---
url: https://gaojian.site/new-concept/book-4/50-television-and-education.md
description: 新概念英语第四册：Television and Education。精读、词块回忆、双向译练、句法、逻辑与FSRS复习。
---

# 拓展 · 论电视技术和教育

### 第1段

Television is a method of communication. It is about as revolutionary as the invention of printing. Neither printing nor television is in itself an idea, or power, or good or bad. They are simply methods by which ideas and experiences can be communicated faster to more people. It is perhaps because the characteristics of television, which determine what it can best communicate, are so different from those of printing, that professional educationists were reluctant for so long to interest themselves in the newer method.
Printing and television are certainly alike in that both are costly to the producers of the communication and relatively cheap to the receiver. They are both, therefore, mass media which depend upon reaching great numbers. But whereas the printed word, being relatively permanent, can communicate to numbers of like minds over centuries, television is relatively ephemeral and communicates, using both pictures and words, to millions of unlike minds at the same moment in time. Moreover television appeals not only to those who can read but to those who can't.
Professional educationists, accustomed to communication through words, and highly valuing reading and the quality of the like minds reachable through books, saw television, in its early years, not only as a rival for attention but as an enemy of the good. Some ten years ago a friend said to me: "We in Oxford may be old fashioned and fuddy-duddy, but most of us think that television is actively detrimental." Even that great pioneer of teaching by radio, the late Mary Somerville, had no faith in television. "It won't last," she said to me. "It's a flash in the pan." And many in the world of education no doubt hoped that this was true.
The situation has now altered. It is clear that television is no flash in the pan. So educationists all over the world are trying to get access to its "power", often by attempting to use traditional methods of academic teaching to inculcate, through television, the ideas and attitudes in which they devotedly believe. But one of the characteristics of television is that it has no power other than that created by the wish of people to watch it. If nobody watches it, then television has no power.

中文理解：电视是一种传播手段，其革命性大致可与印刷术的发明相比。印刷术和电视本身都不是思想，也不是力量，无所谓善恶。它们只是让思想和经验更快地传给更多人的方法。电视的特点，决定了它最适合传播什么；而这些特点又与印刷术大不相同。也许正因如此，专业教育工作者长期不愿关注这种较新的传播手段。
印刷和电视确实有相似之处：对传播内容的制作者来说，两者成本都很高；对接收者来说，却相对便宜。因此，它们都是依靠覆盖大量受众的大众媒体。不过，印成文字的内容较为持久，能够跨越几个世纪，与许多志趣相投的人交流；电视则稍纵即逝，在同一时刻，通过画面和语言，把内容传给数百万想法各异的人。此外，电视不仅吸引识字的人，也吸引不识字的人。
专业教育工作者习惯通过文字交流，十分重视阅读，也看重那些能通过书籍联系起来、志趣相投的读者的素养。因此，在电视问世初期，他们不仅把它看作争夺注意力的对手，也把它视为美好事物的敌人。大约十年前，一位朋友对我说：“我们牛津人也许守旧、迂腐，但多数人都认为，电视确实有害。”就连已故的广播教学先驱玛丽·萨默维尔，也不相信电视会有前途。她曾对我说：“它长不了，不过是昙花一现。”教育界的许多人无疑也盼着她说得对。
如今，情况变了。电视显然不是昙花一现。因此，世界各地的教育工作者都想利用它的“力量”，往往试图沿用传统的课堂教学方法，通过电视灌输自己深信不疑的观念和态度。但电视有一个特点：它的力量完全来自人们愿意观看；除此之外，它别无力量。没人看，电视也就没有力量。

* **a method of communication**：一种传播方式；method后of接名词或doing，区别于媒介内容本身。

* **in itself**：本身；把工具本身与实际用途分开。

* **by which**：借以；通过它；undefined

* **interest themselves in**：让自己关注；较书面，日常可用take an interest in。

* **alike in that**：相似之处在于；in that解释比较依据，不是泛泛说一样。

* **costly to**：对……成本高；同一事物对制作者与受众的成本可不同。

* **relatively cheap**：相对便宜；undefined

* **mass media**：大众媒体；medium为单个媒介，media为复数或集合概念。

* **relatively permanent**：相对持久的；undefined

* **at the same moment**：在同一时刻；undefined

* **appeals**：有吸引力；to说明吸引哪类人，不是appeal someone。

* **accustomed to**：习惯于；表示已经习惯；这里 to 是介词，后面做某事用 -ing。

* **highly valuing**：十分重视；undefined

* **a rival for attention**：争夺注意力的对手；for说明争取对象，with或to说明对手关系。

* **had no faith in**：不相信；否定后是缺乏信心，不是没有宗教。

* **a flash in the pan**：昙花一现；评价是否持久，可能事后证明判断有误。

* **has now altered**：如今已经改变；完成时把过去形成的变化接到当下；now提示与前面原先态度作对照。

* **get access to**：取得使用……的机会；access通常不可数，to为介词。

* **inculcate**：反复灌输；undefined

* **other than**：除了……以外；在否定句中限定唯一来源，别漏掉no。

* **the wish of people**：人们的意愿；undefined

#### Television is a method of communication.

简单句，主系表结构. 这里的 television 从全文来看，所讨论的是电视技术在教育上的应用，故取电视技术之意.

#### It is about as revolutionary as the invention of printing.

简单句，主系表结构. about 在这里是介词，意为 almost the same as; close to; near. 整个为介词短语作表语.

#### Neither printing nor television is in itself an idea, or power, or good or bad.

简单句，主系表结构. 表否定的连接词作主语，后面的名词及形容词均作表语.

#### They are simply methods by which ideas and experiences can be communicated faster to more people.

复合句，主句为主系表结构，后面接一个 by which 引导的定语从句，表示该方式

\[1] 具体可见 https://www.bbc.com/charityappeals/appeals/grants/grace-wyndham-goldie.

的具体传播情况.

#### It is perhaps because the characteristics of television, which determine what it can best communicate, are so different from those of printing, that professional educationists were reluctant for so long to interest themselves in the newer method.

复合句，主句为 it is because 主系+表语从句结构，该表语从句一直到句末. 表语从句是主系表结构，the characteristics are different. 在这个表语从句中，有一个 which 引导的非限制性定语从句修饰 characteristics，最后是 so…that 结构所引导的目的状语从句，该从句也是主系表结构. 这里 interest sb./yourself in sth.为使感兴趣，使关注之意.

二战结束之后，电视就已经在英美逐步进入消费市场了，1950 年代，电视已经是影响公众意见的主要媒介了，故而在本文发表的1964 年，电视已经是生活中非常平常的家电了，却仍未能被教育工作所接受，故而作者有此感慨.

#### Printing and television are certainly alike in that both are costly to the producers of the communication and relatively cheap to the receiver.

复合句，主句主系表结构，后跟 in that 复合连词所引导的原因状语从句，用来说明哪些地方相似. 该状语从句为主系表结构，这里 costly 为形容词.

#### They are both, therefore, mass media which depend upon reaching great numbers.

复合句，主句主系表结构，后面有一个 which 引导的定语从句，为主谓宾结构.

#### But whereas the printed word, being relatively permanent, can communicate to numbers of like minds over centuries, television is relatively ephemeral and communicates, using both pictures and words, to millions of unlike minds at the same moment in time.

communicates…

复合句，这里 whereas 引导的对比状语从句更恰当的位置应该是放在主句之后，而非之前，此处 whereas 可以理解为 while on the contrary，而非 although. 该从句中， being permanent 为现在分词短语作原因状语，从句和主句的内容在对比印刷品与电视技术的传播时效和受众情况，同样的对比项，所采用的表达有所变化.

主句为并列句，television is ephemeral 为主系表结构，and 后面省略了主语 television，所以 communicates 要加 s.

印刷的 word 应译为文字，而后面电视的 words 应译为话语，也就是电视播放的对话和旁白，因下文提到，即便不认字的人也被电视吸引.

#### Moreover television appeals not only to those who can read but to those who can't.

简单句，主谓结构，后面是 not only…but (also)的句型，to sb.介词短语表对象，只不过这两个状语中各含有一个 who 引导的定语从句修饰 those，我们额外予以细分.

#### Professional educationists, accustomed to communication through words, and highly valuing reading and the quality of the like minds reachable through books, saw television, in its early years, not only as a rival for attention but as an enemy of the good.

简单句，主谓宾+宾补结构. 主语后面跟了两个比较长的定语，第一个定语中 to 是介词，后面跟名词或者动名词，与 accustomed 一起使用来表达习惯于某事. 第二个是现在分词短语，补充说明这些教育家高度重视阅读以及通过书籍可以接触到的相近心灵；若改写为定语从句，可用 who highly value reading…，不必机械补成 who are valuing，而 saw 在这里不是看电视的 watch，而是视作，把电视看作什么，后面 as 所带的内容为宾语补足语.

这里的 like minds 是跟着上段的表达而来，主要讲电视技术和印刷文字的受众群体对比情况，教育家们觉得书本所传播的受众素质更高，说白了就是觉得电视的受众比较俗，跟书本的读者素质比不得. 这段长句我拆成3 个短句来翻译，更符合中文表达习惯.

#### Some ten years ago a friend said to me: "We in Oxford may be old fashioned and fuddy-duddy, but most of us think that television is actively detrimental."

A friend said 为主句，主谓+宾语从句结构，后面的直接引语在语法上属于宾语从句，本书不作标记. 该直接引语为并列复合句，but 连接两个句子，前句为主系表结构. 后句为主谓+that 引导的宾语从句结构，句中 actively detrimental 表示“确实有害、会产生实质性危害”，actively 在这里加强 harmful 的含义，不是“恶化地”，也不能套用 tending to become more severe 这一解释。

#### Even that great pioneer of teaching by radio, the late Mary Somerville, had no faith in television.

简单句，主谓结构. 句中人名 Mary Somerville (1897-1963)为电教先锋的同位语，此人在20 世纪三四十年代是 BBC 的首任广播教育项目负责人，请留意，本文写于1964 年，late 在此为形容词，no longer alive, especially someone who has died recently. 故而在其名字前加上了该词.

of teaching by radio 整个作定语，此处额外划分了方式状语仅用以理解.

#### "It won't last," she said to me.

简单句，主谓宾结构. 直接引语在语法上为宾语从句，本书不予标记，该直接引语为主谓结构.

#### "It's a flash in the pan."

简单句，主系表结构. 句中用了俗语，该俗语的来源如下：This expression has its origins \[in the way] {that (an old-fashioned) gun worked.} Pulling the trigger produced a spark (which set light \[to a small amount of gunpowder] (held in the 'pan').) This \[in turn] lit the rest of the gunpowder. \[However], \[if it failed to do so] there was \[just] a \`flash in the pan' and the gun did not fire \[properly]. 'Hang fire' has a (similar) origin. 即从老式枪支的工作

\[1] Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.. 2012. HarperCollins Publishers 方式而来，扣动扳机点燃火花去引燃“火药池（pan）”里少量的火药. 这样才能由此引燃剩余的火药. 不过，如果无法引燃剩余的火药，那么就只有火药池里的火药稍微一闪，枪支无法正常发射. Hang Fire 的表达与此同源. 翻译的话，可以用昙花一现来表达.

#### And many in the world of education no doubt hoped that this was true.

复合句，主谓+宾语从句结构. that 引导的宾语从句为主系表结构.

#### The situation has now altered.

简单句，主谓结构.

#### It is clear that television is no flash in the pan.

复合句，主句主系表结构，it 为形式主语，后面 that 引导的主语从句才是真正的主语，该主语从句为主系表结构.

#### So educationists all over the world are trying to get access to its "power", often by attempting to use traditional methods of academic teaching to inculcate, through television, the ideas and attitudes in which they devotedly believe.

复合句，主句是主谓宾结构，动词不定式短语 to get…作宾语，后面是一些不同的状语，如表方式的 by attempting to use methods 这里细分的话，to use 也是动词不定式作宾语，属于成分里面的关系. 最后有一个 in which 引导的定语从句，主谓结构.

#### But one of the characteristics of television is that it has no power other than that created by the wish of people to watch it.

复合句，主系+表语从句结构. that 引导的表语从句为主谓宾结构.

#### If nobody watches it, then television has no power.

复合句，主句为主谓宾结构，开头是 if 引导的条件状语从句，亦为主谓宾结构.

## 学完这一课

用a method by which解释一个工具如何传递内容。

[Nce · 本册复习台](/new-concept/book-4/review) · [三册选择地图](/new-concept/)

*译文依据整理稿，由本站按中文表达重新校订；解析据吴应时整理资料及首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第242—246页，2022年2月第2版。*