四级六级阅读练习（7）：美国小孩受电视的间接影响很大

小编寄语：熟悉四六级阅读理解题型的同学应该都了解，英语四六级考试阅读理解材料大多选自《时代》《卫报》《科学美国人》等外刊。要想阅读理解这部分拿到高分，必须在平常多阅读，掌握新词汇，锻炼阅读速度。但对于很多同学来说，如何每日在浩瀚的互联网世界寻找合适的阅读材料进行分析解读是一项很耗时间的事情。为此，　英语每日精选《卫报》《时代》等外刊上的文章供大家进行阅读练习。

【今日阅读推荐】本篇阅读材料“美国小孩受电视的间接影响很大”选自《时代》（原文标题：American Kids Exposed to Too Much Background TV: Study 2012.4.20），如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^

Too much television can be detrimental for kids’ development, even when they’re not plopped directly in front of the screen. And your kids might be getting more exposure to such background TV than you think, a new study finds.

The researchers found that the average American kid was exposed to 232.2 minutes of background television per day — when the TV was on, but the child was engaged in another activity. Younger children and African-America children were exposed to the most background television on average.

“We were ready and willing to accept that the exposure would be high, but we were kind of shocked at how high it really was,” says study author Matthew Lapierre, a doctoral candidate and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. “The fact that kids are exposed to about four hours on average per day definitely knocked us back on our heels a bit.”

knock back 使……大吃一惊

Previous research has found that exposure to background television is linked to lower attention spans, fewer and lower-quality parent-child interactions and reduced performance in cognitive tasks, the authors said in the study.

attention span  注意力持续时间

The current findings came from data gathered in a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,454 American parents with at least one child between the ages of 8 months and 8 years. The parents were asked about how often their TV was on when no one was watching and whether their child had a TV in their bedroom.

“For every minute of television to which children are directly exposed, there are an additional 3 minutes of indirect exposure, making background exposure a much greater proportion of time in a young child’s day,” the authors say in the study.

What they found even more concerning was that kids under 2 and African-American children are exposed to 42% and 45% more background TV, respectively, than the average child.

“It’s particularly concerning because there is evidence this exposure has negative consequences for development,” says Lapierre. According to the authors, these high rates could be the result of parents not counting background TV as exposure or thinking their kids are too young to be affected by it.

“This study should be a warning to parents and day-care providers to shut off the television when no one is watching, and certainly to consider the consequences of having a television in a child’s bedroom no matter how young they may be,” said Cynthia Stohl, the International Communication Association president and professor of communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in a statement.

The researchers are hopeful their findings will further the understanding of how home media practices relate to background television exposure, so recommendations for reducing kids’ exposure can be made.

The new data will be presented at the International Communication Association’s annual conference in Phoenix next month.

Question time:

1. According to previous research, What does exposure to background television result in?

2. What does the word "concerning" mean in Para. 7?

3. What should parents do in order to decrease the negative consequences of exposure to Television?

【参考答案反白可见（按ctrl A即可）】

1. It will result in lower attention spans, fewer and lower-quality parent-child interactions and reduced performance in cognitive tasks.

2. It means worrying.

3. They should shut off the television when no one is watching, and make sure no television in in a child’s bedroom no matter how young they may be

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