Reading passage 2

Our old TV was adequate, but it wasn’t “smart”, so an ever-swelling bundle of wires hung out the back of
it. Compared to the paper-thin screens you find on even the cheapest tellies these days, it was also
comparatively chunky. We’d just done up our house, and understandably wanted to complete the look
with a smart, thin TV. Svelte intelligence is desirable. The focal point of our swish new living space must
not be a fat dunce.

So, thin and smart: this much we knew. We also wanted to spend no more than £1500, but, this budget
having been set, there was of course no serious likelihood we’d spend any less. (When the time came, we
traipsed around the store looking at all the discounted models until we found one we liked with a reduced
price of exactly £1500. So, we felt like we were getting a bargain, even though we were actually maxing
our budget. Psychology!)

What we hadn’t agreed on was size. Frankly, I was torn. Big TVs are all the rage now, but Dad led the
charge in the 1980s, and I still bear the scars. Whilst my schoolmates perched over weeny microwave-
sized TVs, with nowt to watch but four terrestrial broadcasters, my father, a self-made man with simple
pleasures, invested in not one but two satellite receivers, Betamax, and a simply enormous rear-projection
unit made by Grundig. It was housed in a giant wooden cabinet, and, with the press of a inch-long button,
it would emerge from its case with stealth and poise. I used to invite friends round just to watch it pop up
and down. It must have cost thousands. It was like something a James Bond baddie would have in his lair.

But even as a child I sensed there was something brash and Yuppieish about this. More sophisticated
families—those with actual books on their shelves, rather than coffee-table tomes and car magazines—
seemed to believe that any screen larger than a broadsheet newspaper was the height of vulgarity. A TV
may be necessary to watch the news or the snooker but to enlarge the visuals to wall-filling size was
simply naff, like having a personalized number plate. One did not live in the Odeon. TVs should be heard,
but not seen.

https://www.rd.com/

Reading passage 3

The main entertainment for people at first was books and newspapers. Next, radio became
entertainment. Moving pictures with color and sound followed. The next step was television. Television
provided a way that entertainment of all kinds could be brought into the home.
In the late 1800's, people conducted experiments on how to send signals to a receiver. The coaxial
cable was invented in1880 by Oliver Heaviside. It is a type of cable used to distribute cable TV signals. In
1925, John L. Baird conducted the first transmission of images. In 1927, Philo Farnsworth invented the
first television system. These early discoveries started rapid progress in creating the television industry.
RCA (Radio Corporation of America), who had developed the radio industry, invested heavily in
electronic television. In 1939, television audiences saw the opening of the New York's World's Fair. Early
television was very rudimentary. Picture quality on a CBS (Columbia Broadcasting Company) newscast
made it difficult to see a newsman using a pointer to find locations on a map for his audience. NBC
(National Broadcasting Company) and ABC (American Broadcasting Company) came upon the scene.
Before 1947, the number of televisions in homes in America was relatively small. The first
commercial television broadcasts began in 1947. Formats for television programs were taken from radio
programs. At first, networks used radio profits to pay for the television broadcasts, but soon television
became profitable. The number of televisions in homes rose up to twelve million by 1951.
Between 1953 and 1955, television programming took some new turns. The networks did not rely as
heavily on the formats of radio. They began to depend on theater and developed television dramas.
Viewers preferred types of programs which brought back the same characters each week. Game shows,
like the $64,000 Question, became very popular.
The term 'anchorman' was probably first used in 1952 when Walter Cronkite covered the Presidential
convention for CBS. In the fall of 1960, the first Presidential debate was televised. The debate was
between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. Television news became a competitor to radio
newscasts. In 1964, programs started to be broadcast in color.

http://www.englishforeveryone.org/PDFs/Level_12_Passage_2.pdf

Reading passages 2. i think any words of hyperbole, for example on 3 paragraph “ It was housed in a
giant wooden cabinet, and, with the press of a inch-long button, it would emerge from its case with stealth
and poise” its on real life never seen giant wooden cbinet and then words “so an ever-swelling bundle of
wires hung out the back of it” then on real life there is never seen swelling bundle of wires hung

Reading passages 3 contains sentences of information about the history of TV that began on thet text of
paragraph 2 “In the late 1800's, people conducted experiments on how to send signals to a receiver. The
coaxial cable was invented in1880 by Oliver Heaviside. It is a type of cable used to distribute cable TV
signals. In 1925, John L. Baird conducted the first transmission of images. In 1927” with the information
about experiments how to signals to a receiver on1800’s until first transmission of images in 1927

Thks mrs mel