Narrator Listen to part of a conversation between two students. Now get ready to answer the questions. You may use your

Lucy  Long time no see. How are you going?
Kevin  Good to see you again. I’m busy with my final paper these days.
Lucy  Wow. How is that?
Kevin  Well, Professor Smith required me to research violence on television. For me, you know, it’s really challenging. At the very beginning, I had no idea of how to go about it.
Lucy  Indeed, it’s quite demanding.
Kevin  Fortunately, Professor Smith did me a favor and told me how to make a research design and the efficient way to gather material.
Lucy  And now how’s it going?
Kevin  Very well actually. I’ve been doing the market research project. I have just gotten the results of the survey back and so now I have got to draw some conclusions from the information i’ve collected.
Lucy  That’s good. I’m still writing my questionnaire. In fact I’m starting to panic as the project deadline is in two weeks and I don’t seem to be making much progress at all.
Kevin  What is your topic?
Lucy  Forms of Transportation in the City. What about you?
Kevin  I’ve been finding out people’s attitudes to the amount of violence on television.
Lucy  That’s interesting. What do your results show?
Kevin  Well, as I said, I haven’t finished writing up my conclusions yet, but it seems most people think there is a problem. Unfortunately, no real agreement has been reached on the action that needs to be taken.
Lucy  What did they say?
Kevin  Nearly everyone surveyed said that there was too much violence on TV. A lot of people complained that American police serials and Chinese kung fu films were particularly violent. The main objection seems to be that although a lot of people get shot, stabbed, decapitated and so on, the films never show the consequences of this violence. Although people die and get horribly injured, nobody seems to suffer or live with the injuries. Any children watching might take the heroes of these programs as role models and copy their behavior.
Lucy  So what should be done as most people suggest?
Kevin  A lot of people are concerned about how these films affect children. They are particularly worried that children will try to behave like the stars. The survey shows that violent programs should only be broadcast after 10:00 p. m. when most children are already in bed. There is also a significant minority of people who feel that violent films should be banned altogether.
Lucy  How did people feel about the violence on news broadcasts?
Kevin  Most of the responses I have looked at have felt that violence on news broadcasts is more acceptable as it’s real. Although it is unpleasant, it is important to keep in touch with reality. Still, many people thought that it would be better to restrict violent scenes to late evening.
Lucy  So how are you going to do your research?
Kevin  I’m going to interview my residents in the shopping mall. What I’ll do is asking people if they have five minutes to spare to answer a few questions. If they agree, I will ask them some multiple choice questions and tick off their answers on my sheet. In that way I can select people of all ages and attitudes,  so my sample should be reasonably representative.
Lucy  Do your residents agree to answer your questions? I mean, do they like to share their ideas with you?
Kevin  Not all. Sometimes they think it’s useless to do such research, they take it for granted.
Lucy  Oh. Isn’t it very difficult to ask meaningful questions using multiple choices?
Kevin  Yes, it is. I suppose your survey has the advantage of more detailed information. However, in most cases people won’t bother to give answers that require toe much effort on their part.
Lucy  So then, do you have any tips for writing a successful survey based on your experience?
Kevin  Er... the secret is to write simple multiple choice questions that target the information you are looking for. Therefore, it is better to write a lot of short specific questions than fewer longer general ones.