Read the following passage and indicate the answer to each of the questions. TELEVISION An American TV network has had an international hit with the drama “24”, a thriller known for its suspense and often graphic violence. Over the past year, controversy has surrounded the series because of its portrayal of Muslim terrorists and its frequent scenes of torture. But the content of “24” is not the only thing that would have been unthinkable of prime-time television 20 years ago. Its form also ...

Read the following passage and indicate the answer to each of the questions.

TELEVISION

An American TV network has had an international hit with the drama “24”, a thriller known for its suspense and often graphic violence. Over the past year, controversy has surrounded the series because of its portrayal of Muslim terrorists and its frequent scenes of torture. But the content of “24” is not the only thing that would have been unthinkable of prime-time television 20 years ago. Its form also represents a major change in modern TV: during each episode’s 44 minutes – a real-time hour, minus 16 minutes for commercials – the show connects the lives of 21 different characters, each with their own personalities and specific relationships with other characters. Nine different story lines (or “threads”) are depicted, each involving events and information revealed in previous episodes. [1) [2] For years many people have assumed that popular culture is in a state of decline, rapidly degenerating into “junk culture” with no worthwhile purpose. But an interesting new book challenges that assumption. “Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter,” by Steven Johnson, makes a persuasive argument that today’s complex TV dramas and other pop culture products give us healthy mental exercise. He calls the use of complex, interwoven plot lines involving multiple characters “multi-threading”, and it is a new and growing phenomenon in TV. To keep up with shows like “24”, he points out, you must “pat attention, make inferences, track shifting social relationships”, and these cognitive challenges are changing our mental development for the better. [3] [4] The most obvious change in the last five years of narrative entertainment is the rise of TV. Surely, you might be thinking, watching “Survivor” or “The Bachelor” cannot possibly raise anyone’s IQ. “Survivor” is now in its tenth season, and “The Bachelor” is in its seventh. But as Johnson tells us, lately “even the junk has improved.” The new reality shows are like games: they are series of competitive tests, each more challenging than the last, and with rules that be learned as you play On “Survivor”, for instance, the participants and the audience know the general objective of the game, but each episode brings new challenges that require quick thinking. Success in these games calls for the intellectual labor of finding the weak spots in the rules and in your opponents. This labor is done not just by the stars of the shows, but the viewers at home as well. This is what makes these shows such fun to watch – the human mind enjoys being challenged. As Johnson writes, “There’s real pleasure …..in solving puzzles, detecting patters or understanding a complex drama system.”

What is the main topic of the passage?