We are told the mass media are the greatest organs for enlightenment that the world has yet seen; that in Britain, for instance, several million people see each issue of the current affairs programme, Panoroma. It is true that never in human history were so many people so often and so much exposed to so many intimations about societies, forms of life attitudes other than those which obtain in their own local societies. This kind of exposure may well be a point of departure for acquiring certain important intellectual and imaginative qualities, width of judgment, a sense of the variety of possible attitudes. Yet in itself such exposure does not bring intellectual or imaginative development. It is no more than the masses of stone which lie around in a quarry and which may, conceivably, go to the making of a cathedral. The mass media cannot build the cathedral, and their way of showing the stones does not always prompt others to build. For the stones are presented within a self-contained and self-sufficient world in which, it is implied, simply to look at them, to observe fleetingly individually interesting points of difference between them is sufficient in itself.

    Life is indeed full of problems on which we have to—or feel we should try to—make decisions, as citizens or as private individuals. But neither the real difficulty of these decisions, nor their true and disturbing challenge to each individual, can often be communicated through the mass media. The disinclination to suggest real choice, individual decision, which is to be found in the mass media, is not simply the product of a commercial desire to keep the customer happy. It is within the grain of mass communications. The organs of the Establishment, however well-intentioned they may be and whatever their form (the State, the Church, voluntary societies, political parties), have a vested interest in ensuring that the public boat is not violently rocked, and will so affect those who work within the mass media that they will be led insensibly towards forms of production which, though they go through the motions of dispute and enquiry, do not break through the skin to where such enquiries might really hurt. They will tend to move, when exposing problems, well within the accepted cliché-assumptions of democratic society and will tend neither radically to question these clichés nor to make a disturbing application of them to features of contemporary life. They will stress the “stimulation” the programs give, but this soon becomes an agitation of problems for the sake of the interest of that agitation itself; they will therefore, again, assist a form of acceptance of the status quo (現(xiàn)狀). There were exceptions to this tendency, but they are uncharacteristic. The result can be seen in a hundred radio and television programs as plainly as in the normal treatment of public issues in the popular press. Different levels of background in the readers or viewers may be assumed, but what usually takes place is a substitute for the process of arriving at judgment. Programs such as this are noteworthy less for the “stimulation” they offer than for the fact that stimulation (repeated at regular intervals) may become a substitute for and so a hindrance to judgments carefully arrived at and tested in the mind and on the pulses. Mass communications, then, do not ignore intellectual matters; they tend to castrate (使…喪失活力) them, to allow them to sit on the side of the fireplace, sleek and useless, a family plaything.

1. According to the passage, the mass media present us with ______. [A] insufficient diversity of information[B] too restricted a view of life[C] a wide range of facts and opinions[D] a critical assessment of our society

2. What effect is it claimed the mass media can have on our intellectual and imaginative development? [A] They are likely to frustrate this development. [B] They can form a basis for it. [C] They can distort our judgment. [D] They can stimulate too much mental activity.

3. How are the mass media said to influence our ability to make decisions?[A] They disturb us by their prejudices. [B] They make us doubt our own judgments. [C] They make no contribution in this area. [D] They make decisions appear too complicated.

4. The author says that a natural concern of the Establishment is to ______. [A] perform a good service to society[B] arouse strong emotions in the public[C] maintain its position in society[D] change the form of public institutions

5. What is the author's final judgment on how mass communications deal with intellectual matters?[A] They regard them as unimportant.[B] They see them as a domestic pastime.[C] They consider them to be of only domestic interest.[D] They rob them of their dramatic impact.

1、C 本題是主旨題，提問文章的主題。根據(jù)第一段第二句，“實際上我們獲得很多生活在不同社會里的人民的觀點、態(tài)度、生活方式等等”，我們可以推斷大眾媒介向我們提供了廣泛的事實和各種不同的觀點。[A]、[B]項所述內(nèi)容與上述句子所表達的正相反。[D]項所述內(nèi)容正是大眾媒介所不具備的，第二段中有這樣的句子“Though they go through the motions of dispute and enquiry, do not break through the skin to where such enquires might really hurt”，盡管他們辯論、質(zhì)疑，但仍然觸及不到關(guān)鍵之處。在第二段接下來的一句中，這意思表達得更清楚。

2、A文章第二段“The disinclination … keep the customer happy”， “will tend…contemporary life”，以及第三段中的“may become …a hindrance to judgment”，“do not ignore intellectual matter, they tend to castrate them”從以上句子，我們可以判斷大眾媒介阻止一個人的智力和想象力的發(fā)展。[B]項不完全正確因為文章第一段“which may, conceivably, go to the making of a cathedral”，選擇項中的“can”比文章句子中的“may”要肯定。[C]項文章中并沒有證據(jù)表明大眾媒介已經(jīng)到了在揭露問題時扭曲事實、說謊的程度，所以不可能扭曲我們的判斷。[D]項中的“too” 意思是“more than necessary, more than desired amount”。大眾媒介不可能激發(fā)人們太多的思維活動，人們的思維活動是正常進行的。

3、B 第二段第一句中有“decisions”這個字，第二句接著說大眾媒介經(jīng)常不能把做這些決定的困難進行報道，它不起作用，更不會使決定變得更為復(fù)雜，這樣[D]項內(nèi)容可以排除。第二段中有“disturb”這個詞，但是句子中是it is challenge that is disturbing，并不是prejudices, 文章中也沒有提及任何偏見，因此[A]項不正確。我們在最后一段中有一個句子“a hindrance to judgment carefully arrived at”句子意思是大眾媒介阻止我們做出判斷，也就是說使我們懷疑我們的判斷力。[C]項內(nèi)容看來有點道理，但文章總的來說是討論大眾媒介對我們的影響，所以[C]項不正確，我們只能選擇[B]為正確答案。

4、C 第二段第五句中“The organs of the Establishment…might really hurt”，從這句話中我們知道它們的利益或者說關(guān)心的是“ensuring that … really hurt”，所以我們可以推斷他們關(guān)心的并不是向社會提供良好的服務(wù)，它們的目的只是在社會中維持他們的位置，[A]項可以排除。大眾媒介目的是否要激起公眾強烈的感情?在文章多次提到它們的目的是“激發(fā)”大眾。但是我們從文章又讀到這種“激發(fā)”可能變成了人們的判斷，或者妨礙了大眾的判斷。是的，他們的目的是激發(fā)，但作者把激發(fā)用引號引了起來，說明作者并不相信能真正起到激發(fā)作用。而激發(fā)指的是激發(fā)人們的智力和想象力，并非感情，所以[B]項也不正確。[D]項的內(nèi)容文章中并沒有涉及。

5、B 本題解題依據(jù)是文章最后一句�！八麄兺�往使它們失去了活力了，讓它們坐在火爐邊，漂漂亮亮但毫無用處，只是家里的一件擺設(shè)”。最后一段用了動詞“ignore”。大眾媒介并沒有忽視它們，所以不能說他們認為intellectual matter 是不重要的。[C]項意為一只被閹割了的動物放在家里是一種家庭愛好。并不是domestic interest只是一種消磨時光，所以[C]項不合適。[D]項intellectual matters當(dāng)然不是戲劇性的，所以就不可能被剝奪戲劇效果。