Question 4

Read carefully the passage given below and answer the questions (a),(b) and (c) that follow:
(1) Radio and television, like newspapers and films, are a means of mass communication. But they have
added power: their programmes are broadcast. They can be heard or viewed by millions at a time. A
single transmission reaches more people than ten thousand pamphlets, and in countries where there is
a high degree of illiteracy, it reaches people who can not read. Broadcasting has thus enlarged the
audience of the orator from a single meeting to that of a nation. Along with this, broadcasting with
the scope of its programmes and the variety of their settings- has boundless capacity to extend the
mind’s horizons and to influence the way people think. Radio and Television also possess another
quality lacking in films and printed work immediately they can tell millions of people what is
happening, when it is happening, and so bring current events into the home. An occasion can be
shared across continents, with the television lens providing the close-ups. What better and quicker
way is there to reach the public and keep them informed?
(2) Radio was first used to send messages, to give warning of storms, and icebergs and to transmit SOS
calls, and thereby increasing safety at sea. With technical improvements, it was used for entertaining
an audience and for informing and educating it. Radio broadcasting started in Britain and the United
States in the early 1920s and soon spread to other countries. Today most nations have a broadcasting
service. The British Broadcasting Corporation started the first regular public high-definition
television service in the world in November, 1936.Television has not yet covered the globe to the
same extent as sound radio; but the number of countries with a television service is growing rapidly
and age of international television transmission has begun. In Britain, The Postmaster-General, in
charge of the postal and telephone services, is also responsible for broadcasting. Though this does
not mean broadcasting by the government, he ensures that the broadcasting authorities provide the
radio and television services in accordance with the broad terms laid down by Parliament. Sound
broadcasting is the exclusive concern of the B.B.C. which transmits about 50,000 hours of sound
proramme each year. Television broadcasting is provided by the B.B.C. and the Independent
Television Authority (I.T.A.).Broadcasting has immense power to educate, to inform- or misinform-
and to entertain.
(3) Although it may have been a slow matter, television, especially in the second half of the 1950s, has
caught up with tremendous strides, and it has now made sound radio seem a trifle old-fashioned.
Through its ability to bring the sights and sounds of many lands to the viewer television has an
unrivaled power of education –in the widest sense of the word. Television is indeed a window on the
world through which the viewer can see how the rest of the world lives. However, television can also
be used for more specific educational purposes: for teaching children in schools or for adult
education. There are two ways in which television can be used in schools. It can take place of teacher
in giving formal instruction. It can supplement the ordinary curriculum .In Britain at present it is the
second method that is used. Between them, the television services of the B.B.C. and the I.T.A.
produce about three hours of educational programmes for schools each day, five days a week during
term-time ; that is , for about three-quarters of the year. These programmes are, on the whole,
supplementary to the usual lessons. One example is the ‘Discovery’ series produced by Granada TV,
which is one of the companies which provide the I.T.A’s service. In ‘Discovery’ Britain’s leading
scientists have talked about their work to their boys and girls in Science Sixth Forms throughout the
country. Although substantial in the aggregate, this audience is spread about in small groups. Film
is not the way to reach it- there is no sense of the speaker being present. Television is the obvious
method.
(4) The uses of radio and television are not confined to the more obvious ones providing a public
broadcasting service that combines information, education and entertainment .Both radio and
television can be used for more specific communication purposes. Thus radio links ,for example , can
be used to keep individuals in touch with each other when they are out of sight and out of earshot in
giant office blocks, or an engineering sites, or in difficult terrain. And closed-circuit television is now
widely used in commerce, science and public affairs.
-Adapted from: RADIO AND TELEVISION –HOW IT WORKS
-B.B.C.1965.

(a)(i)Use each of the following words, as used in the passage, in a sentence of your own
construction so as to bring out its meaning very clearly. Using the word in a context very similar
to the passage will be penalized [3]
(1) covered
(2) exclusive
(3) immense

(ii)For each of the words given below write a sentence of at least 10 words, using the same word
unchanged in form, but with a different meaning from that which it carries in the passage: [3]

(1) mass
(2) current
(3) sound

(iii) Explain ,in the context of the passage ,in not more than two sentences of your own , the
meaning of each of the following expressions taken from the passage.(Merely using phrases will
not do). [4]
(1)…………Although substantial in the aggregate.
(2) …………enlarged the audience of the orator.

(b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:

(i) Write what added advantage the radio and television have over the press and the cinema? [2]
(ii)Why does the writer say that the broadcasting has the immense power to inform or misinform? [3]
(iii)Justify that radio and television can be used for specific communication purposes? [2]
(iv)What is the work of the Postmaster-General regarding broadcasting? [1]
(v)What was the radio originally used for? [2]

(c)Using material from paragraphs 2 and 3 write, in not more than 60 words, what you know
about the introduction of television to the world and its educational function. [10]
(Failure to keep within the word limit will be penalized.)