2. 外语
  3. We are told that the mass media are the greatest organs for enlightenment that the world has yet seen; that in Britain, for inst

We are told that the mass media are the greatest organs for enlightenment that the world has yet seen; that in Britain, for inst

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问题     We are told that the mass media are the greatest organs for enlightenment that the world has yet seen; that in Britain, for instance, several million people see each issue of the current affairs programme, Panorama. It is true that never in human history were so many people so often and so much exposed to so many intimations about societies, forms of life, attitudes other than those which obtain in their own local societies. This kind of exposure may well be a point of departure for acquiring certain important intellectual and imaginative qualities; width of judgment, a sense of the variety of possible attitudes. Yet in itself such exposure does not bring intellectual or imaginative development. It is no more than the masses of stone which lie around in a quarry and which may, conceivably, go to the making of a cathedral. The mass media cannot build the cathedral, and their way of showing the stones does not always prompt others to build. For the stones are presented within a self-contained and self-sufficient world in which, it is implied, simply to look at them, to observe—fleetingly—individually interesting points of difference between them, is sufficient in itself.
    Life is indeed full of problems on which we have to—or feel we should try to—make decisions, as citizens or as private individuals. But neither the real difficulty of these decisions, nor their true and disturbing challenge to each individual, can often be communicated through the mass media. The disinclination to suggest real choice, individual decision, which is to be found in the mass media is not simply the product of a commercial desire to keep the customers happy. It is within the grain of mass communications. The organs of the Establishment, however well-intentioned they may be and whatever their form(the State, the Church, voluntary societies, political parties), have a vested interest in ensuring that the public boat is not violently rocked, and will so affect those who work within the mass media that then will be led insensibly towards forms of production which, though they go through the motions of dispute and enquiry, do not break through the skin to where such enquiries might really hurt. They will tend to move, when exposing problems, well within the accepted cliche assumptions of democratic society and will tend neither radically to question these cliches nor to make a disturbing application of them to features of contemporary life. They will stress the "stimulation" the programmes give, but this soon becomes an agitation of problems for the sake of the interest of that agitation in itself; they will therefore, again, assist a form of acceptance of the status quo. There are exceptions to this tendency, but they are uncharacteristic.
    The result can be seen in a hundred radio and television programmes as plainly as in the normal treatment of public issues in the popular press. Different levels of background in the readers or viewers may be assumed, but what usually takes place is a substitute for the process of arriving at judgment. Programmes such as this are noteworthy less for the "stimulation" they offer than for the fact that that stimulation(repeated at regular intervals)may become a substitute for, and so a hindrance to, judgments carefully arrived at and tested in the mind and on the pulses. Mass communications, then do not ignore intellectual matters; they tend to castrate them, to allow them to sit on the side of the fireplace, sleek and useless, a family plaything.
The author holds that the Establishment should try to______.
选项 A、do a good service to society
B、alter the form of public institutions
C、maintain its position in society
D、kindle strong emotions in the public
答案B
解析 细节题。根据第二段“The organs of the Establishment，however well—intentioned they may be and whatever their form(the State,the Church,voluntary societies，political parties)…they will therefore，again，assist a form of acceptance of the statusquo．There are exceptions to this tendency，but they are uncharacteristic．”可知，无论其初衷有多好，不管其形式(国家、教会、自愿社团、政党)怎样，集团机构在确保公众之船不会剧烈摇晃方面都有既得权利，而这样将影响大众媒体的工作人员，然后将被不知不觉地引向产物形式，尽管他们经历了不断的争议和质问，但是这些质问并没有冲破表象伤到要害。揭露问题时，他们常常会在民主社会可接受的陈腐论调中游走。他们既不会激进地质问那些陈词滥调，也不会不安地把它们应用到当代社会特征中去。他们会强调这个节目产生的“刺激作用”，但是为了寻求这种煽动本身的利益，这种“刺激作用”很快会成为一种难缠的煽动。因此，他们会再次有助于形成一种可接受的现状。这种趋势也有例外，但是却不典型。由此可知，作者认为应努力改变公共机构的形式。所以正确答案是B选项。
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