TEXT 1) Nowadays, television (TV) plays an important role in one's life.

Besides being the source of information, it provides endless entertainment for the whole family. As a result, every family now owns a TV or maybe more as TV is now becoming a medium to unite a family. Everyone will surely agree that there many advantages and disadvantages watching TV. Let me discuss the advantages first. Firstly the TV brings us news from all over the world. Political happenings, social events, festivals, people, places and almost everything from all parts of the world comes to us through the TV set at home. We just do not have to spent a big sum of money to go overseas to get the news. The most interesting event I recently witness from the TV was President's Obama's inauguration and I would hear his great speech. Events showing political instability in countries like Thailand, gives me fears too. There are also many programs showing the beauties and scenaries in other countries that I can see and enjoy without having to spent my money. Furthermore, TV can be considered as a path for the students to improve their knowledge. There are several channel which provide many programmes that can help students in their studies especially in science like in Discovery Channel, TVIQ, National Geographic Channel and more. As we all know, in science there are many things which need us to imagine for instance mitosis and meiosis processes. It'll be difficult for us to see the processes with our naked eyes. However, now students can see the real processes by watching it only in the TV. Thus, it can help them to improve their studies. For housewives, or elderly people who stay at home most of the time, the television is in fact their best friend and best company. Malay, Chinese, Tamil, Hindustani, Korean, Japanese and Indonesian dramas are shown throughout the day keeping them company. I have heard of housewives glued to the TV set every Saturdays to watch Hindustani movies. These dramas also teach us a lot about life and the characters of people. Usually bad people will end up being punished either by God or by authorities. I myself like to watch Chinese serial dramas because of the moral lessons they give. Many of my Malay friends also like to watch Chinese dramas. Children are also not left out. There are many programs planned for children like cartoons, animal adventures, quizzes and explorations. Actually children can learn a lot by watching cartoons like Teletubbies, Barbie, Cinderella and many more. Despite all the advantages, we must not forget that there are also many disadvantages watching TV. Lately, social problems involving teenagers are becoming wide spread. From a research done, one of the factor of this problem is that the teenagers are badly influence by TV programmes. The programmes which contain sexual scene and violence are not being filtered. This can affect the growing phase of the teenagers as their mind are not really matured. Some of them will follow what they see from the TV because they are curious to know. That is why the percentage of social problems are increasing day by day. Many crimes are being committed by imitating the crime movies on TV.

Another very disturbing fact is that students get addicted to the TV and thus forget their studies. They watch shows most of the time and thus neglect their homework . This is especially so during the AF or Academy Fantasia Singing Contest every Saturdays. Students waste a lot of time concentrating on TV shows instead of studying. This will also give bad effect to their health. When they spend most of their time in front of the TV, the light from the TV will give effect to their eyes. This can lead to dim of eyesight. This will disturb the students' concentration when they're studying. In summary, TV has brings advantages and disadvantages in one's life. Though, everyone must be responsible to appriciate one of our source of information and communication. Parental supervision are needed to control their children from watching uncensored scene from the television. TEXT 2) Many of us love watching TV especially during our free time and if we don't have anything to do. We like watching TV while eating our favorite snacks or hanging around in a friend's place. Either way we are entertained when we watch TV. There are many different programs we can watch on TV depending on our mood and our personality. Some love watching comedy and talk shows while others particularly kids and those who are young at heart love watching cartoons on Cartoon Network or Disney channel. But then, watching TV has its advantages and disadvantages. Experts say that too much watching of TV especially among children is not good for the health and the mind. TV can be entertaining and informative yet at times it can be damaging and harmful. Below are the Pros and Cons of watching TV. Pros: 1.) Entertainment and Laughter We are entertained by shows we love to watch. We laugh at things we find funny and comical in the TV program we are watching. We also love to dance or sing along with celebrities we see on TV and some of us even copy their dance moves and singing styles. 2.) Information and How-To We learn a lot of information about places and people that we usually don't learn on magazines, books and newspapers. There are travel shows that show us beautiful places in the world and inform us the culture of different countries which can be a great help especially if we are planning to travel. We also easily learn how to cook new recipes by watching cooking shows and we can learn doing some other stuff through programs that show step-by-step procedures of performing a particular work, exercise or other interesting stuff.

3.) Improve Memory and Easy Learning We usually take note of the time schedule for our favorite programs especially if it is only shown once or twice a week. We tend to store and recall the things that recently happened in our favorite show before the next episode will be shown on TV. This will help enhance our memory which we can apply on our daily life. For children, it is easier to learn math, science, alphabet and other subject matters if someone can show them how to do it like counting, identifying objects and a lot more. Educational TV shows are available for children to watch and learn. 4.) Bonding With Family and Friends Watching TV is a great way to bond with family and friends especially on weekends. You can laugh and discuss things that you see on TV. That can be really fun. 5.) Awareness and Alertness Weather reports and current news on different parts of the worlds can make you aware of what is happening outside your country. You can also be alert when there is an incoming typhoon in your area and that can help you get prepared. Cons: 1.) Decline in creativity and imagination. TV shows including commercials have tendency to share their creative works on us and impart their ideas and opinions on us which is not favorable and can lead to a decline in our creativity and imagination since we can not think on our own since creative stuff are readily available and shared to us. 2.) Health problems We usually eat junk foods or any of our favorite snacks while watching TV. This is not good for our health because we tend to eat a lot while we are sitting down facing the television. This can lead to obesity since we don't move a lot when we watch TV. This can also lead to other serious ailments caused by eating a lot and moving less. 3.) Makes people lazy Most of us get hooked when watching programs of our favorite TV channel. We sometimes even forget to do our work or other important things because we got engaged in the show we are watching. Some people forget to do their household chores because they would rather watch TV than work. 4.) Some shows don't teach good values. There are TV programs that do not teach good values particularly to children. Instead of teaching them good deeds they even imitate, re-enact or spoof important things happening around us which is not good for children to watch. To sum up, in watching TV you should choose and monitor the TV programs that you and your children should watch. Choose programs that can help you learn and grow as a person. You should also limit the time your children spend in watching TV. The maximum number of hours small kids should watch TV is 3 hours while for teenagers

you should make sure they watch good shows only when they are done with homework and projects.

TEXT 3) Does TV kill Creativity?

When I was a child, I did not watch a lot of TV. In fact, TV was not even interesting as only a few channels were available, and these were mostly boring. So, naturally, kids in our time did the next best thing they read! These days, however, TV has become interesting. There is something for everyone and, therefore, it is no wonder that everyone is watching more TV than ever before. I am no exception. But, with the increase in my TV viewing time, I couldnt help wondering: Does watching TV TV kill creativity? I did a Google search using the string Does TV kill creativity? and got 17,700,000 results. I am sure that among these results there must have been links to researches that prove it does, and there must be other links to researches that prove it doesnt, and there must be links to still other researches that prove TV does not affect creativity at all. I, therefore, decided to do a little thinking for myself, and share my thoughts on the subject with you. When I felt that I was spending more time watching TV and less time reading I initially tried to justify that by telling myself that watching TV was the same as reading, only at a much faster speed. While it took me about 5-6 hours to read a book, I could watch a similar story on TV in less than an hour. This reasoning, however, did not hold for long as I begin to have a gnawing feeling that there was something wrong with it. TV kills imagination, and Imagination is an important part of creativity. For example, when you read, It was a beautiful morning, your mind immediately begins to draw a picture of a beautiful morning for you. This picture will definitely be different for different readers. But, every reader draws a picture. On the other hand, when you are watching a beautiful morning on TV, you get the picture drawn for you, and this picture is the same for every viewer. So, TV does not leave any room for you to exercise the power of your imagination. You simply become a passive recipient of someone elses imagination. This cant be good for your creativity.

Moreover, TV is a huge time sink. It keeps you indoors, and on your couch. Thus, you miss out on the exercise and the experiences that you would have got if you had not stayed indoors. Exercise and new experiences, as we all know, are well known enhancers of creativity. Watching TV keeps you away from them. So, I feel that TV definitely kills your creativity, and even if it does not kill creativity, TV does not let you be more creative than you already are. Wouldnt you agree?

Ken Loach: TV is the enemy of creativity

Highly paid, time-serving television executives are killing creativity and making the medium one big "grotesque reality game", according to one of Britain's most respected directors, Ken Loach. The director, who first joined the BBC 47 years ago and made plays such as Cathy Come Home, launched an excoriating attack on the culture of television today. Making the keynote address of the London film festival, Loach said: "Television has now become the enemy of creativity. Television kills creativity. Work is produced beneath a pyramid of producers, executive producers, commissioning editors, heads of department, assistant heads of department and so on that sit on top of the group of people doing the work and stifle the life out of them." He said TV was in the hands of "time servers, who should be got rid of", and welcomed the news of departures at the BBC. "I'm pleased to see, I guess we all are, that one or two top-ranking BBC people are going to lose their jobs. About time. It takes a million quid and a handshake to get them out the door but nevertheless they're away. Great. Good riddance. Maybe a few more will join them. Let's start cutting further down." Loach spoke of the need for editors and commissioners to give people the confidence to be as good as they could be. "If you've got 10 people sitting on your shoulder you can't be good, you can't be creative. All you can be is a mess. "This is no way to cherish originality, this is no way to find those special voices that we need." TV, he said during his speech last night at London's BFI, had been reduced from the national theatre of the airwaves to a "grotesque reality game". Loach said he had been around a long time. In his career he has made many memorable movies including Kes, Riff Raff and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which won the Cannes Palme d'Or. He said that he was speaking out when many were unable to.

Loach said filmgoers today, whether watching at the cinema or on TV, had a raw deal and got what they were given by a Hollywood-dominated industry. He said just 3.3% of films shown on television were from European or world cinema. "What a disaster we are collectively responsible for, what a disaster. The film council was set up to establish a viable industry but, if you don't confront this basic fact that we don't have access to our screens, how can we be viable? If you're producing anything in your own country and you've only got a tiny proportion of the home market you don't stand a chance. Of course it won't be viable unless we challenge this colonising of our cinema." Loach suggested that cinemas could be like theatres and owned more often by local authorities with programming decided by people who care about films, not "people who care about fast food". He asked his audience to imagine libraries with 80% American fiction and just 3% from the rest of the world, or the same proportion in theatres or art galleries. "It is inconceivable and yet the cinema, which we think is a most beautiful art we kill it."