A New English Course (5) Lecture Notes
Unit 5: The Plug-in Drug: TV & the American Family
Unit 5
Text I
The Plug-in Drug: TV & the American Family
Teaching aims
1. Use of quotations as an expository means
2. Cause and effect development in writing.
3. Cultivation of social awareness and critical ability
Main and difficult teaching points: relevant information; understanding the thesis;
text organization; text comprehension; language points; the use of quotations
pattern in expository writing
Time allotment: 9 periods
Teaching Procedures:
I. Warm-up activities
1. Use questions to elicit students’ response to
 the author’s major message concern
 impression of the text.
2. Discuss the implications of the title
 What does the word “drug” connote to you?
 Can you infer from the subtitle of the essay “TV and the American family”
the meaning of the main title “The Plug-in Drug”?
 Why does the author associate TV with drug?
 How does the title reveal the author’s attitude and the message she intends
to get across?
3. Check students’ attitudes towards TV. Ask students how they react to the
author’s opinion by such questions as
 Do you like watching TV? Are you TV-addicted?
 Do you agree with the author that TV has harmful effects?
 What roles do you assign to TV?
 What effect does TV have on the Chinese family as a general rule?
 Do you think the author’s concern is relevant to the situation here in
China?
II. Relevant information
1. About the author
Marie Winn is the author of The Playground Book, The Sick Book, The Baby
Reader, and other books for parents and children. This selection is taken from
The Plug-in Drug, published in 1977.
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A New English Course (5) Lecture Notes
Unit 5: The Plug-in Drug: TV & the American Family
2. The development of TV industry
TV broadcasting began in the U.S. in 1941, and in 1946, after World War Ⅱ
ended, TV began to grow rapidly .By 1975, almost 127 million sets were in
use. By the 1970’s almost 100% of all wired homes in the U.S. had at least one
TV set. The average American has his set turned on for about 6.5 hours each
day. In fact, TV has become the American’s eye and ears on the world
III. Organization of the text
Call students’ attention to the function of quotations. Explain how quotations may
serve as effective means of exposition. Ask student to find out the quotations in
the text and explain how they are related to the author’s logic, thus contributing to
the coherence of the passage.
An outline of the text’s organization
Early enthusiasm over TV as
a wonderful invention
Para 1-5
Quotation 1-3 from early writers and
commentators to show the general view in
favour of TV as a new invention
Arising concern over
too much TV viewing
Para 6-8
Quotation 4 (para7) to illustrate a popular view
which helps to soothe the worrying parents
Criticism of TV’s negative
effects on family life
Para 9-14
Three more quotations (pa 10, 12, 13) to criticize
how TV dominates family life and diminishes
interaction between parents and children.
Appeal for better family
life without TV
Quoting from Times to stress the
importance of parent-children
communication
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Para 15-end
A New English Course (5) Lecture Notes
Unit 5: The Plug-in Drug: TV & the American Family
The ordering of the quotations reveals the structure of the text. It also reflects how
people’s attitudes towards TV have changed – beginning with enthusiastic
admiration of TV as a wonderful invention but ending with strong criticisms of its
negative effects on the healthy way of family life
IV. Language points
1．perspective: the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance(对事物的)
合理观察,洞察力:
e.g.- He wanted to leave the country in order to get some ~ on his trouble. 他想离国他去,这样能
对自己的困难有个正确的认识.
2.afflict: cause trouble, pain distress to sb. suffer from; be afflicted with hysteria/; be afflicted
with a conscience 受良心的指责
e.g.-He felt much afflicted at (by) the sad news. 听到那个坏消息他感到很难过.
A nightmare ~s me from time to time.恶梦不时折磨着我.
Unemployment ~s 12 million workers in that country.在那个国家 120 万工人深受失业之
苦.
3.asset : valuable property
4.establish: prove, show (sth) to be true: 确定,证实
e.g.-We’ve established his innocence.我们已证实他无罪.
The police can’t establish where he was at the time. 警方无法确定当时他在哪里.
5.perch: (of bird) come to rest or stay (on a branch, etc
(of person) sit, esp. on sth. high
perch on high stools at the bar 坐在酒吧的高凳上
perch on the edge of one’s seat 坐在座位的边上
6. preposterous : unthinkable ; absurd
-It is preposterous that virtue should go unrewarded while vice goes unpunished.
7.splintering : 1）breaking-up into small sharp pieces: The windscreen cracked but did not ~ . 挡
风玻璃裂了，但没碎。2）splitting ：Authority is so ~ed that the group seems to be run by nobody.
权利如此分散，小组的事好像没人管似的。
8.refrain: n. 1) lines of a song or poem which are repeated , esp. at the end of each verse
2) a
much repeated saying or idea
refrain: v. hold oneself back from ; refrain from
- we must refrain from littering in public places.
9.the peer group: a group of people of the same age, class, position, etc.
10.television-oriented: interested in and influenced by TV
11.assign: consider sth. to be caused by 把（某事）归因于，把（某事）归属于
e.g.-He assigned the blame to me.把过错的责任归于我。
-Jealousy was ~ed as the motive for the crime. 有人提出嫉妒是这一犯罪行为的动机。
12.subsidiary: secondary , not of first importance
13.apologist: a person who defends something by argument.卫道士
14.equivocal : ambiguous
15.sorcerer : a person who performs magic by using the power of evil spirits
16. counterbalance: weight or influence balancing another.
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A New English Course (5) Lecture Notes
Unit 5: The Plug-in Drug: TV & the American Family
17. skirmish: fight between small parts of armies/fleets
18. stint : fixed amount of work Everybody much to a daily stint in the kitchen.每个人每天都
应在厨房里干点活。 Here , the fixed TV programme
19. regiment: (esp. passive and derog.) force strict discipline on (sb./sth) 严格地管制; organize,
discipline ：lead a ~ed life 过受到严格管制的兵营式的生活
20.conjure up: bring into the mind: ~ up the happy past 想起幸福的往事 The music ~d up
memories.这音乐使往事历历在目。
21.on the spur of the moment: without preparation or planning
22. sane: (in this context) in possession of good relations/of a close bond
23. mediate: act as go –between or peacemaker
24. accede to: to give approval to( a request agreement, etc.)
-The directors have agreed to accede to the workers’ demands
-By signing the papers, all the parties acceded to the contract.
25 backlog : a reserve
e.g. –The campers took a ~ of food in case they got lost.野营者们带了一些储备食物，供迷途时
用。
26. .beneficial : having good affects . beneficiary/benefit from
-Fresh air and good food are beneficial to the health
-The holiday has been beneficial
V. Difficult sentences (paraphrase)
1. “TV set has attained the rank of a legal necessity , safe from repossession
in case of debt along with clothes,…..”: i.e. The TV set has become so
important in the life of a family that its possession is guaranteed by law. Even
when a person is in debt, it can’t be taken away from him by whomever he
owes a debt.
2. “ a curious myopia afflicted those early observers”: i.e. the early observers
saw only the favorable effects of TV and none of them was sufficiently
far—sighted to predict the negative effects of TV in the future.
3. “….kept the members of the family from dispersing , it has not served to
bring them together”: i.e. the TV helps to keep all the family members in the
house in a physical sense. But they are not really doing things together. Instead,
they watch their own favorite programme with little interaction between them.
4. “…the television set casts its magic spell, freezing speech and action,
turning the living into silent statues so long as the enchantment lasts”: i.e.
TV seems to have magic power over people. As soon as TV is on , people stop
talking and doing anything else, growing to be lifeless statues before the TV
screen They will remain so till the end of the programme.
VI. Classroom discussion
1. What do you think is the role quotations have played in the essay?
2. How does the writer develop his ideas of negative influence of TV on family
life?
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A New English Course (5) Lecture Notes
Unit 5: The Plug-in Drug: TV & the American Family
Supplementary reading
Text Ⅱ The Plug-in Drug: TV And The American Family
Ⅰ. Learning objectives
1. To learn more about the negative influence of TV on family life.
2. To realize the seriousness of the lack of interaction among family members
as a result of TV dominance.
Ⅱ. Pre-reading questions:
1. What does the word “ritual” mean? What are family rituals?
2. . Do you think rituals are important for a family? Why?
3. Do you think TV has also become a kind of drug in China and thus produced the
same negative effects as it has in the U.S.?
Ⅲ. Organization and development of the text
para.1-2: Explain what are family rituals and why are they important.
Para.3-7:with the advent of TV, few of the family rituals are diminished
by the powerful presence of television in the home.
Para. 8-20: the relationship of the family members to each other has also
been greatly affected in both obvious and subtle ways.
Para. 9. : no eye contact in the child-television relationship.
Para. 11-15: quotations from a teacher and mother to show how TV
exerted negative influence on children .
Para.16-17: a family therapist discussed the use of TV as an avoidance
mechanism.
Para.18: simple conversation between parents and children in the
TV-centered home was decreased.
Para.19-20: research studies prove that TV interferes with family
activities and the formation of family relations.
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A New English Course (5) Lecture Notes
Unit 5: The Plug-in Drug: TV & the American Family
Para.21-: TV has played an important role in the disintegration of the
American family
Para.21: the general negative effect of TV on family
Para. 22-24: the sources of family breakdown.
Para.25—28: family ties grow weaker and vaguer; two kinds of love the
parents have toward their children.
Ⅳ. Language points
1.inroad: unfriendly entry; hostile incursion
2.love at a remove: love at a distance separating one person from another
status quo: existing state of affairs
3.the depersonalization of the individual: making the individual lose
the sense of personal identity.
4.respondent: a person who responds to a poll
5.substantiate: prove the truth of sth. substantiation
6.withdrawal: the act of withdrawing or the state of being withdrawed
7.reminiseces(about): to talk or think about past experiences, esp. pleasant ones.
8.elimination:to remove or get rid of . eliminate
9.fester:to become infected and diseased.
10.perpetuate: to make sth. continue to exist for a long time; preserve
- an education system theat perpetuates the division of our society
11.muddle on: continue in a confused manner , without a clear plan.
Ⅴ. Topics for discussion
1. In what way has TV interfered with family rituals. How does the woman from
Chicago reflect her experience?
2. Explain in what way TV has affected the healthy relationship among family
members?
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