TELEVISION – ROALD DAHL

UNSOLVED PASSAGES (EVERGREEN WORKBOOK)

PASSAGE-1
i. 'We' are referred to the parents who are aware of the bad effects of television, which
is affecting their children's future and killing their precious mind. The poet uses ‘we’
instead if ‘I’ to underline the fact that what he is saying is not only his personal
opinion, but it’s the opinion of people like him who worry about the children who are
addicted to watching television.

ii. The ignorant parents of the children who are addicted to television are being
addressed to, by the poet, as he wants to inform them of the bad effects of watching
television.

iii. 'Idiotic thing' refers to the television set. It is being called 'idiotic' as all it does, is kill
the children's imagination and makes them lazy and dull.

iv. The poet tries to reason and convince the parents that the television set is useless, and
that the parents should not even install the television in the first place.

v. There is some relevance of this advice in our present-day world as the television does
waste our time, but then again, we can know what is happening around the world via
new channels, we can also gain knowledge from channels like Discovery, National
Geographic, etc.

PASSAGE-2
i. The poet uses ‘we’ in line 1 of this stanza to give a general observation of what would
be seen if any one visited a house with children who are addicted to television. He
wants to make it clear that this is not merely his personal opinion, rather it is the
opinion of a number of people like him who are worried about the children’s
addiction to the television.

ii. The poet describes the television as an 'idiotic thing', saying that it is a device with no
benefits at all, and it only wastes our time and ruins the children’s imagination. He
says that books are better than televisions.

iii. The poet has observed that there is a television set in every house and that children
lie lazily around watching television until their eyes pop out instead of doing
something constructive like reading books. He does not understand why parents even
install the television at all.

iv. According to the poet, the 'eyes' of the children pop out when they keep watching the
television for too long without stopping.
 v. In the last two lines of this stanza, the poet uses a ‘Synecdoche’ when he refers to the
children as ‘a dozen eyeballs on the floor’. He also makes use of a ‘Hyperbole’ when
he exaggerates that the children’s eyeballs are on the floor because they watch too
much television. He uses these figures of speech, to make the poem more amusing,
and interesting.

PASSAGE-3
i. The parents of the children who continuously keep watching television for a long time
without taking a break, are being addressed to, in the poem.

ii. The poet's main concern is children who get addicted to television and become lazy.
The poet is worried that the children’s minds are becoming dull and unimaginative.

iii. 'That shocking ghastly junk' is addressed to the programs that appear on the
television, which causes the children to become dull and lose their sense of
imagination.

iv. The poet admits that there are some advantages to the parents who let their children
watch television uninterrupted. In allowing this, the children remain quiet and out of
mischief. The parents are able to do their domestic chores without being disturbed by
their children.

v. According to the poet, watching television makes the children dull, it rots their senses,
kills their imagination and fills their mind with junk. They also lose their
understanding of fantasy and fairyland. They can no longer think for themselves and
blindly believe everything that they see on television.

PASSAGE-4
i. The poet admits that there are some advantages for the parents who let their children
watch television uninterrupted. In allowing this, the children remain quiet and out of
mischief. The parents get freedom and are able to do their domestic chores without
being disturbed by their children.

ii. According to the poet, watching television makes the children dull, it rots their senses,
kills their imagination and fills their mind with junk. They also lose their
understanding of fantasy and fairyland. They can no longer think for themselves and
blindly believe everything that they see on television.

iii. According to the poet, television is making children unimaginative, because it displays
only ‘ghastly junk’. The children get addicted to the television which fills their mind
with rubbish. They lose their power to think and blindly believe everything that is
displayed on television. This makes them unimaginative and dull.
iv. The activity referred to later in the poem that sharpens the brain is ‘reading books.’
The poet says that books are the only source for knowledge and creativity.

v. As revealed in the poem, the poet is disgusted with television as it captures the
attention of little children for long hours and makes their brains dull. He sees
television in sharp contrast with books which he feels are the only things that can give
children the power if imagination and pure joy. He calls television an “idiotic thing”
which delivers only “shocking ghastly junk”. He also refers to it as a ‘ridiculous
machine’ that is ‘nauseating, foul, unclean, and repulsive’ Dahl advises the parents to
throw their TV set away and install a lovely bookshelf in its place.

PASSAGE-5
i. When the poet advises the parents to stop the children for watching television, the
parents respond by asking the poet what they should do in order to entertain their
children and keep them contented.

ii. The poet reminds the parents of how they used to entertain themselves when they
were children before the television was invented. He reminds them that they would
read books in order to keep themselves entertained.

iii. The exclamations, 'Great Scott' and 'Gadzooks' in the extract, is used to express the
shock, and annoyance of the poet on the parents who do not stop their children from
watching television and who had forgotten how they entertained themselves when
they were children before the television was invented.

iv. The poet uses all capital letters in this line because he wants to lay emphasis on the
word READ to remind the parents that the children, of their times, used to read books
and stories to keeps themselves contented, occupied and busy. The use of capital
letters is made to put emphasis on this message.

v. The poet recommends reading of books to the children, as he believes that books are
the only source of knowledge and for the minds of children to be more creative.