高中英语阅读训练VideoGameViolence

1、Video Game ViolenceTwo articles that really got you talking looked at video games. One story argued that video games can be good for you. The other argued that video games are bad for you.These stories ran 3 years ago, and were still hearing about them, almost weekly. In particular, those of you who

2、 enjoy killing people on screen disagree with research suggesting that your game-playing habits inspire (激发)you to act out.I have played the most violent games on the market today, writes Matteo, 15, I dont go killing people or stealing cars because I see it in a game. My parents say that, as long a

3、s I remember its a game, I can play whatever I want.Dylan, 14, agrees. I love violent games, he writes. And I havent been in a fight sinceI was 12 years old.Akemi, now 22, says that hes experienced no long-term effects in 14 years of gaming. I have been playing the games since I was at least 7, he w

4、rites. I have no criminal record. I have good grades and have often been caught playing well into the night (that is, 4 hours or more).Despite what these readers say, many scientific studies clearly show that violent video games make kids more likely to yell, push, says Brad Bushman. Hes a psycholog

5、ist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.Bushman and his colleagues recently reviewed more than 300 studies of video media effects.He says the message is clear.We included every single study we could find on the topic, Bushman says. Regardless of what kids say, violent video games are harmful.

6、TV watchingTV has been around a lot longer than video games, so researchers have more data on the long-term effects of violent TV shows on people than they do on the effects of violent video games.In one study, scientists at the University of Michigan recorded the TV-watching habits of hundreds of f

7、irst and third graders in 1977. Fifteen years later, the researchers looked at what kind of adults these kids had become.By the time they were in their early twenties, women who had watched violent shows as kids were four times as likely to have punched（以拳打）,or beaten other people as were womenwho d

8、idnt watch such programs as kids. Boys who watched violent TV grew up to be three times as likely to carry out crimes as boys who didnt watch such programs.But that doesnt mean that everyone who watched violent programs ended up being violent themselves. It was just more likely to happen for some pe

9、ople.In actionViolent playing is even more powerful than violent watching, Bushmansays. Maneuvering through a game requires kids to take action, identify with a character, and respond to rewards for rough behavior. Engaging in such activities reinforces effective learning, researchers say.In a video

10、 game, you naturally identify with the violent character, and identification with violent characters increases aggression （暴力）,Bushman says. Youre the person who pulls the trigger, who stabs , who shoots, who kicks. You must identify with the aggressor because youarethe aggressor.Now, I know what so

11、me of you are thinking: Maybe people who are already violent to begin with are the ones who seek out violent media.Video games may have an influence on human behavior or mentality, but I believe that whoever plays the game already has . . . a violent intent or nature within, writes Jason, 16. I stro

12、ngly doubt a nun whom you could somehow get to play Mortal Kombat for a while would eventually gain a violent personality or behave as such.Jake, 15, says, I think it depends on how the kids were raised more than anything, and if people try to play life like a game then they are IDIOTS.But the Unive

13、rsity of Michigan study of TV watching found that watching violence leads to acting violently, not the other way around.Inflicting punishmentIn some of Bushmans studies, kids are randomly asked to play either a violent video game, such as Killzone or Doom 3 or an exciting, but nonviolent, game, such

14、 asMarioKart , for about20 minutes.Then, each participant competes with a kid in another room on a task that challenges bothplayers to press a button as quickly as possible. The winner gets to punish the loser with noises through a pair of headphones. The winner decides how long the noise will last

15、and how loud it will be on a scale from 1 to 10.In one of these studies, players were told thatblasting （爆破）their partners at level 8 orabove would cause permanent hearing damage. （For safety reasons, the invisible competitor in this study was imaginary, but the setup made participants believe that

16、they actually had the power to make another person suffer a hearing loss.）The results showed that kids who played violent games first, then went to the task, delivered louder noises to their competitors than did kids who played nonviolent games first. Kids who played violent gamesand felt strongly c

17、onnected to their on-screen characters sometimesdelivered enough noise to make their invisible partners go deaf.Because kids in these studies dont get to choose which games they play, it seems clear that playing violent games directly causes aggressive behavior, Bushman concludes.And that aggressive

18、 behavior may appear not as criminal activity or physical violence but in the ways they live.Brain studiesSomescientists are looking at kids brains to see how video games might affect their behavior. In one recent study, researchers from the Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine in Indianapolis

19、 assigned 22 teenagers to play a violent game for 30 minutes. Another 22 kids played a nonviolent, exciting game.Brains scans show that the brains of teens playing nonviolent games (left) and those of teens playing violent games (right) have different patterns of activity.Those who playedviolent gam

20、es showed greater activity in a region of the brain associated with strong emotions and less activity in a region associated with planning, focus, and self-control.Then, participants entered a special scanner that measured activity in their brains. For the next hour or so, the teens had to react to

21、mind-bending tasks, such as pressing the 3 button when presented with three pictures of the number 1, or pressing the blue button when presented with the word red written in blue letters.The results showed that a part of the brain was especially active in players in the violent-game group, especiall

22、y when follow-up tasks required them to respond to loaded words, such as hit and kill.Moreover, among players in the violent-game group, a part of the brain was less active. This part helps us stop ourselves from hitting, kicking, and performing other aggressive acts.Frame of mindFindings such as th

23、ese dont mean that every kid who playsGrand Theft Auto will end up injail, researchers say. Nor do they suggest that video games are the single cause of violence in our society. From the brains point of view, however, playing a violent game puts a kid in a fighting frame of mind.Maybe kids have figu

24、red out ways to control this but maybe they havent, says IU radiologist Vincent Matthews, who led the brain-scan study.If they look at their behavior more closely, they may be more impulsive （冲动的,任性的）after they play these games, he adds. Theres a lot ofdenial （否认,拒绝）in people about what theirbehavio

25、r is like.Matthews now wants to see how long these brain changes last and whether its possible to change the brain to its original state.Brain-scan studies at Michigan StateUniversity showed that playing violent video gamesleads to brain activity associated with aggressive thoughts.Danger zone（区域）Its important that kids understand the risks of violent media, Bushman says. Studies show that virtual fighting is just as likely