1. When did the idea of broadcasting both sound and vision first occur?
2. What were the major milestones in the development of TV before World War II?
3. How did TV develop in the USA after the war?
4. What was the first international event to be covered by TV?
5. What are the latest developments in TV?
6. What are the possible future achievements of TV?
IN PRAISE OF TELEVISION
By George Mikes
When I first came to England, television was still a kind of entertainment and not a national disease. During the happy war years (1) it was off the air altogether but afterwards it returned with a vengeance. (2)
Television, however, has slowly conquered - in varying degree - all layers of society and, whether we like it or not - it has come to stay. (3)
I have watched innumerable statement boarding and leaving aeroplanes with heavy, meaningful faces (4) and have always been astonished to find that same platitudes (5) can be expressed in so many diffrent ways. During our strikes, I have listened to trade union leaders and employers on Mondays and was impressed to learn that no concessions could be made in matters of principle; only to be told on Wednesdays that their relinquishing (6) of these principles was - on their part - victory for common sense and true service to the community. I have heard innumerable party politicians explaining that defeat is victory. I like the Brains Trust (7), too - its poet and interior decorators (8) with the gift of the gab (9), who are able to utter weighty opinions on every subject under the sun without a moments reflection. I am fond of watching people in Tanganyika (10) or Madagascar (11) catching rats, snakes and worms for pets. (12)
The basis and main pillar of the art of television is the TELEVISION PERSONALITY. (13) If you want to become a Television Personality, you need a personality of some sort. It may be unattractive repulsive; but a personality is indispensable. (14)
On the whole I like televiaion very much indeed. The reasons for my devoting are these:
1. The television is one of the chief architects (15) of prosperity. Certain television personalities can give away money with great charm on the slightest provocation. It is their habit - indeed, their second nature - to give you a refrigerator or a moto-scooter if you happen to pass near them. Should you chance to know what the capital of France is called, or who our war-time Prime Minister was with the initials of W.S.C. (16), if you are able to scratch your left ear with your right foot while lying on the floor blindfold and watched by ten millions giggling spectators, then you are practically certain to be sent to Majorca (17) for a three weeks holiday.
2. Television is also one of the main architects of slumps. (18) A short while ago Panorama (10) made a report on the stock -exchange boom, in the course of which one or two peoplemade some cautious remarks about the boom not lasting forever, and recalled the Wall Street crash (20) when people threw themselves out of the window of skyscrapers. Next day hordes of people sold their shares, thus causing a fall unknown since the days of the Suez crisis. (21) The bank rate had to be raised three days later and if Dotto and a few other programmes had not rectified the countrys economic balance by giving even more washing-machines, bubble-cars (22) and tea-sets, we would have faced utter ruin.
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3. Television has united the family - by keeping the family at home, gaping at it round the family hearth.
4. Television causes more friction in family life than any other single factor by offering unique scope for quarrels as to which programme to watch.
5. Television is of great educational value. It teachers you while still really young how to (a) kill, (b) rob, shoot, (d) poison, and generally speaking, (e) how to grow up into a Wild West outlaw or gangster by the time you leave school.
6. Television puts a stop to crime because all the burglars and robbers, instead of going to burgle and rob, sit at home watching The Lone Ranger, Emergency Ward Ten and Dotto.
7. Television has undeniably raised the general level of culture throughout the country. Some people allege that it has killed the habit of reading and thinking - but there is no truth in this. I have yet to meet a person who gave up his methodical study of, say, early Etruscan (23) civilisation in order to be able to watch more of Sunday Night at the London Palladium or who has stopped reading Proust (24) or Plutarch (25) because he could not tear himself away from Whats My Line? or Spot the Tune.
NOTES
1. The happy war years (irony) - the word happy implies that TV did not function during the wae years.
2. It returned with a vengeance - it returned and began to play a bigger role than before (with a vengeance - to a greater extent than could be desired or expected, e.g. That was ill luck with a vengeance (Russ. , , ). He was a racqueteer (gambler, crook, demagogue, etc) with a vengeance (Russ. , ); vengeance -revenge, the return of evil for evil (Russ. ).
3. it has come to stay - it is going to be a permanent feature of moden life.
4. heavy faces - serious faces.
5. platitude - a trite or flat remark, a phrase which doesnt say much, esp. one made seriously (Russ. , ); Syn. Commonplace; a commonplace is something obvious, easy to think of, lacking originality, whereas a platitude adds to a commonplace the suggestion of flatness or triteness and often of a remark made with an air of importance or novelty.
6. to relinquish - to give up completely, e.g. to relinquish ones control, ones hold (post, idea, hope...). Syn. To leave, to abandon; to leave is often used colloquially instead of relinguish and may suggest various motives; to abandon stresses finality and completeness, especially of intangible things, such as hopes, opinions, methods, etc.
7. Brains Trust - (here) television programme in which a group of prominent people or experts discuss questions of general interest sent the programme by the public; Brain Trust (Am) - a phrase coined in 1933 for a group of experts in political science and economy who advised the president.
8. Interrior decorations - those who decorate the inside of the building, give advice to furnish a hourse (flat) choose the right colour scheme to match the furniture, etc.
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9. the gift of the gab (colloq) - the talent to talk well; gab - talk, esp. idle talk.
10. Tanganyika - country in East Africa between Lake Tanganyika and the Indian Ocean, former British colony, later member of British Commonwealth; since 1964 united with Zanzibar as United Republic of Tanzania.
11. Madagascar - island in the Indian Ocean off SE coast of Africa.
12. catching rats, snakes and worms for pets (iron.) - a pet is an animal tamed and kept as a favourite (a dog, cat monkey, parrot, etc.); the whole sentence is an ironical exaggeration intended to show that the television programmes are often uninteresting and sometimes ridiculous.
13. Television Personality - a person who often appears on TV and possesses some distinctive features, habits, attitude and the like (the phrase may apply to a TV announcer, commentator, comedian, etc., popular with the public).
14. indispensable (here used ironically) - absolutely necessary, something one cannot do without, e.g. an indispensable person, indispensable part of ones education, indispensable to life, etc. He considered himself to be indispensable; Russ. .
15. architect - (fig.) creator, e.g. He was often referred to as the architect of the countrys foreign policy. Man is the archtect of his own happiness (see further ... one of the architects of slumps)
16. W.S.C. - Winston Spencer Churchill.
17. Majorca - a Spanish island.
18. slump - a fall in prices, business, prosperity, etc.
19. Panorama - (here) name of a TV programme; other popular programmes mentioned in the text are Dotto, the Lone Ranger, Emergency Ward Ten, Subday Night at the London Palladium, What is my Line, and Sport the Tune. They are intended to catch to various tastes depending on the background, age group, etc. Some of them are quizzes, testing ones knowledge of literature, music, etc. Other are serials based on crime stories of adventure.
20. Wall Street crash - allusion to the stock-exchange panic in 1929.
21. Suez crisis - an allusion to the events in July 1956 when Egypt under President tNasser took control of the Suez Canal.
22. bubble-car - a very small car.
23. Etruscan - belonging or relating to ancient Etruria. The Etruscans came to Italy about 1000 B.C.; in the 6th century B.C. they conquered the Po district.
24. Proust Marcel (1871-1922) - famous French novelist, author of the great novel A la recherche du temps perdu (Russ. ).
25. Plutarch (A.D. 46? - 120?) - Greek historian and biographer.
