When we think of Hollywood—a term I use loosely to describe American movie production in general, not simply films made in Los Angeles — we think of films aimed at musing audiences and making money for producers.During the early years of the new century, as workers won their demands for higher wages and a shorter working week, leisure assumed an increasingly important role in everyday life. Amusement parks, professional baseball games, nickelodeons, and dance halls attracted a wide army of men and woman anxious to spend their hard-earned dollars in the pursuit of fun and relaxation. Yet of all these new cultural endeavours, films were the most important and widely attended source of amusement. For a mere five or ten cents, even the poorest worker could afford to take himself and his family to the local nickelodeon or storefront theatre "Every little town that has never been able to afford and maintain an opera house," observed one journalist in 1908,"now boasts one or two ’Bijou Dreams’ "By 1910 the appeal of films was so great that nearly one-third of the nation flocked to the cinema each week; ten years later, weekly attendance equaled 50 percent of the nation’s population.Early films were primarily aimed at entertaining audiences, but entertainment did not always come in the form of escapist fantasies. Many of the issues that dominated Progressive-era politics were also portrayed on the screen. "Between 1900 and 1917," observes Kevin Brownlow, "literally thousands of films dealt with the most pressing problems of the day — white slavery, political corruption, gangsterism, loansharking, slum landlords, capital vs labour, racial prejudice, etc." While most of these films were produced by studios and independent cornpanies, a significant number were made by what we might call today "special interest groups". As films quickly emerged as the nation’s most popular form of mass entertainment, they attracted the attention of a wide range of organizations that recognized the medium’s enormous potential for disseminating propaganda to millions of viewers. It can be concluded from the last paragraph that ().
A. few of the social and political problems were reflected on the screen of the films
B. films often dealt with the most important problems of the day
C. films. quickly became a very popular form of entertainment
D. because of the large attendance, films had a great influence on a large number of people
Text 2 What we know of prenatal development makes all this attempt made by a mother to mold the character of her unborn child by studying poetry, art or mathematics during pregnancy seem utterly impossible. How could such extremely complex influences pass from the mother to the child There is no connection between their nervous system. Even the blood vessels of mother and child do not join directly. An emotional shock to the mother will affect her child, because it changes the activity of her glands and so the chemistry of her blood. Any chemical change in the mother’s blood will,affect the child ’ for better or worse. But we can not see how a liking for mathematics or poetic genius can be dissolved in blood and produce a similar liking or genius in the child. In our discussion of instincts we saw that there was reason to believe that whatever we inherit must be of some very simple sort rather than any complicated or very definite kind of behavior. It is certain that no one inherits a knowledge of mathematics. It may be, however, that children inherit more or less of a rather, general ability that we may call intelligence. If very intelligent children become deeply interested in mathematics, they will probably make a success of that study. As for musical ability, it may be that what is inherited if an especially sensitive ear, a peculiar structure of the hands or of the. vocal organs connectibns between nerves and muscles that make it comparatively easy to learn the movements a musician must execute, and particularly vigorous emotions. If these factors are all organized around music the child may become a musician. The same factors, in other circumstance, might be organized about some other center of interest. The rich emotional equipment might find expression in poetry. The capable fingers might develop skill in surgery. It is not the knowledge of music that makes it comparatively easy to acquire musical knowledge and skill. Whether that ability shall be directed toward music or some other under taking may be decided entirely by forces in the environment in which a child grows up. If a child inherits something from his mother, such as an especially sensitive ear, a peculiar structure of the hands or of the vocal organs, he will()
A. surely become a musician
B. mostly become a poet
C. possibly become a-doctor
D. become a’musician on the condition that all these factors are organized around music