Материалы для проведения занятия иностранного языка на тему: "СМИ и их роль в жизни человека"

Mass Media

Nowadays information communication is an important part of our life. It goes without saying that mass media has become an integral part of modern people's life. People live with a constant necessity of getting new information. How can they satisfy their need? They may communicate with one another or just use the immense space of means of communication. People need information in order to keep up with the whole world around them — with vogue, new trends of life, discoveries and inventions. We live to learn news; we breathe and live with this.

Let's concentrate on one of mass media branches — television. As we know, it appeared much later than such kinds of mass media as radio, newspapers and magazines. Nowadays almost everybody has got at least one TV-set at home. Television now plays an important role in our life. It takes a steady place in our daily timetable. However, watching television has two sides: not only advantages but also disadvantages.

On the one hand, TV keeps people informed of current events; TV gives us wonderful possibilities for education. We can choose any programme according to our interests, mood and needs. There is a great amount of channels which are specialized in various spheres. It can be the sphere of politics, news, sports, animals, feature films, soap operas, art, talk-shows, cartoons, educational programmes, music, fashion and many others. Such channels as "History", "Discovery", "Animal Planet", "365", enrich our knowledge in different fields. There are also channels which offer to our attention some educational programmes for children and adults, for example "Happy English" — a programme focused on teaching the English language, "Memory" — a programme which offers a number of exercises for children in order to develop their memory.

The second advantage of watching television is that it gives families an opportunity to spend some time together. Nowadays adults are often too busy to give enough attention to their children. When they come home from work in the evening, so tired and exhausted, — the only possible way to relax for many is just lay on the sofa in front of TV. In such situations it's high time to choose a family comedy and see it together with your spouse and children. So, watching TV helps us to relax and forget about it all — work, worries and problems that are on our mind.

Moreover, television is a great source of entertaining. Every day there is a wide choice of films and serials on TV — detectives, dramas, comedies, action films, thrillers, horrors, cartoons and others. If you have some spare time, switch on your TV-set and see a good movie with famous and talented actors or actresses, like Johnny Depp, Robert De Niro, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts or Dakota Fanning. Nowadays you are not limited in your choice, for even if there is no film you'd like to see in a TV-programme, you can always see it on DVD or download it in the Internet. Besides, sometimes television is the only opportunity to watch concerts of world-famous celebrities, like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Pink, Britney Spears or Justin Bieber.

However, watching television has its negative side. It is well-known that television may turn to be harmful for our health. Spending too much time in front of a TV screen may affect our eyesight badly. There are many cases when children become TV-addicted. Every spare minute they try to switch the TV on. Their progress in studies suffers due to the fact that children try to do their homework as fast as they can in order to have more time for watching TV.

Moreover, nowadays some TV programmes and films include a lot of violent scenes that can have a negative influence on a child's psychic development.

Another disadvantage of television is an enormous amount of advertising. Firstly, it makes people buy some useless or unnecessary things. Bright and beautiful ads don't reveal any drawbacks of the products they advertise. So, it often turns out that the goods quality is far worse than expected. Secondly, many ads deal with the pearl of beauty — a very slim and tall girl. The result of it may be the fact that children become too much concentrated on their appearance, which may lead to depression or to the feeling of inferiority.

Finally, many children nowadays would rather spend a day glued to a TV-set than go outdoors to play with their peers.

Undoubtedly, we need TV, for it is one of the main and most convenient means of mass media. However, taking into account all its merits and drawbacks, we must try to organize our time in the right way so as not to become a TV slave.
 

Questions:

1. What kinds of mass media do you know?
2. Have you got a TV-set at home?
3. How often do you usually watch it?
4. What are your favourite channels?
5. Do you usually watch TV alone or with your family?
6. What films do you prefer to see?
7. Do you like soap operas?
8. Are you a TV-addict?
9. Do you prefer to see films on TV or at the cinema?
10. What disadvantages of watching television can you name?

Vocabulary: 
mass media — средства массовой информации 
it goes without saying — само собой разумеется
integral part — неотъемлемая часть
necessity — необходимость
to satisfy — удовлетворять
immense — безграничный, огромный
means of communication — средства связи
to keep up with — быть в курсе, поспевать за
vogue — мода
discovery — открытие
invention — изобретение
branch — ветвь
to appear — появляться
steady — постоянный
advantage — достоинство
disadvantage — недостаток
on the one hand — с одной стороны
possibility — возможность
according to — в соответствии с
mood — настроение
channel — канал
to be specialized in — специализироваться на
various — разный
feature film — художественный фильм
soap opera — сериал
cartoon — мультипликационный фильм
fashion — мода
to enrich — обогащать
knowledge — знание
inner world — внутренний мир
attention — внимание
to be focused on — быть нацеленным на
to develop — развивать
exhausted — измотанный, обессиленный                peers — ровесники
to relax — отдыхать, расслабляться                          undoubtedly — несомненно
it's high time — самое время                                     convenient — удобный
spouse — супруг, супруга                                         to glue — прилипать
to reveal — открывать, показывать                           slave — раб
moreover — более того                                             to deceive — обманывать
source — источник 
entertaining — развлечение
thriller — триллер
horror — фильм ужасов 
action film — боевик
to limit — ограничивать
to download — загружать
spare time — свободное время 
celebrity — знаменитость
harmful — вредный 
screen — экран 
eyesight — зрение
TV-addicted — зависимый от телевизора 
progress in studies — успеваемость
to suffer — страдать
to include — включать, содержать
violent — жестокий
to have a negative influence on — оказывать негативное влияние на
psychic development — психическое развитие 
enormous — огромный 
advertising — реклама
useless — бесполезный 
advertising — реклама 
drawback — недостаток 
goods — товары
pearl of beauty — эталон красоты 
appearance — внешность
feeling of inferiority — чувство неполноценности
to take into account — принимать во внимание