A member of an average（普通）British family watches 22 hours of television a week．A person living alone watches even more than that—36 hours．
Soap operas（肥皂剧）are by far the most popular programmes on British TV．They are more popular with women than men．However，it is estimated（估计）that one in eight people watch soap operas in secret（most of them are men）．
British soap operas are more realistic and less glamorous（富有魅力的）than American ones．American‘soaps’portray（描述） good-looking，successful，and super-rich people．However，people in British soaps are much poorer，more ordinary and less attractive．
On British TV，there is a rule that the most violent（暴力的）programmes can only be shown after nine o'clock．In fact opinion polls indicate that viewers would prefer to see less violence on TV altogether．
The most common reason given by young people under 20 for watching television（two thirds，in fact）is，that it gives them something to do．
It is twice as likely to be the woman in the house rather than the man who controls which channel they watch．
A third of viewers said they would prefer to see fewer programmes on sport—two thirds of these were women．
The attitude of many young people towards commercials on TV is‘the more the better’． 38％ are in favour of more rather than fewer commercials and a quarter of young people would rather watch the commercials than the programmes（because they think they are better）．More than 50％ of them stay to watch the ads during the commercial breaks as compared to fewer than 30％ of adults．
With the coming of satellite and cable TV，the choice of channels and programmes is becoming wider and wider．But over a third of British people think that the more programmes there are，the worse they will be and over a half say they would rather have a choice of only four channels．
Read through the following statements．Do you think they are true or not？Mark them with a tick（√）or a cross（×）．
1．People who live on their own watch more television than people who live in a family．
2．Soap operas are the most popular programmes on British television．
3．More men watch soap operas than women．
4．Most British soap operas are about rich，good-looking people．
5．Violent programmes are only shown after midnight．
6．It's usually the man in the house who decides what programmes to watch．
7．More than half the viewers in Britain think there is too much sport on TV．
8．Commercials are more popular with young people than with their parents．
（Keys：1—8√√×××××√）
Allen from Oxford Intensive English Course
