A campaign (活动) is being launched to encourage children to surrender 30 minutes of screen time a day to head for the great outdoors.
The newly formed Wild Network—a collaboration of nearly 400 organizations—is attempting to attract youngsters away from television and computer screen and to fields, woods and parks. Members of the network include the National Trust, RSPB, Play England and the NHS. Organizers say it is the UK’s biggest ever campaign to reconnect children with nature and outdoor play, and claim it could help improve fitness, mental alertness (机敏) and general wellbeing.
A documentary film, Project Wild Thing, will forecast the launch at more than 50 cinemas across the UK from Friday. It looks at the increasing link between children and nature.
Andy Simpson, chairman of the Wild Network, said, “The tragic truth is that kids have lost touch with nature and the outdoors in just one generation. Time spent outdoors is down, roaming (漫步) ranges have fallen largely, activity levels are declining and the ability to identify common species has been lost.”
Suggestions of how to get more time in nature include collecting conkers (七叶树果), camping or snail racing, and observing autumn colour on trees.
From January, the network will aim to make suggestions to politicians on how government can do more to get children muddy and bright-eyed.
This is not the first time the message of less screen, more play has been brought up. Children in the 1980s were requested to do the same by the BBC TV series Why Don’t You, which somewhat confusingly called on its viewers to “switch off your TV set and go to do something less boring instead”.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “surrender” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Give up | B．Get around |
| C．Take up | D．Run away |
| A．To make children read more books. |
| B．To help children distinguish (辨别) the natural world. |
| C．To encourage children to participate in outdoor activities. |
| D．To get children out of too much homework from school. |
| A．The outdoors can be beneficial to children’s wellbeing. |
| B．The Network advocates (提倡) keeping children’s distance from TV. |
| C．It is the first time for less screen, more play to be brought up. |
| D．The government should do more to get children to go outdoors. |
| A．Government took measures to get children muddy and bright-eyed. |
| B．A BBC TV series called on its viewers to shut off their TV sets. |
| C．More children went out to keep in touch with nature. |
| D．Wild Network launched a campaign to encourage children to go outdoors. |
