【沪研节目】一天一篇真题记单词（17-1996阅读TEXT2）

With the start of BBC World Service Television, millions of viewers in Asia and America can now watch the Corporation's news coverage, as well as listen to it.

And of course in Britain listeners and viewers can tune in to two BBC television channels, five BBC national radio services and dozens of local radio station. They are brought sport , comedy, drama, music, news and current affairs , education , religion , parliamentary coverage, children ' s programs and films for an annual license fee of £83 pounds per household.

It is a remarkable record, stretching back over 70 years--yet the BBC' s future is now in doubt. The Corporation will survive as a publicly-funded broadcasting organization, at least for the time being, but its role, its size and its programs are now the subject of a nation-wide debate in Britain.

The debate was launched by the Government , which invited anyone with an opinion of the BBC-including ordinary listeners and viewers--to say what was good or bad about the Corporation, and even whether they thought it was worth keeping.The reason for its inquiry is that the BBC' s royal charter runs out in 1996 and it must decide whether to keep the organization as it is, or to make changes.

Defenders of the Corporation-of whom there are many---are fond of quoting the American slogan "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. " The BBC "ain' t broke" , they say, by which they mean it is not broken (as distinct from the word 'broke' , meaning having no money) , so why bother to change it?

Yet the BBC will have to change, because the broadcasting world around it is changing. The commercial TV channels---ITV and Channel 4---were required by the Thatcher Government's Broadcasting Act to become more commercial, competing with each other for advertisers, and cutting costs and jobs. But it is the arrival of new satellite channels---funded partly by advertising and partly by viewers' subscriptions---which will bring about the biggest changes in the long term .

当然，英国的观众和听众可以收到两个BBC 电视频道，五个BBC 全国广播之声和几十个地方之声，每户每年交83 英镑的收视费便可收看体育、喜剧、戏剧、音乐、新闻时事、教育、宗教、议会报道、儿童节目及电影。

在过去的70 年里，这是一项相当了不起的成绩，但是BBC 的未来却前景不明。目前，BBC 公司还是由政府资助的，但是现在它的职能、它的规模和它的节目内容在英国上下引起了广泛的争议。

这场争论是由政府引起的，政府邀请任何人——包括普通的听众和观众——对BBC 发表意见，评论它的长处和短处，甚至人们是否认为BBC 值得保留。政府之所以这麽做，是因为BBC 和女皇签定的协约在1996 年就要到期了，所以国家必须决定是否要对它做出调整，还是最好维持原状。

公司的捍卫者们——这样的人有很多——喜欢引用美国的广告口号：“如果没坏，就不要修。”而他们认为BBC 还没有坏，那干吗这麽麻烦去改变它呢？

但由于广播领域正在发生变化，BBC 也应改变自己，以适应新形势。撒切尔政府制定的广播法要求电视频道进一步商业化、搞广告竞争并削减开支与劳务。新卫星电视频道的开播将带来长远的巨变，这些频道部分资金来自广告收入，部分来自用户收视费。