电视迷 TV addicts

Hello, I’m Rob.
大家好，我是罗波。
And I’m Cath.
我是凯斯。
And this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. Today we’re talking about a very popular subject - television. Now Cath, I have to ask you, are you a big TV addict?
这里是6分钟英语BBC英语学习栏目。今天我们讨论一个十分流行的主题——电视。凯斯，我有个问题，你是一个电视迷吗？
I don’t think I’m a big TV addict but you know if there’s a really good series on I do get a bit addicted to it.
我不认为我是一个电视迷，但是如果有一个很好的频道我就有点上瘾了。
Well Cath, you’re quite unusual actually because watching TV has become one of our most popular pastimes, and in the UK television has recently been celebrating a special birthday. More on that in a moment it’s now time to find out how much you really know about television. Let’s see if you can answer this question.According to an official survey how many hours a week on average does someone in the UK watch television? Is it:a) 20 hoursb) 30 hoursc) 40 hours
好吧，凯斯，你实际上是很不寻常的，因为看电视已成为我们最受欢迎的消遣，而在英国电视台最近庆祝了一个特别的生日。稍后将有更多，现在让我们了解一下你到底对电视有多少了解。让我们看看你是否能回答这个问题。据官方调查，在英国的人们平均每周看电视多少个小时？是：a）20小时b）30小时c）40小时
I can’t believe the average would be 40 hours a week. I’m not very good at maths but that’s a lot every day isn’t it.
我不相信平均会有40个小时。我算数不好，但那样子每天要看很久不是吗。
It’s a popular pastime.
它是一个受欢迎的娱乐消遣项目。
It is a very popular pastime. OK, I’m going to do what I always do and go for the middle one – 30 hours a week.
它是一个十分受欢迎的娱乐消遣项目。好吧，我就按照我以前那么做，选择中间的，30小时一周。
30 hours. Well, we’ll see if you’re right at the end of the programme. We know that people around the world love to watch TV but did you know it’s the UK where the first regular public broadcast began 75 years ago.
30小时。好吧，我们将在节目的最后查看你的答案是否正确。我们知道世界各地的人都喜欢看电视，但你知道75年前开始的第一个常规公共广播是在英国吗。
So that’s the special birthday you mentioned. Daily TV broadcasting began back in 1936 – and who was the broadcaster?
所以，这就是我向你提及的特殊的生日。每日电视广播自1936年开始，这个广播叫什么呢？
It was us – the BBC! The British Broadcasting Corporation. But of course it had taken years of developing and experimenting before people could watch television at home.
它就是我们的BBC！英国广播公司。但当然是在进行了多年的开发和试验之后，人们才可以在家里看电视。
And the development of this new medium was the result of work by many inventors, people like John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth. So let’s hear from the BBC’s Nick Higham about the early days of television…
这种新媒介的发展是许多诸如约翰·洛基·贝尔德和菲罗.范斯沃斯这类发明家的工作成果。所以让我们来听听来自BBC的尼克海厄姆关于早期电视的报道。
Ready on vision, and sound. Vision and sound are on. (Whistle) The station goes on the air…They thought of calling it photo telegraphy, seeing by wireless or the electric telescope. They settled for television, and the world was never the same again.
准备好视频和音频。视频音频准备就绪。(鸣笛)开始广播。因为这是通过无线电或电动望远镜收看的，他们便想把它称作照片电报。他们将其称为电视，意味着世界从此不再单调。
So we just the sound of the first TV programme going on-air and then Nick Higham explaining other names that were considered for this new invention.
我们刚刚听到了第一个广播电视节目，接下来尼克海厄姆会为您解释这项新发明的其它命名。
Such as photo telegraphy – telegraphy is about transmitting messages over a distance electronically, so in this case transmitting pictures. Another suggested name was electric telescope – I quite like that.It’s a good name isn’t it; but inventors decided to settle for – or agree on – the name television and as Nick Higham said, the world was never the same again.Now so much of our life and what we talk about is influenced by what we see on TV.
如照片电报，电报是通过电子将信息传递一段距离的方式，所以也是这样传递图片的。另一个建议的名字是电动望远镜，这个我很喜欢。这是个很棒的名字，但发明者决定同意命名为电视，正如尼克海厄姆所说，世界从此不再单调。现在我们大部分生活和谈话受到了电视节目的影响。
But 75 years ago when the regular TV broadcasts started, what was shown on television was quite limited.
但75年前常规电视节目开始时，电视上播放的节目是相当有限的。
It was, as we can hear now from Television historian, John Trenouth. Listen out for the word he uses to describe radio…
接下来电视历史学家约翰会为我们讲述。留心听他用来描述广播的词汇。
Well it was an hour in the afternoon and an hour in the evening. And it was a whole range of material. Bearing in mind that nobody really knew what television programmes should be, and so all sorts of things were tried. And one of the things they were very keen to do was to try things that could not be done on the radio, or as they called it at that time the wireless. So ballet was one thing that was tried; and various demonstrations, which included a demonstration of chrysanthemums, the start of the sort of TV gardener; a gentleman who came in and talked about the fact that he’d built a model of the Golden Hinde from matchsticks…
它会在每天下午一小时和每天晚上一小时播放。所播报的门类齐全。没有人真正知道电视节目应该怎样播报，所以尝试了各种东西。他们非常热衷于做一些在电台（当时成为无线电）无法播放的东西。尝试过芭蕾舞剧，还有各种各样的展示，包括菊花展，也就是电视园丁的鼻祖；一个绅士谈论他用火柴做了一个戈尔登汗德号... ...
So the BBC broadcast just two hours of television a day but those two hours had a whole range of material.
所以BBC每天只播报两个小时，但这两个小时里会播报各种事物。
Yes, there was variety including ballet, gardening demonstrations, building models.
是的，有很多种类，包括芭蕾舞剧、园艺展示、建造模型。
Interesting stuff! These were visual things that couldn’t be done on the radio – or wireless as it used to be called. But it was all very experimental because nobody really knew what should be shown in a television programme.
真有趣！这些都是无法在电台或无线电播放的视频类的东西。这些都是实验性的，因为没有人真正知道电视节目上应该展示什么。
Of course if you wanted to watch all these lovely new programmes you needed to have a new piece of furniture in your living room – the TV set.
当然，如果你想收看这些可爱的新项目，你需要在你家客厅里放置一个新型家具——电视机。
But there were only an estimated 400 TV sets in UK homes which could receive this first broadcast. They weren’t cheap and some people were suspicious of this mystical new device.
但据估计在英国家庭里只有400台电视机能收看到首次播报。这并不便宜，而且有些人怀疑这一新型设备。
There were lots of strange ideas about this new piece of equipment and some people thought it was a two-way medium!
对于这一新型设备人们有很多奇怪的想法，甚至有些人认为这是一个双向媒介！
Yes, people actually thought that people inside the TV set could see them at home so they put a cloth over the screen!
是的，人们真的认为电视机里的人们会看到他们在家里，所以他们用一块布盖在屏幕上！
Now that would be an incredible invention, wouldn’t it! Anyway, manufacturers – the people who made the sets – did eventually put doors on the front which could be closed when someone had stopped watching TV.
现在，将是一个令人难以置信的发明，不是吗！无论如何，制造商们最终在电视前面设置了一扇门，当不想看电视的时候就可以把门关上。
I don’t think we get TV sets with doors on now but the technology has certainly developed at an incredible rate. Now in the UK we can get TV sets with huge screens and with pictures in high definition and 3-D. You can even watch TV on your mobile phone!
我认为我们现在的电视机上没有门，但这一技术确实以难以置信的速度发展着。现在在英国，我们拥有了大屏幕、高清晰画面、3-D的电视机。你甚至可以用手机看电视！
And the number of channels we can watch has also expanded, particularly with the development of satellite television. Now we are spoilt for choice, it’s no wonder the British spend much of their time watching TV.
可以观看的频道数目也有所增加，提别是随着电视卫星的发展。现在我们眼花缭乱，难怪英国人花这么多时间看电视。
Ah, but how much Cath?! Earlier I asked you a question. According to an official survey how many hours a week on average does someone in the UK watch television?
啊，凯斯，答案究竟是多少呢？之前我问过你一个问题。据官方调查，在英国的人们平均每周看电视多少个小时？
And I said 30. So was I right?
我选择了30。我是正确的吗？
Yes you were, fantastic, well done!
是的你的回答是正确的，真不可思议，干的好！
Oh good!
哦太棒了！
OK Cath, we’ve just time for you to remind us of some of the vocabulary that we’ve heard in today’s programme.
凯斯，你提醒一下今天在我们节目中提到的一些词汇吧。
OK, we had:addictmediumtelegraphyto settle forvisualexperimentalmysticalmanufacturershigh definitionspoilt for choice
好吧，我们有：上瘾媒体电报解决可视化实验性的神秘的制造商高清晰度眼花缭乱
Thanks Cath and thank you for listening. Please join us again for another programme soon. Bye.
谢谢凯斯，感谢大家的收听。下期节目请您继续关注。再见。
Bye!
再见！