Mass Media

Passage 2

Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following presage:

    In the world of entertainment, TV talk shows have undoubtedly flooded every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one varies in style and format. But no two shows are more profoundly opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows.

    Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of “trash talk(废话)”. The topics on his show are as shocking as shocking can be. For example, the show takes the ever-common talk show themes of love, sex, cheating, guilt, hate, conflict and morality to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is a display and exploitation of society’s moral catastrophes (灾难), yet people are willing to eat up the intriguing predicaments (困境) of other people’s lives.

Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its extreme, but Oprah goes in the opposite direction, The show focuses on the improvement of society and an individual’s quality of life. Topics range from teaching your children responsibility, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors.

To Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being dumped on society. Jerry ends every show with a “final word”. He makes a small speech that sums up the entire moral of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable.

    Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone, The show’s main target audience are middle-class Americans. Mast of these people have the time, money, and stability to deal with life’s tougher problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of an association with the young adults of society, These are 18 to 21-year-olds whose main troubles in life involve love, relationship, sex, money and peers. They are the ones who see sane value and lessons to be learned underneath the show’s exploitation.

    While the two shows are as different as night and day, both have ruled the talk show circuit for many years now. Each one caters to a different audience while both have a strong following from large groups of fans. Ironically, both could also be considered pioneers in the talk show world.

21. Compared with other TV talk shows, both the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey are

    A) more family-oriented             B) unusually popular

    C) more profound                  D) relatively fontal

22. Though the social problems Jerry Springer talks about appear distasteful, the audience

    A) remain fascinated by them      B) are ready to face up to them

    C) remain indifferent to than        D) are willing to get involved in them

23. Which of the following is likely to be a topic of the Oprah Winfrey show?

    A) A new type of robot.         B) Racist hatred.

    C) Family budget planning.       D) Street violence.

24. Despite their different approaches, the two talk shows are both

    A) ironical                        B) sensitive

    C) instructive                      D) cynical

25. We can learn from the passage that the two talk shows

    A) have monopolized the talk show circuit

    B) exploit the weaknesses in human nature

    C) appear at different times of the day

D) are targeted at different audiences

(待续)