时间:2019-01-13 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2011年(七月)


英语课

Online Video Service Targets Infants


These days it seems like American television and videos have us in their clutches from cradle to grave.

On the "grave" side, the Home Box Office cable-TV show "Six Feet Under," about a family-owned funeral home, ran for six years and still airs in reruns.

There's a current reality-TV program about a funeral-home family, too, not to mention a host of shows about forensic 1 experts' inspections 2 of dead bodies.

On the other end of life's spectrum 3, there have been plenty of shows for kids ever since television debuted 4 in the 1940s. Kids - five, six, 10 years old.

But the extreme has been reached with a new online service just for babies. "BabyFirst" is not about babies. It's for wee ones, six months, a year, two years old. Instead of just listening to Mom or Dad sing a lullaby or goo-gooing at a dangling 5 fish above their cribs, infants can watch videos made just for them.

The shows, with titles such as "Elephant Dress-Up" and "Shapes with Peek-a-Boo," are commercial-free, though parents who are watching with their babies are invited to buy products at a store on the site.

According to its homepage, "Baby First's top child development experts have invented a way for babies and toddlers to use the computer themselves."

As the service's executives point out, babies are already watching TV. About two-thirds of American children under two watch something on the tube every day from their parents' laps or their playpens.

Some baby doctors have objected to the baby-video idea. Even the most imaginative shows are no substitute for human interaction, say the pediatricians. They worry that the channel can become a cheap baby-sitter, or that some parents may bombard their tiny tots with hour after hour of shows in an effort to make them smarter.

That's ironic 6, because we're always hearing how dumb we're becoming, watching so much TV.



adj.法庭的,雄辩的
  • The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
  • The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后,法官于10时30分宣布休庭。
n.检查( inspection的名词复数 );检验;视察;检阅
  • Regular inspections are carried out at the prison. 经常有人来视察这座监狱。
  • Government inspections ensure a high degree of uniformity in the standard of service. 政府检查确保了在服务标准方面的高度一致。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.谱,光谱,频谱;范围,幅度,系列
  • This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
  • We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成,我们已了解不少。
初次表演,初次登台(debut的过去式与过去分词形式)
  • In late 2003 a full-size SUV, the Pathfinder Armada, debuted. 2003年末,全尺寸SUV的探路者无敌舰队,推出。
  • The album debuted at number two and quickly went platinum. 专辑一亮相就荣登排行榜第二名,很快就取得了白金销量。
悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口
  • The tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now. 结果,那颗牙就晃来晃去吊在床柱上了。
  • The children sat on the high wall,their legs dangling. 孩子们坐在一堵高墙上,摇晃着他们的双腿。
adj.讽刺的,有讽刺意味的,出乎意料的
  • That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
  • People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”,但他们是在挖苦我。
学英语单词
acousto-optical crystal
Adrastus
anthracenetriol
antiimperialists
audad
axels
basiphthalmite
bat for the other team
be flashy
bioisoster
bow-thruster tunnel
camp-outs
capital-common stock
cardiographs
carging
channel charging
chipmunk voices
Companies Registry
construe with
copy mask
cotton cord
cutoff rigidity
cyclodecane
Daniells cell
end of calling code
environmental impact assessment
equation of exchange
fair-like
fining varnish
Fistulinaceae
fluctuating power of a polyphase system
flute rill mark
frame slot default
Francesco della Rovere
fringier
galva
gate non-trigger voltage
golf pro
hexagonal antihemihedron
hitomi
hole diggers
Hordabφ
intracellular ice formation
invariant of stress
Istiaia
kapetanovic
Karsulphan
local express
Maimonides
maritime radio navigation land station
maxillar
menuet
mortierella hygrophila
multineme
neckera flexiramea
nonmatching control
oruzgan
ounce
outsparkles
Pederobba
pelvic brim
percent of pass
perfect elastoplastic material
peritoneum pigment
phyllocoptes mediotransversus
platelike crystal
portable laboratory
posh
potassium lanthanum nitrate
precostal spur
ptychosperma elegans
pulsating relay
punctuist
read additionally
recognition of a new government
reproductive success
reptilium
Salopur
series-parallel circuit
short-circuit imput admittance
smooth dogfish
spotlight effect
stand under load
stickler
sunw
superordinations
sure-handdely
swifters
t-pad
Tanizaki Prize
terrill
thenal
thermal emissivity
top-blown oxygen converter
tortella
tourneries
trial casting
Trombidiidae
turve
unreign
wearable computing
zincane