11th form The Role of Mass Media

11^th form

The Role of Mass Media

1.      GRAMMAR and VOCABULARY     

Read and use the words in correct forms.

It has always been impossible to imagine our life without the mass media. The 1____________(ANCIENT) mass media are books. Nowadays the most important mass media are newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the Internet.

All mass media 2______________(SUPPOSE) to inform, educate and entertain people. Subconsciously they influence the way people look at the world and make them change their views. They even help to mould public opinion.

Let us consider the advantages and disadvantages of 3________________(DIFFER) mass media.

On the one hand, radio, television and the press 4______________(BE) valuable because they help to get the latest news, including the weather forecast. We can get 5_______________(INFORM) from the Internet in a few minutes. Besides, listening to the radio, watching films on TV, reading the press or navigating the Internet is a good way to relax.

On the other hand, the mass media usually focus on negative information. 6____________(WATCH) news programs we primarily learn about war, crimes, disasters, and accidents. Negative information causes stress and bad mood. Some 7_______________(CHILD) may become aggressive if they watch violent programmes. What is more, there is a lot of gossip in the press and on TV. The latter is also abounds in stupid chat shows, 8______________(END) daily soap operas and terrible action films.

Some people 9_________________(COMPLAIN )that nowadays the media are full of violence and advertising. On the whole, it is true.  But nobody 10_______________(MAKE) you to watch it. You have a choice and you are free to choose.

The situation is the same with the Internet, which is considered to be the newest kind of mass media. It’s a powerful means of communication and a great source of information which 11___________(HELP) in school studies. As for me, I use the Internet for finding information and for 12_______________(COMMUNICATE) with my mates. I also download music and films.

To sum up, the mass media are an essential part of modern society. We are able to benefit from their advantages and have to copy with their disadvantages.

2.      READING   

Прочитайте рассказ и выполните задания 13–19. В каждом задании обведите букву A, B, C или D, соответствующую выбранному вами варианту ответа.

Mind over mass media

New forms of media have always caused moral panic: the printing press, newspapers, and television were all once denounced as threats to their consumers’ brainpower and moral fiber. So too with electronic technologies. PowerPoint, we’re told, is reducing discourse to bullet points. Search engines lower our intelligence, encouraging us to skim on the surface of knowledge rather than dive to its depths. Twitter is shrinking our attention spans.

But such panic often fails basic reality checks. When comic books were accused of turning juveniles into criminals in the 1950s, crime was falling to record lows. The decades of television, transistor radios and rock videos were also decades in which I.Q. scores rose continuously.

For a reality check today, take the state of science, which demands high levels of brainwork. These days scientists are never far from their e-mail, rarely touch paper and cannot lecture without PowerPoint. If electronic media were hazardous to intelligence, the quality of science would be plummeting. Yet discoveries are multiplying like fruit flies, and progress is dizzying.

Critics of new media sometimes use science itself to press their case, citing research that shows how “experience can change the brain”. But cognitive neuroscientists roll their eyes at such talk. Experience does not remake the basic information-processing capacities of the brain. Speed-reading programs have long claimed to do just that, but the verdict was rendered by Woody Allen after he read “War and Peace” in one sitting: “It was about Russia.”

Moreover, the effects of experience are highly specific to the experiences themselves. If you train people to do one thing, they get better at doing that thing, but almost nothing else. Music doesn’t make you better at math. Accomplished people immerse themselves in their fields. Novelists read lots of novels, scientists read lots of science.

The effects of consuming electronic media are also likely to be far more limited than the panic implies. Media critics write as if the brain takes on the qualities of whatever it consumes, the informational equivalent of “you are what you eat”. As with primitive peoples who believe that eating fierce animals will make them fierce, they assume that reading Twitter postings turns your thoughts into Twitter postings.

Yes, the continual arrival of information packets can be distracting or addictive. But distraction is not a new phenomenon. The solution is to develop strategies of self-control. Turn off Twitter when you work and put away your smartphone at dinner time.

And to encourage intellectual depth, don’t rail at PowerPoint or Google. It’s not as if habits of deep reflection or thorough research ever came naturally to people. They must be acquired in universities, and maintained with constant analysis, criticism and debate. They are not granted by propping a heavy encyclopedia on your lap, nor are they taken away by efficient access to information on the Internet.

The new media have caught on for a reason. Knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not. Fortunately, the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage and search our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter to e-books and online encyclopedias. Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.

13. At the beginning of the article the author reminds that the new media technologies …

A) could make people less intelligent.

B) turn our attention off morals.

C) used to frighten the majority of people.

D) improve human brainpower.

 14. What has life proved about electronic technologies according to the author?

A) They don’t disrupt brainwork.

B) They could increase the crime level.

C) Television influences intelligence.

D) Scientists can’t do without them.

 15. According to the author, the arguments of the critics of new media make neuroscientists feel …

A) surprised.

B) confused.

C) annoyed.

D) amused.

 16. What does the example of Woody Allen’s reading of “War and Peace” illustrate?

A) Speed-reading programs improve information-processing.

B) Scientific research of brain supports critics of new media.

C) Experience with technology is significant for intellectual abilities.

D) Technology hardly influences the way brain deals with information.

17. The phrasal verb “takes on” in “Media critics write as if the brain takes on the qualities …” (paragraph 6) is closest in meaning to …

A) changes.

B) acquires.

C) adapts.

D) rejects.

 18. Which negative effect of information flood does the author recognise?

A) Shallow mindedness.

B) Inefficient access to data.

C) Lack of self-control.

D) Continuous distraction.

 19. What idea is expressed in the last paragraph?

A) Human knowledge is developing too fast.

B) New media help us keep up with life.

C) New media are the result of collective brainwork.

D) There are different ways to manage knowledge.

3.      WRITING

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen-friend John who writes:

…My brother has just graduated from University. He is a lawyer now. What professions are the most prestigious in Russia? What kinds of money-making jobs in Russia do not require a university degree? Do you want to go to college, why or why not?

This summer we are going on a three-day bicycle trip …

Write a letter to John.

 In your letter

-answer her questions

-ask 3 questions about the trip.

Write 100–140 words.

Remember the rules of letter writing.