Section IIReading Comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on Answer Sheet 1. (40 points)
Text 1
The abundant commentary on British television’s faking crises, including Jeremy Pitman’s recent Mac Taggart Lecture, doesn’t show British’s media in the best light. The chorus of TV executives complaining that the core issue is a loss of “trust” is a poor substitute for probing analysis of the underlying reasons why television’s standards and integrity have been undermined.
In many accounts, the BBC’s current agonies are integrated with the pervasive apprehension afflicting the TV industry. This is not to excuse the BBC. But the wider problems have been worsening for a decade, and they affect the BBC because the corporation is inevitably influenced by the wider broadcasting ecology.
The causes of the problems are several. Hypercompetition from the early Nineties onwards has led to a culture of rampant commercialism from which the BBC is not exempt, as is shown by the promotion of ratings-chasing, sensationalist and populist programs. Crucial, too, are the changes to working conditions, in particular a catastrophic decline in training, the growth of shortterm employment, the erosion of career structures, and prevalent ageism, which leads to experienced producers being kicked out at 50 or before.
But the most important cause is obscured in the present debate: the outsourcing of production to independent companies, the leading figures of which are international businesses, and which are particularly tempted to put profit over standards and quality. This is where the government comes in, as the prominent position of the independents is due to repeated restructurings of the industry, during which the old producer-broadcasters were collapsed and the independents were given more and more of the cake. Right now, spurred on by a disappointing licensefee settlement, the BBC is making further cuts to its already depleted production base and increasing independent programming. Why should this matter? Because with outsourcing, the lines of communication and responsibility are fragmented, making it difficult for broadcasters to oversee and enforce standards with disobedient commercial suppliers. This problem is rarely acknowledged and little understood in public debate.
Renewed values and purposes: these can’t stem the tide when the incentives are piled to encourage deliberate deception and the manufacture of celebrity. Finally, nor is it true to claim, as some executives complacently do, that audiences have only recently decided they expect more from television. For some years, research has shown that audiences are mightily fed up with the diet of lacking initiative, lowquality output. The BBC can’t reverse the rot alone. As has been recently grasped, integrity and quality are best cultivated competitively between media companies that are regulated and funded to deliver them.
21. It can be inferred from the first three paragraphs that
[A] British media is enjoying positive comments from its viewers.
[B] TV standards have been declined by the loss of responsibility.
[C] BBC is no longer affected by the wider broadcasting environment.
[D] a prevalent culture of commercialism exerts a great effect on BBC.
22. According to the author, BBC’s current problems are really caused by
[A] excessive competition in the early 1990s.
[B] renting TV production to independent corporations.
[C] a serious decline in job training.
[D] cutting profit to its production base.
23. It can be inferred from the fourth paragraph that
[A] TV broadcasters have effectively supervised all program standards.
[B] the independents have been declining by being restructured repeatedly.
[C] standards and quality should be put in TV production over profit.
[D] the public explicitly understand the outsourcing of TV production.
24. The text is intended to find out
[A] the reasons for the gradual decline of British TV industry.
[B] the causes of the undermining of British TV standards and integrity.
[C] the disappointment of audiences at TV program production.
[D] the fierce competition between media companies in Britain.
25. The author’s attitude towards the British TV industry seems to
[A] concerned [B] positive [C] praiseworthy [D] gloomy
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