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News and Entertainment Media
Americans spend about five hours each day on leisure activities. Those who live in or near large cities spend some of this time at theaters, opera houses, night clubs, zoos, and museums. Americans who live in rural areas do not usually have such places to visit, but like city residents, they can enjoy the most popular sources of information and entertainment as well: radio, television, movies, books, magazines, and newspapers.
Radio
Almost every American family owns at least one radio, and many have three or four. Years ago, families gathered around one big living room radio. Today, people take small, lightweight radios with them into the bedroom (clock radios), on the street (transistor radios [半导体收音机], on the road (car radios), and into the fields (radios built into tractors). Radios have even been built into hair dryers and sunglasses.
With the development of television, radio is no longer the major source of home entertainm
ent; but Americans still turn to radio when they want the latest news quickly. Many stations broadcast up-to-the-minute news every half hour. Americans tend to listen to radios for short periods. In an effort to hold audiences, many radio stations appeal to special interests. Some offer only music or only news; others broadcast professional sports events. In large cities, some stations attract immigrants by presenting foreign-language programs. One New York City station broadcasts in thirteen languages!
There are two types of radio broadcasting-AM and FM. FM can produce a wider range of sounds and can also broadcast in stereophonic (立体声的) sound. In recent years, FM has become increasingly popular. Many radios are equipped to receive both AM and FM.
Television
Television was new in 1946, but by the 1950s it was a firmly established industry. Today, there are about 99 million TV sets in the United States; 99 percent of American households have at least one set, and 54 percent have two or more. Color TV is in 60 percent of American homes. The average American between his second and sixty-fifth birthday spend
s 3,000 entire days (almost nine years of his entire life) watching TV!
In the United States, there is no government-owned television network. Commercial television attempts to please a vast audience of all age groups and educational levels by presenting entertainment that can be understood by all. Many adults are annoyed by the simplicity and dullness of most TV shows; they call the TV set the "idiot (傻瓜) box". A typical day's TV listing includes cartoons and other children's shows, family situation comedies, news and weather, mysteries, interview shows, sports, movies, and musical reviews.
Public" television stations offer a wide variety of high-quality entertainment and information without the annoying commercials. Funds to operate public TV come from money given by individuals and industries and, to a small degree, from the government. Public television has been highly praised for imaginative, appealing shows which help children learn basic reading concepts, valuable psychological insights, and languages like English and Spanish. Fine dramatic and musical presentations, award-winning movies, and intelligent di
scussions of national problems often take up the evening hours on public TV. For those who seek self-improvement with the help of TV, there are "how-to" shows (daytime and evening) which teach cooking, skiing, sewing, instrument-playing, and dozens of other skills. Also offered are college courses which give academic credit to enrolled listeners.
Movies
Most American movies are produced in Hollywood, California. Hollywood, which is actually not a separate city but a part of Los Angeles, is an ideal spot for the movie industry. The sun shines most of the time, and the climate is mild. Almost every kind of natural scenery is within a few hour's drive.
Hollywood becomes the center of national attention on one evening each year-Academy Award night. At the Academy Award presentations held each spring, awards called Oscars are given to film industry winners in dozens of categories, including best actor, best actress, and best picture. The winners are chosen by members of the industry before the ceremony, but their names are kept secret until the presentation night, when they are anno
unced in a long program broadcast on television.
Motion pictures were extremely popular in the United States until after World War II, when television captured much of the movie audience. Geared to the masses, Hollywood movies offered much the same type of entertainment as television does. With free entertainment in their homes, many Americans simply stopped going to movies. Between 1946 and 1956, movie attendance was cut in half. At the same time, production costs increased. The movie industry was in trouble.

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