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3 3 Passage III

HUMANITIES: The following passage is adapted from an article about soap operas (daytime television dramas) by Ruth Rosen titled "Search for Yesterday* (©1986 by Ruth Rosen).

Every week, an invisible nation of more than fifty million Americans watches soap operas. Stereotypical viewers of the past—the housewife, the infirm, the retired—have now been joined by teenagers, profes-

5 sionals, and college students, both female and male.

There is no doubt that soap operas have moved closer to the center of American popular culture. The source of their popularity, however, has puzzled researchers ever since the days of radio. Herta Herzog,

10 an early investigator of radio soap culture, concluded during World War II that soaps give viewers emotional release, vicarious wish fulfillment, and advice about how to conduct their lives. Others have pointed to the soaps' suspense; one becomes addicted to the

15 characters' unfolding fate. As in life, one never knows how it will all turn out Some argue that viewers enjoy identifying with the characters' successes or, alterna-tively, with their suffering.

Undoubtedly, each of these notions does explain 20 part of the soaps' mass appeal. Soaps can ease the

loneliness and boredom of life. They do offer advice, sometimes implicitly, often explicitly, on what to wear, how to conduct love affairs, how to save a marriage, how to handle one's children, how to cope with

25 heartache, how to enjoy the intrigue of romance. But soaps do more: they provide a surrogate family and social life, a stable network of friends and neighbors. Soaps offer continuity. People don't just watch soap operas; they live with them. Day after day, "as the

30 world turns," soap characters bare their struggles without making any real-life demands upon the viewer. With almost no effort at all, the viewer can participate vicariously in love affairs, friendships, and intrigue that seem intimate but are safely remote.

35 It should not be surprising that all sorts of Americans—not only the bed- and house-ridden—find solace in the mythically stable communities of soap operas. Some soap communities, after all, have lasted over thirty years. All potential viewers are members of

40 a society that has been in constant transformation through geographic mobility and the loss of extended families. Loneliness, we are repeatedly told, has become pandemic in America, and the longing for com-munity is a palpable need. Whether through religion,

45 clubs, associations, or support groups—or through daily immersion in a favorite soap—many Americans search for some kind of communal life to counter varying degrees of social isolation and alienation.

Nor is this quest new. There is no golden past in 50 America, despite the continuous effort to look back to

one. To be an American has meant uprooting oneself from the old country, then struggling to adjust again to new settings, new cultural trends, new jobs, and new technologies. And, for the most part, Americans do it

55 rather well. "Newness" long ago acquired a sacred place in the national iconography, as did "opportunity." But individual success, when it came, was often at the expense of the continuity of family and community. The tension between the American commitment to

60 individualism and the perennial search for a communal and collective life is at the heart of American social and cultural identity.

Here lies the extraordinary appeal and irony of the daytime soap opera; it is circulated by the very com-

65 mercial culture which has engendered the need for it in the first place. As the stable small town fades, the soap opera keeps alive its idealized replica, the image of a community in which everyone knows or is related to everyone else, where continuity counts more than

70 transience, where right and wrong are unambiguous, where good triumphs over evil. It is a world dominated by the domestic values of the family. Loyalty to family and community ultimately matter more than the individual's quest for'success. Not that personal pas-

75 sion and ambition are missing. On the contrary, most of the drama turns on situations in which individual greed or lust conflicts with a family's best interests. While the monogamous heterosexual family is idealized, love and passion take place largely outside it. Moral failure

80 is tolerated, but never condoned. As long as sinners bow to the community's idea of itself, they can belong and be redeemed. At the end of each strand of plot, all conflict is resolved so that the traditional values of the community and family are reaffirmed.

21. The passage indicates that religion, support groups, and soap operas are alike in that they all: A. are circulated by a commercial culture. B. provide a way to combat loneliness. C. appear intimate but are remote. D. enable people to participate vicariously.

22. As it is used in line 65, the word engendered most nearly means: F. diminished. G. produced. H. denied. J. discouraged.

ACT-S6A-SAMPLE 32 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT College Prep Homework Reading 1 - Annotating Name: ____________________________!Period: ____________________________

Directions: Preview and mark questions (circle lead words, mark question as T, I, or B), circle lead words in passage, underline topic sentences, annotate. Answer all questions

2

ACT College Prep Homework Reading 1 - Annotating Name: ____________________________!Period: ____________________________

Directions: Preview and mark questions (circle lead words, mark question as T, I, or B), circle lead words in passage, underline topic sentences, annotate. Answer all questions3 3

23. The passage claims that American social and cultural identity is based on the conflict between: A. opportunity and individualism. B. idealism and iconography. C. domesticity and idealism. D. individualism and community.

24. One of the main points made in the passage is that soap operas: F. portray good and evil inconsistently. G. realistically portray the lives of most Americans. H. represent an idealized American lifestyle. J. will exist throughout the next several decades.

25. According to the passage, which of the following qualities is portrayed on soap operas as the most important? A. Loyalty B. Ambition C. Passion D. Idealism

26. The author suggests that an irony concerning soap operas is that: F. it is foolish to believe that society's needs can be

met simply by watching soap operas. G. American society has become more commer-

cialized as the small town has reappeared. H. the same culture that cannot itself meet peoples'

needs can create a TV show that does. J. good rarely triumphs over evil in real life, but it

does on TV.

27. The passage indicates that, in the past, researchers found the popularity of soap operas to be: A. exciting. B. confusing. C. expected. D. detrimental.

28. What does the passage indicate inevitably happens after characters break traditional values in soap opera plots? F. The stories seem more realistic to the viewer. G. The'viewers can identify with the characters. H. The stories become more exciting and suspenseful. J. The values are then reaffirmed and reinforced.

29. The fifth paragraph (lines 49-62) indicates that the American family has been undermined by the search for: A. new cultural trends. B. new technologies. C. individual success. D. community values.

30. In the fourth paragraph (lines 35-48), what does the author claim are the factors that have caused American society to be constantly changing? F. Mythically stable communities and loss of

traditional values G. The perennial, search for a communal and

collective life H. Reaffirmation of family values and community J. Smaller family units and more frequent relocations

ACT-SSA^AMPLE 33 GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.