EXTENSIVE READING REPORT – INTERMEDIATE

1.  Title of the article:

Quality Television: It Exists!

 

2.  Source of the article:

http://www.rd.com/books-entertainment/quality-television-it-exists/

 

3.  Author's name:

Jim Menick

 

4. Before you read, look at the picture(s) if any, as well as the title. What do you think the article will be about?

I think it will be about the TV programs that are worth watching. As we know there are many TV programs nowadays but not all of them are wholesome. It's likely that this article describes those programs the people will be willing to watch when they read about them.

 

5.  Read the article and write what you understand of it in as much detail as possible.

The article was about how the TV and the movies started to compete for the audience. As a result of these challenge we can find now all kind of TV programs. All started in the early 1950's when the people started to spent more time into their house in front of their televisions and the movie theaters were losing audience. That's why the theaters started to develop the 3-D technology besides the wide screens and the seat-rumbling sound systems in order to make the people to go to the movies. There were some TV programs that played movies twice a night and all day on weekends. The problem was that they were playing the movies repeatedly and the people started to get bored, though. TV companies started to develop their own sort of entertainment, based as much in radio series as in movies, and when its material wasn't enough original they used any old movies as filler. Some years later NBC came with an original idea: "Saturday Night at the Movies". This program played relatively new and fresh movies instead of the old, tired and boring old same movies. Then the cable arrived, which offered recent, uncut and uninterrupted movies. HBO came along the cable and brought really good, unique and television programming revolutionizing the TV. HBO got a compromise with the quality of its programs, producing some of the most rigorous and challenging art works, and became one of the best channels of wholesome and worth watching entertainment.

6.  Vocabulary Use: Choose 05 new vocabulary items (words, collocations, idiomatic expressions, etc.), and write their meanings and 02 examples related to your real experience.

Pap: Trivial worthless material: something such a book, movie or television program that is regarded as lacking in depth and substance and is considered worthless.

• My father doesn't like to see pap news.

• I hate pap TV programs without sense

Wanton: Random: lacking reason or provocation.

• A stray dog wantonly barked me.

• My friend told me that her girlfriend wantonly broke up with him.

Bottom line: Profit or loss: the final profit or loss that a company makes at the end of a given period of time.

• Most of the businesses only give importance to the bottom line.

• A business that prioritizes its product's quality is the most widely accepted among the population.

Rock bottom: Lowest level: the lowest level or price possible.

• Rock bottom products are not worth buying.

• Most of the people like to buy rock bottom products because of its low price.

Dumb down: Make to simple: to make something less intellectually challenging.

• Our education shouldn't be dumbed down If we want to rise our intellectual level.

• Inside a monopoly the businesses dumb down the products because of the lack of competitors.

 

Student's Name: Diana Miranda