Use Of English Test 16 – Bad News

The mass media nowadays are our main source of information about what’s happening in the world and the impression one collectsdrawstakesgets from them about human naturecharacterspeciespersons is pretty depressing. My blood temperatureimpressionpressurelevel rises every time I switch the television on. Apart from gossip about show businessfilm businessfilm affairsshow star personalities, the picture they paint of human personalitiescharacterspeoplebeings is that they are violent and bloodthirsty. They just report crimes, violations of human rights and the way we are destroying our natural materialsresourcesspringswealth. They rarely report breakawaysbreak-insbreakthroughsbreak-ups in science or medicine; it’s a bleak picture. Last night, there was a report about a mass break-outbreak-upbreak-inbreakthrough from a prison in Chicago during which five prison guards were shootingwere shothave shothave been shot dead as the prisoners were escapingmakingtakingtrying their getaway. Then there was the story of someone who has beenwas gothadgot gunned down by police when he went berserk and massacred ten innocent onlookersby-passerspassers-bypedestrians in a shopping centre somewhere - again - in the United States. I see now where Hollywood screenwritersscenewritersscreenplayersscriptplayers get their ideas from. They just turn on the news and they’ve got themselves a take-awayhigh classgive awayready-made scenario. It seems to me that news reportersbulletinsbroadcastersforecasts have become a form of entertainment.