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
accept payment
actual mechanism
advancing contact angle
al balaim lagoon
albumn
alpha region
amygdaloid nucleus
and daddy was a fireman
angle blanking
anti-rolling tank
area defence
automatic volume compressor
before you could say Jack Robinson
biomechanistic
bloodspotting
boot leg
brass plated steel wire
broad-scaler
cabin fittings
channel grant high
Chartered Patent Agent
commerical harbor
computer sensitive language
coscinaraea columna
cuddie
dependable software
disranges
dittohead
dynamic sheet of fixed assets
Edward Lee Thorndike
embarcadere
epitrimerus parvispina
europeo
factious spirit
feeling of safety
fixed interval schedule
flange gasket
fraxinus velutinas
fruits
gavurin
glyoxide
gray magick
grid noise
haematoxylons
hand - to - hand combat
Hardinge conical mill
heavy oil rotary pump
hongkong
impact probe
interactive entry
Isodon oresbius
isotope
kellog
least-favourite
letching
long absent, soon forgotten
Mach band
matched-pair
matt varnish
mean sampling
mean width ratio
measuring the potential of hydrogen
modular language
MTR (materials testing reactor)
murdery
muscle in
noseprints
not get a word in edgeways
nucleofecting
optimal sustainable yield
optimized dispatching
ordinary day
organic heterojunction
ostery
paired disparity code
photoionised
play the idiot
poke fun
propane dewaxing process
ramollescene
register galley
remaining runway
responsivenesses
Ross,Harold Wallace
self cancelling
series of potential
service limits
setup fee
sink at sight
squaring valve
staggering stitch
starings
submittal
tearing strength by trapezoid method
terpilene
Teucrium viscidum Bl.
the stock market
traction boiler
underput
water aerated
win general acceptance
Zubayr, Jazā'ir az