(1) Television changed my family forever. (2) We stopped eating dinner at the dining-room table after my mother found out about TV trays. (3) We kept the TV trays behind the kitchen door and served ourselves from pots on the stove. (4) Setting and clearing the dining-room table used to be my job; now, setting and clearing meant unfolding and wiping our TV trays, then, when we’d finished, wiping and folding our TV trays. (5) Dinner was served in time for one program and finished in time for another. (6) During dinner we used to talk to one another. (7) Now television talked to us. (8) If you had something you absolutely had to say, you waited until the commercial, which is, I suspect, where I learned to speak in thirty-second bursts. (9) As a future writer, it was good practice in editing my thoughts. (10) As a little girl, it was lonely as hell. (11) Once in a while, I’d pass our dining-room table and stop, thinking I heard our ghosts sitting around talking to one another, saying stuff.

Source: Move On, an autobiographical book by Linda Ellerbee.

B9. We can infer that in Ellerbee’s home


a. her mother was aware that Ellerbee was unhappy with TV.

b. there were no other children for Ellerbee to talk to.

c. watching TV became more important than talking and listening to family members.