Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct to each of the questions from 29 to 33. Recently fans of top soaps, dramas and reality shows in the USA have started to get angry about the number and frequency of the adverts in the middle of the programmes. Sometimes it seems that the adverts are more important than the programmes themselves. For example, American dramas aren't as long as they were in the past. Nowadays in the US, an ...

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct to each of the questions from 29 to 33.

Recently fans of top soaps, dramas and reality shows in the USA have started to get angry about the number and frequency of the adverts in the middle of the programmes. Sometimes it seems that the adverts are more important than the programmes themselves. For example, American dramas aren't as long as they were in the past. Nowadays in the US, an hour-long drama lasts about 40 minutes, whereas in the 1980s the programmes lasted 48 minutes. The rest is adverts.

The ABC channel had slightly more adverts than other channels. But recently they've changed, which is even worse than before! Before, all their dramas had four sections. But now its producers separate each programme into six sections. Usually the first section is approximately ten minutes long. Then they have the first break. When people have watched a programme for ten minutes, it’s much less probable that they will stop watching or change channels. But then, in the next 45 minutes, there are four more commercial breaks. Each break is about three and a half minute long.

All of this makes it much more difficult for dramas writers to write good stories. Quiet scenes make no impact because there are more and more adverts which are longer and longer. “It's OK for game shows or more exciting adventure series." says American TV producer David Kelley. “But for programmes that don't depend on violence or melodramatic scenes, it's more difficult to make a story with six sections. The only thing you can do is be more aggressive, cither with the music or the visual impact, just to attract people's attention after the adverts.”