A.1. Fill in the blanks.
(i) The most important thing that we have learned is ____________.
(ii) The poet Roald Dahl calls the television ______________.
The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink- -
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
A.2. In every house, what have been children doing in front of the T.V.?
A.3. Pick out an example of Hyperbole from the above extract.
Answers:
A.1. (i) to never allow the children near the television set
(ii) an idiotic thing
A.2. The children have been gaping at the screen. They are lazy and they sit as if they are hypnotised by the junk that is shown on the T.V.
A.3. And stare until their eyes pop out. / A dozen eyeballs on the floor.
