Cover of the textbook Speakout Upper-Intermediate - Students' Book

The key answer of exercise 1

The key to exercise solutions in chapter 7.1 - TV Globetrotters for the textbook Speakout Upper-Intermediate - Students' Book with authors Frances Eales and Steve Oakes from Pearson Education

Question

Work in pairs. Think of one similarity and one difference between the TV programmes. Use your dictionary to help if necessary.

Answer

  1. Both show real life → a wildlife programme features animals, plants, etc.; a reality show features people.
  2. Both are dramas which involve a continuing story with the same set of characters → a costume drama is usually set in a historical context; a soap opera is set in a contemporary, modern context.
  3. Both are comedies / funny → a sketch show has a lot of short comedy pieces; a sitcom is normally a single story and the stories connect in some way from episode to episode although each episode is self-contained.
  4. Both are factual programmes → a documentary can be on any factual topic, e.g. scientific, historical, cultural, and is made from real footage; a docudrama is often about historical events and includes re-enacted sequences, i.e. sequences performed by actors but made to look real.
  5. Both involve more than one programme → a series can be factual or, in a drama series, each episode is usually a different story, but with the same characters; a serial is a single story broken up into different episodes.
  6. Both are exciting and often involve danger and facing and solving a problem → a thriller can be a combination of genres or types, it can include sci-fi, fantasy, detective, action type content, but it's always made to create excitement (or 'thrills'); a detective series usually focuses only on police work in connection with crime and as a series has the same characters with a different story every episode.
  7. Both involve a competition between teams or individuals → a game show can have many formats, including a quiz format; a quiz is limited to question / answer formats.
  8. Both are about real events / stories happening at the moment → a current affairs programme has feature stories about different topics in the news; the news is made up of shorter stories about the most current (immediate) events.