时间:2018-12-11 作者:英语课 分类:访谈录2010


英语课

People leading their own alternative lives are at the crossroads between technology and imagination.


It sounds like science fiction but as Lindsay Davis reports these people have taken a head first plunge 1 into virtual reality.


Last year a man named SaL9000 married the love of his life in a ceremony that was streamed live on line. The 27-year-old groom 2 lives in Tokyo, and this is his bride, Nene. She lives inside Nintendo DS video game. Yes, Sal paid real money to marry a virtual woman, but he is not alone. Well, technically 3 he is not.


All of the on-line environment is kind of a stage for people to live out alternative lives and stories.


Welcome to WeeWorld. Millions offer up their credit cards to create their own avatar in WeeWorld or explore, interact and travel in the virtual world: Second life.


An estimated 100 million people, that's more than 1% of the population of the entire world, roll up their sleeves and don their farming gear to manage virtual farms just like this one.


There is no more reality in the dollar than there is in a virtual island, than there is in the color of a car. Value is what society makes of it.


But according to the researchers at Leeds University in England, living out fantasies on line can take a toll 4 on a person's well being.


People with a high level of dependence 5 from the Internet show have much higher risk of depression.


But for some, the fantasy world offers something reality doesn’t.


What if you live in a small town and you’re a girl and you don't have the just so body type. You get ostracized 6. You get marginalized. I am not ready to blame that person for trying to have a society and environment where she can actually get accepted.


Which brings us back to Sal9000, he says his avatar wife is better than any human relationship. She doesn't get angry of his late and he doesn't have to talk about his feelings. Again it’s all about perceived value.


Lindsay Davis, ABC News.



1 plunge
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲
  • Test pool's water temperature before you plunge in.在你跳入之前你应该测试水温。
  • That would plunge them in the broil of the two countries.那将会使他们陷入这两国的争斗之中。
2 groom
vt.给(马、狗等)梳毛,照料,使...整洁
  • His father was a groom.他父亲曾是个马夫。
  • George was already being groomed for the top job.为承担这份高级工作,乔治已在接受专门的培训。
3 technically
adv.专门地,技术上地
  • Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说,这是最先进的设备。
  • The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说,西红柿是一种水果,尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。
4 toll
n.过路(桥)费;损失,伤亡人数;v.敲(钟)
  • The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
  • The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。
5 dependence
n.依靠,依赖;信任,信赖;隶属
  • Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
  • He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。
6 ostracized
v.放逐( ostracize的过去式和过去分词 );流放;摈弃;排斥
  • He was ostracized by his colleagues for refusing to support the strike. 他因拒绝支持罢工而受到同事的排斥。
  • The family were ostracized by the neighborhood. 邻居们都不理睬那一家人。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
学英语单词
a(n)-
Aigburth
anacoluthons
androgynous docking system
Andrzej Wajda
aqueous serum
Atotonilco el Alto
balling machine
braille printing
brumley
bugleweed
Capendu
carburetor throat
cardiopoietic
chemical waste
chemoperfusion
chicken choker
clinodactylies
combustible
compressibile jet
crank case scavenging
Create Names in
crested wheat grass
cytoplasm of sperm cells
danothrips trifasciatus
disen-
dislocation creep
dry screening
emission phototube
epiplo-enteroscheocele
fashionmongern
fishplated track
five-ten
forest resource information system
Fraser firs
front-end processor
full availability
fungating excrescence
Getulina
girl power
gs-anas
Heart's Delight
hypergenetic teratosis
hypichnia
igf-ir
Interception.
intestinal peptidase
iodin-
Koraput
lamp condenser lens
make propaganda for
Minto Hd.
mistura carminativa
molecular beam type maser
naval alteration
necc
neoprobe
nimbyest
nodular hydrates
non-native speakers
old chap
ONSC
ostealgic
palestinian-israeli
parathiotrophy
Pecheneg
picohenry
pira
Podmore factor
polygon window
power upratine
quindoy
rag dolls
rectificatus
remonstrative
remortgage
rod bank
rubber hose connection
schloendorff
secant projection
select row
shipboard pair-twisted telephone cable
sidewall coring
silver-lace vine
sliding-vane motor
sonce
spray capacity
ST_objects_groups-and-collections-of-things
tafaris
tandem trunk
tensile-force
to the east of
toienite (windsorite)
transmission, parallel
Transverse-magnetic
trenails
tuna melts
unquestionable evidence
untreatedtimber
upper-left
Venturi tubes
yel.