Unit 4 Turning off TV：A Quiet 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.
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.
在美国，许多人把大部分空闲时间花在看电视上。
的确，电视里有很多值得一看的节目，包括新闻、儿童教育节目、讨论当前社会问题的节目、戏剧、电影、音乐会等等。
然而，人们也许不该在电视机前花费那么多的时间。
如果我们被迫要找一些其他的活动，那我们可以做些什么呢？对这一问题，梅耶先生做了一番想像。
关上电视清静一时
我想建议每天晚上一播完晚间新闻，美国所有的电视台都依法停播六十至九十分钟。
让我们认真而通情达理地看一下，如果这一建议被采纳的话，会有什么样的结果。
千家万户也许会利用这段时间真正地团聚一番。
没有电视机的干扰，他们晚饭后也许会围坐在一起，当真交谈起来。
众所周知，我们的许多问题——事实上是所有的问题，从代沟、高离婚率到某些精神病——至少部分地是由于没能交流思想而引起的。
我们谁也不把自己心头的烦恼告诉别人，结果感情上便产生了这样那样的问题。
利用这安静的、全家聚在一起的时刻来讨论我们的各种问题，我们相互之间也许会更加了解，更加相爱。
有些晚上，如果没有必要进行这种交谈，那么各家各户也许会重新发现一些更为积极的消遣活动。
如果他们挣脱开电视机的束缚而不得不另寻自己的活动，他们也许会合家驱车去看日落。
或者也许会全家一起去散步（还记得自己长有双脚吗？），用新奇的目光观察住处周围的地区。
有了空闲时间而又没有电视可看，大人小孩便有可能重新发现阅读。
一本好书里的乐趣，胜过一个月中所有典型的电视节目。
教育家们报告说，伴随着电视长大的这一代人几乎写不出一句英语句子，甚至在大学一级受教育的人也是这样。
写作往往是通过阅读学会的。
每晚清静这么一个小时，可以造就出文化程度较高的一代新人。
也许还可以像过去那样进行另一种形式的阅读：高声朗读。
没有多少娱乐比一家人聚在一起，听爸爸或妈妈朗读一篇优美的故事更能使一家人关系融洽和睦了。
没有电视干扰的这一小时，可以成为朗读故事的时间。
等这静悄悄的一小时过去后，想要再把我们从新发现的娱乐活动中拉回去，电视联播公司也许将被迫拿出些更好的节目来才行。
乍一看，停播一小时电视的想法似乎过于偏激。
如果少了这位电子保姆，做父母的可怎么办呢？我们怎么来打发这段时间呢？其实这个想法一点也不偏激。
电视开始主宰美国人的空闲时间，至今也不过才二十五年。
我们之中那些年满和年过三十五岁的人，还能回忆起没有电视相伴的童年，那时我们有一部分空闲时间以收音机为伴——听收音机至少还要发挥听者的想像力——但另外我们还看书、学习、交谈、做游戏、发明一些新的活动。
日子也并不那么难过。
真的。
那时我们确实过得挺开心。
