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Choose the correct headings for each of the following paragraphs marked with B to F. Write your answer on the ANSWER SHEET(15 points, 3 points each). List of Headings i. Read all about it ii. It"s easier than ever to buy culture. iii. culture wars iv. Fueling the explosion v. Cultural abundance unlike a building boom vi. We"ve reached a tipping point, or at least turned a corner. vii. Informal relations viii. Anyone can be a maker of culture. ix. Whatever happened to the television test pattern? Example Answer Paragraph A ix A No more than 20 years ago, most TV stations routinely signed off the air for at least a few hours a day. At the end of their broadcast period, stations would slap a test pattern up on the screen until the next morning"s programming began. The test pattern—occasionally an absurd drawing of a Native American but more often a simple geometric shape adorned with call letters—was a great symbol of cultural dead space, of a moment when nothing was happening, when nothing was being transmitted, save perhaps for a monotonous electronic hum. While some stations still do sign off, they are increasingly rare in a hyperkinetic, always-open America that has shifted fully into 24-7 mode. If the test pattern symbolized a moment of silence in the cultural process, then it"s only fitting that its long run has effectively been canceled. B Similar developments range far beyond the small screen. During the past few decades, we have been experiencing what can aptly be called a "culture boom" : a massive and prolonged increase in art, music, literature, video, and other forms of creative expression. Everywhere we look, the cultural marketplace is open and ready for business: The number of places where you can buy books has more than doubled during the past 20 years, while the number of libraries has increased by about 17 percent. More than 25, 000 video rental stores are scattered across the United States, effectively functioning as second-run theaters and art houses even in the most remote backwaters. More than 110 symphony orchestras have been founded since 1980, reports The Wall Street Journal, which also notes that the national 1997 -98 theatrical season "raked in a record $1.3 billion in ticket sales. " About 3 , 500 commercial radio stations and 670 commercial television stations have come on the air since 1970; during the same period, cable viewership has quadrupled. C The increasingly important World Wide Web has provided space for all sorts of commercial and noncommercial culture, ranging from authorized sites to a reader-compiled database of more than 180, 000 movies to translations of Dante"s sonnets to fan-generated art. In video and music production, where equipment costs were once prohibitive enough to seriously limit access, there is a flourishing, self-conscious "do-it-yourself" movement that has taken great advantage of cheaper technology and distribution methods. In a world of $ 100 VCRs, bargain-basement PCs, CD-rewritable drives, and other technologies that allow users to copy and manipulate images, words, and sound in ever-new and seamless ways, even the sharp distinction between producer and consumer seems increasingly blurred. D Gone for good are the days when serious cultural critics, whether on the right or the left, could nod toward Tocqueville and Mrs. Trollope and bemoan a scarcity of "culture" in America. Instead, the contemporary descendants of such folks are more likely to make the sort of claim Slate"s Jacob Weisberg did recently in a review of economist Tyler Cowen"s In Praise of Commercial Culture. After granting that the United States does in fact offer a dizzying array of cultural opportunities, Weisberg complains: "What we lack is a flourishing common, or national, culture. Contemporary classical music goes unperformed, foreign films have no audience, and hardly anyone reads contemporary poetry. Meanwhile, pap abounds. " There are, in fact, healthy, if small, markets for the fare Weisberg prefers. The problem isn"t a lack of choice in cultural matters: You want Mozart, Mingus, and Marilyn Manson ? No problem—they"re all available(and probably at a discount). Rather, the issue is precisely a profusion of choice in cultural matters; You want Mozart, Mingus—and Marilyn Manson? E By virtually any measure, cultural activity has been enjoying an expansion that stacks up to Wall Street"s long-running bull market. Interestingly, the culture boom has, for the most part, seen older art forms supplemented and preserved, rather than paved over. The past 30 years have seen a number of developments that have greatly increased the amount and variety of TV-related culture available. The average home now has 2. 3 sets, compared to 1. 4 sets in 1970. Cable is now in 65. 3 percent of all households with TVs(compared to 6.7 percent in 1970). The average subscriber receives 30 to 60 channels, typically including several devoted not merely to shopping but to new and old feature films, reruns of old shows, documentaries, and other sorts of specialized programming. Omnipresent video rental stores give virtually everyone access to a film library that a few decades ago even a millionaire wouldn"t have been able to afford. F The culture boom is similarly reshaping book publishing. While an enormous amount of ink has been spilled over the demise of print culture, the death of so-called mid-list authors, and the threat to diversity posed by mega-mergers among publishers, actual book sales and related figures suggest a very different picture. Between 1975 and 1996, the number of books sold increased by 817 million units annually. Fifty years ago, Tyler Cowen points out in In Praise of Commercial Culture, there were only 85, 000 titles in print in the United States. Today, that figure stands at about 1. 3 million. The increase in the number of books available has been matched by an increase in places to get books. Between 1985 and 1993, for instance, the number of "ultimate companies"—outlets selling books in some form or another—rose from 9, 200 to almost 20, 000. Such staggering numbers have, of course, been eclipsed by Web sellers such as Amazon, com and Barnes & Noble"s online outfit(barnesandnoble. com). Boasting sites that include several million titles, Amazon and Barnes & Noble have been joined in cyberspace by used-book sites that combine lists from hundreds of used-hook stores nationwide. The Web retailers are also leading the way in increasing access to foreign tides that have traditionally been very difficult to find in the States.