A few years ago a lone American campaigner wrote a book in which he set out the main point of his fascinate in go campaign—to abolish television. His manifest “Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television” is an American bestseller, and after eight editions is still generating great concern and debate in the USA.
Jerry Mander, a former advertising expert is convinced that for the sake of our freedom, and mental and physical health, we should learn to live without TV. Through his advertising background Mander is aware of how much of television is concerned with advertising and money making. He sees the planting of values for profit as “a deep, profound and disturbing act by few against the many, for a trivial purpose.” And, even without commercials, he sees TV as disturbing because it crams people’s heads with images which alter the way they feel and behave. Pictures formed by 300,000 tiny dancing dots altering 30 times per second, bombard their eyes as people scan the images 10 times a second. The brain registers and stores all 30 images, but the conscious mind registers far fewer. But, argues Mander, even if you reject or doubt what you see consciously, it is too late.
He further argues that TV is a deadening experience as it is restricted to just two senses—sight and sound. Perception is dulled and flattened, says Mander, when you can’t feel and smell and totally experience an event. People are just sitting passively for up to four hours a night watching a screen and listening to artificial sound. “No culture in history has spent such an enormous amount of time looking at artificial light,” says Mander, “and another worrying fact is that prolonged exposure to artificial light alters human cells, which is why it is being used for certain medical treatment” Researchers do not know if life-long TV exposure is a physical risk or not, but as Mander would argue, why run the risk? It is important that people get up now and with it off before the harm is done—they might also become brain-washed, or who knows.
1.Four Arguments for the Elimination of Tedlevision is a book which（ ） .
2.Jerry Mander objects to TV advertising mainly because （ ）
3.Mander thinks people’s feelings and behaviors are changed because（ ） .
4.By watching TV for several hours every night, Mander implies that （ ）.
5.Mander suggests that viewing TV over long periods of time （ ）.
