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
a-m threshold
adder's-mouth
amplitude distortion factor
Ankoro
armature shaft oil retainer
Arnoya
as meek as a as a maid
audiovideo
be expressed
bicelles
bilken
broad grip
bucket lanyard
buxandonine
calgaries
carbopol
cattaro (kotor)
chartered-back
chuas
coalbed
coefficient of supersaturation
continuously running oscillation
criterion-referenced test
curved holographic optical element
dairy heifer replacement
degree of deviation
Delatest
designated terminal
diagenetic deformation
drying mechanism
dystrophic calcinosis cutis
east-south-easterly
elective neck dissection
EMGGE
epithetish
face-to-face duplex ball bearing
family psocidaes
fast-slow separation
flat face CRT
frels
full-elliptic spring
haulser
hiemal climate
impermeabilized
individual investors
infantile diarrhea
Irō-zaki
jiminies
Killington Peak
lateral cricoarytenoid muscle
lemongrass oils
linearities
Lloyd George, David
London, City of
masuk
meandereth
medically underserved area
microkernel OS
microridge
Mitterrandist
monodiplopia
Noise modulation.
onymatic
orache
orangeats
over there
over-standing
parental organism
pathologico-
pavement blowup
pulverulent
reactor breakdown
reades
root cellars
senchip
sextine
shelf type core oven
shop-talks
slow-operation relay
soft binary
sphagnum cuspidatulm
stepped austenitizing
strontium aluminate activated by lead
superciliaris
Symplocos ernestii
syphilitic teeth
take ... to the cleaners
the holy city
to hold...in abomination
trade journal
triple word
uncoverers
upright drilling machine
Vaglio Basilicata
vulgar economics
Wallgau
water colo(u)r
weld-nut
wimpzilla
word count program
worsfold
zero grazing