babies get bored and distracted easily. 3. You can blame TV for the fact that children take longer to learn to read these days and barely see the point any more of acquiring the skill. Watching TV should be strictly confined to "treats". 4. Tele­vision provides outlet for creative talents. The programmes done with good taste and imagination actually stimulate a child's own creativity.

 

 

b) Spend a few minutes individually thinking of further arguments you will use to back up the opinion you have been assigned.

 

c) Now discuss the issue with other members of the minigroup using the arguments you have prepared. Do your best to support those who share a similar point of view and try and persuade those who don't agree with you. (Use cliches of agreement/disagreement and persuasion.)

 

8. In a students' debating club the topic of the next session is "Educational TV. Who is it for?”

 

a) Study educational programmes and decide upon the one you would speak on.

 

b) Make a list of its strong and weak points.

 

c) Think of some possible improvements if you were to prepare the pro­gramme.

 

d) Participate in the discussion. (You have only five minutes to talk.) Be prepared to answer any question arising in the course of the discussion.

 

9. Interviewing people basically involves asking for opinions and expressing personal opinions. Next come some cliches you may use for this purpose:

 

Asking for opinions: what's your opinion of; what do you think of; how do you feel about; I was wondering what your opinion of (tentative); what about (informal).

Expressing personal opinions: in my opinion; from my point of view; personally, I think that; it would seem to me that (ten­tative); as far as I'm able to judge (tentative); as I see it (direct); frankly, I think (direct); I reckon (informal).

In the course of an interview there definitely come moments when some clarification is asked for and given.

Asking for clarification: I'm sorry I don't quite understand what you mean by; I'm sorry, could you explain by; I'm afraid, I'm not really very clear about what you mean by (tentative); I'm sorry, but could you possibly explain what you mean by (tentative); did you mean that; do you really think that; did you say; but you said earlier that; I don't understand what you mean by; what (exactly) do you mean by (all rather direct)

Giving clarification:

 

what I'm trying to say is (that)...

Well,

The point I'm trying to make is (that)...

 

 

think

Well, I what I mean is (that)... (tentative)

suppose

 

 

What I mean is (that); What I'm saying is (that)... (both di­rect)

All I'm trying to say is (that)... (informal)

 

to be frank...

Well, (strong, blunt)

frankly...

 

If you are asked awkward questions the following cliches may be useful: I'd like to think about that one; let me see; the best way I can answer.

Another "delaying tactic" is to repeat the question you have been asked.

 

10. a) Below you will find some information on the work of a TV journalist and interview techniques:

 

Most journalists have had considerable experience as inter­viewers before they come to television, but there is a vast differ­ence between the casual questioning which takes place in the quiet comer of a pub or over the telephone and the parapherna­lia of lighting, camera equipment and perspiring technicians.

The newspaper journalist is able to phrase questions in a conversational, informal manner, interjecting now and again to clarify a point, jotting down answers with pencil and notebook. Questions and answers need not be grammatical or even follow a logical pattern. The same ground may be gone over again and again. The printed page on which the interview appears does not communicate these facts to the reader. In television, journal­istic judgement and writing ability alone are not enough.

It is undoubtedly true that a screen interview of any type, live, filmed or videotaped, makes considerably more demands on the person conducting it. The essential requirements in­clude an ability to think quickly to follow up topics outside the originally planned structure of the interview, and a capacity to marshal thoughts in a way which builds up logical, step-by-step

 

answers. Each interview, however brief, is capable of taking 01 a recognizable shape. Questions which are sprayed in all direc tions as topics are chosen at random only make the live inter view difficult to follow and the recorded one doubly hard tc edit intelligently. In any case "the office" would much prefer tc select a chunk of two or three questions and answers which fol­low a logical progression.

The actual phrasing of questions needs to be considered, Too many inexperienced reporters tend to make long, rambling statements barely recognisable as questions at all. At the other extreme are the brusque, two- or three-word interjections which do not register on the screen long enough if faithfully repeated as cutaways.

Next come the cliches, of which these are very useful ex­amples:

How/What do you feel (about)...? Just what/how much/ how serious...? What of the future...?

Then there is the tendency to preface virtually every ques­tion with some deferential phrase which is suitable for general conversation:

May I ask...? Do you mind my asking...? What would you say if I asked...? Could you tell me...? Might I put it like this...? but each of which invites curt rejection in a TV interview. With­out proper care, however, questions which are too direct are quite likely to produce a simple "yes" or "no", without further elaboration.

As for the general demeanour, every interviewer should be polite yet firm in pursuit of answers to legitimate questions, re­fusing to be overawed in the presence of the important or pow­erful, or overbearing when the subject of the interview is un­used to television.

The reporter's real troubles begin, however, when he does not listen to the answers. The pressure on a questioner conduct­ing a film interview can be almost as great as on the interviewee and it is all too easy to concentrate on mentally ticking off a list of prepared questions instead of listening, poised to follow up with an occasional supplementary. If the reporter lets this hap­pen any number of obvious loose ends may remain untied.

 

b) Based on your interpretation of the article enlarge on the following:

 

1. It is easier for a newspaper journalist to interview some­body than for a journalist working in television.

2. A screen interview makes considerably more demands on the person conducting it. The actual phrasing of questions needs to be considered. Open-ended questions should prevail over close ones (requiring "yes" or "no" answers) in an interview.

 

c) Comment on the following view of one of the American Journalists, "... a television interviewer is not employed as a debater, prosecutor, inquisitor, psy­chiatrist or third-degree expert, but as a journalist seeking information on behalf of the viewer."

 

d) Summarize in your own words what you believe to be the best technique for interviewing people (see Appendix, p. 292).

 

11. Read the following extract on the use of interviews in the foreign lan­guage classroom:

 

The success of an interview depends both on the skill of the interviewer, on his ability to ask the right kinds of questions, to insist and interpret, and on the willingness to talk on the part of the person being interviewed. Both partners in an interview should be good at listening so that a question-and-answer sequence develops into a conversation.

In the foreign language classroom interviews are useful not only because they force students to listen carefully but also be­cause they are so versatile in their subject matter.

Before you use an interview in your class make sure that the students can use the necessary question-and-answer struc­tures. A few sample sentences on the board may be a help for the less able.

As a rule students should make some notes on the ques­tions they are going to ask and on the answers they get. If they write down all the questions in detail beforehand they have a questionnaire. Survey with the help of a questionnaire is one of the easiest ways of interviewing people.

 

 

a) Pair work.

 

Student A:

You are doing research into the types of television pro­grammes people watch. You stop people in the street to ask them questions and write down their answers. Student B is a passer-by.

 

Television Questionnaire

 

1.How many hours less than 5 hours

a week do you 5-10 hours

spend watching 10-15 hours

television? 15-20 hours

more than 20 hours

 

2. What sort of programmes do you like watching?

3. Are there any sorts of programmes you don't like?

 

Like	Dislike

the news

discussion programmes

documentaries

plays

films

serials

quiz shows

classical music programmes

pop music programmes

children's programmes

variety shows

sports programmes

others

 

 

4. What is your favourite programme?

5. Are there any sort of programmes you would like

a) more of? b) less of?

You can begin like this, "Excuse me, I am doing research into the types of television programmes people watch. Can I

 

ask you some questions about television?" And don't forget to finish with, "Thank you very much for answering my ques­tions."

 

Student B:

Student A is going to ask you questions about the types of television programmes you watch. Answer his/her questions. Before starting, here are some of the most common types of programmes on television: the news, films, discussion pro­grammes, quiz shows, pop music programmes, documentaries, classical music programmes, serials, plays, children's pro­grammes, variety shows, sports programmes.

 

b) Summarize your observations and report them to the group.

 

c) Work out a suggested weekly viewing guide based on the recommenda­tions of group members. Beside each programme write the reasons for its ap­peal: humorous, realistic, unusual, exciting, good story, pop music, relaxing, well-acted, etc. Little-known programmes could be described by students famil­iar with them.

 

12. Write a newspaper criticism of a TV programme that you have seen of any of the following types: a) a news programme, current affairs review, etc.; b) a documentary; c) an entertainment programme, show, etc.; d) a children's programme; e) a film shown on TV; f) a sports programme; g) an educational programme or any other.

 

13. Group work. Your TV company needs a TV host/hostess for a children's programme. Work in groups of three or four. One of the group is a candidate for the job, and the others are interviewing him/her. Before starting, the interviewers should prepare a list of questions and the interviewee should prepare, his/her curriculum vitae.¹ The interviewers should ask questions about the candidate's previous job; the certificates/diplomas/degrees/experience he/she has had; his/ her personal situation (married, with children); the candidate's reasons for apply­ing for the place in a children's TV programme and other questions. (Use appro­priate cliches and techniques). After about ten minutes the applicants change to another interviewing panel and so on. Each group decides on the best applicant and gives reasons for the choice.

 

14. Do library research and prepare an essay on one of the following topics:

 

1. Television and cinematography. Will one oust the other?

2. Television in the USA: a) news programmes; b) educa­tional programmes; c) children's programmes; d) entertain­ment programmes.

 

___________

 

¹ curriculum vitae — a list of qualifications (education, degrees, experi­ence, references, interests) used when applying for a job in some academic field, i. e. teachers, exchange students, deans, etc.

 

 

Unit Seven

 

From: THE TIME OF MY LIFE

 

By Denis Healey

TEXT

 

DRAWING BACK THE CURTAIN

 

Denis Healey was bom in 1917 and brought up in Yorkshire. After gainig a double first at Balliol College, Oxford, for six years he was a soldier learn­ing about real life.

Another six years as International Secretary of the Labour Party taught him much about politics, both at home and abroad. From 1952 to 1992 he was a Labour Member of Parliament for Leeds.

He is a prolific journalist and broadcaster. He has published Healey's Eye, a book on his life as a photographer, and has contributed essays to many publications for the Fabian Society¹ including New Fabian essays and Fabian International Essays.

When Shrimps Leant to Whistle, Signposts for the Nineties, also published by Penguin, include a selection of his earlier writings which are relevant to the world after the Cold War.

 

In the early years after the war, when we first heard the truth of what Russia was doing in Eastern Europe, and began to look more objectively at the Soviet Union itself, my genera­tion was powerfully influenced by George Orwell's 1984, and by a flood of books which purported to analyse the nature of totalitarianism.

My visits to Eastern Europe cured me of any erratic illu­sions. No power could destroy national traditions which were rooted in centuries of history. Moreover, these peoples yearned to return to the Europe in which Chopin and Bartok were part of a common civilisation with Bach and Verdi. Once Stalin died, it was clear that Soviet Communism already carried the seeds of its own destruction. The Russia of Tolstoy, Tchaikov­sky and Herzen was still there beneath the surface. Stalin could no more expunge it from the consciousness of its people than Hitler could liquidate the Germany of Beethoven, Goethe, and Kant.

 

I had been fascinated by Russia since I readits great novel­ists as a schoolboy. My years in the Communist Party at Ox­ford had given me sufficient understanding of Stalinism to re­ject it even while I still saw Russia as a socialist state and a necessary ally against Hitler. I was also impressed by much of pre-war Soviet culture.

The great Soviet film-makers of those days — Einstein, Pudovkin, and Dovzhenko — seemed superior to their Western rivals. Though I loathed "Socialist Realism", I admired the paint­ings of Deineka. They were in a book given me by a friend; she also introduced me to Shostakovich's opera, The Lady Macbeth ofMtsensk.

After the war I found that my friend had disappeared during the great purges, and that Lady Macbeth had been banned.

This helped to reinforce the bitter hostility I had developed for Soviet policies both at home and abroad.

Most of our visit was spent in sightseeing. We were of course, with our consent, taken to schools, factories, and col­lective farms. It also included the visits to the Hermitage in Le­ningrad and the magnificent summer palace of Peter the Great overlooking the Gulf of Finland, its fountains sparkling in the autumn sun, its rococo buildings gleaming with white and gold; like most other palaces, it had been meticulously restored to its former glory after almost total destruction by the Nazis. In Leningrad we were given a concert at what had originally been the club where members of the first Russian Parliament, or Duma, used to meet, hi those nineteenth-century surround­ings, the concert itself was like a salon at the court of Queen Victoria, as sopranos and baritones in evening dress sang ballads and songs by "Kompositori Verdi" in voices of remark­able purity.

By comparison with the eighteenth-century canals of Lenin­grad, which might have been part of Amsterdam or Bremen, the Kremlin brought us to the heart of old Russia. I had imag­ined it a building as grimly functional as the Party it housed, and was quite unprepared for the mediaeval splendour of its palaces and churches, scattered among copses of birch and lilac.

My visit to Russia in 1959 began to give me some sense of these cultural changes. I was immensely impressed by the

 

charm and quality of the young sixth formers we met in Lenin­grad at school.

In manner and appearance they could have come from any of the upperclass families described by Turgenev or Tolstoy. Similarly, the colleges which taught foreign languages and in­ternational affairs were giving a rounded education to able young men and women, who are now in key positions in their country, where their knowledge of the outside world is invalu­able.

The creative intelligentsia, such outstanding people as Sa-kharov, with his strong opposition to using the hydrogen bomb, Solzhenitsyn, exposing the life in a labour camp (A Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich), Yevtushenko with his poem Babiy Yar on anty-Semitism in the Soviet Union — were giving a headache to the authorities.

And yet we saw signs of the cultural thaw all around us.

Jazz was officially disliked, but they didn't use the power of the state to prevent it. Its public performance was then largely confined to the circus and music hall. In Leningrad we saw an ice-spectacular in which the girls were half-naked, in costumes reminiscent of the pre-war Folies Bergere.

The theatre and ballet had changed little since the revolu­tion, the best had been preserved.

The Moscow Arts Theatre performed Chekhov as Stanislav­sky had produced it half a century eariler — as sad comedy rather than as tragedy with humour. The only ideological change I noticed was in Uncle Vanya: Astrov was presented as a handsome, vigorous young prophet of a better future, rather than as the wrinkled cynic of Olivier's² interpretation at the Old Vie³. We saw the aging Ulanova at the Bolshoi in a ballet based on a novel by Peter Abrahams about Apartheid⁴ in South Africa, which called on her to act rather than to dance. On the other hand we saw Plisetskaya at her best as prima ballerina in Prokofiev's The Stone Flower. Ishall never forget her rippling sinuosity.

In 1963, when I next visited Russia, the general atmosphere was more liberal than on my first visit, and as I was not on offi­cial delegation, but attending an informal conference between Soviet and Western politicians, I had a good deal more free­dom.

 

 

Our guide was a gentle young man called Kolya who had just got his degree in foreign languages. He had been at the World Youth Congress that summer in Moscow, and greatly enjoyed reciting phrases of hair-raising obscenity which he had picked up from his American comrades. Jazz was now all the rage, and since imports of Western records had been stopped, a disk by Dave Brubeck was beyond price. Since then the inter­national youth culture has swept the whole of Russia like a hurricane.

I learned much from these visits to Russia, restricted though they were, and was to learn more still from later visits. I do not accept the view that short visits to foreign countries are more likely to mislead than to educate. On the contrary, providing you have done your home-work before you go, they not only enable you to check some of your views, but also provide you with a library of sense-impressions which give reality to any news you read later.

However, for this purpose I think three days is better than three weeks.Anything over a week and less than three years is liable to confuse you. But series of short visits, at intervals of over a year, can give you a sense of the underlying trends in a foreign country which no accounts in the press can provide. Above all, I learned that the Russians, like us, were human beings, although they were not human beings like us.

 

Commentary

 

1. The Fabian Society — a British organisation of left wing thinkers which was a founder or the Labour Party and used to have an important influence on it.

2. Oliver Sir Lawrence, also Larry (1907-1989). English actor thought of by many people as the greatest of the 20th century. He was the first director of the National Theatre and the first actor to be made a life peer. Most people know his films of Shakespeare's plays Hamlet, Henry V, Richard III.

3. Old Vic — a London theatre originally opened in 1818, the full name of which is the Royal Victoria Theatre.

4. Apartheid in South Africa.

The system established by the Government of keeping dif­ferent races separate so as to give advantage to white people. The South African government is now removing the apartheid laws and ending the system.

 

SPEECH PATTERNS

 

1. I learned much from those visits, restricted though they were.

Hard working though he was, there was never enough money to pay the bills.

Strange though it may seem I am a great admirer of the great film-makers of those days.

 

2. The Moscow Arts Theatre performed Chekhov as sad comedy rather than as tragedy with humour. Astrov was presened as a young prophet rather than as the cynic of Olivier's interpretation at the Old Vic.

 

3. The ballet... called on her to act rather than to dance.

These short visits are more likely to mislead rather than to educate.