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VOA慢速英语2011--More and More Gamers Reach for Their Pho

时间:2011-03-02 06:36:51

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CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: I’m Christopher Cruise.
BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Video games have evolved over the past fifty years into one of the most popular forms of modern media entertainment. This week on our program, we explore the history of video games and look at some popular releases from the past year.
(MUSIC)
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Early versions of video games were not devices for the average person to play at home. Programmers developed them using what were then huge university computers.
In nineteen sixty-two, a team of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a game called Spacewar! It had a big influence on future games. But it could only be played on a computer at MIT.
BARBARA KLEIN: Ten years later, in nineteen seventy-two, an engineer named Nolan Bushnell and a programmer, Ted1 Dabney, started the Atari company in California. Atari produced coin-operated video games.
Augustine Sewell and his mother, Patricia, look at a Call of Duty: Black Ops video game that they purchased in Sacramento, California
Their first big hit was called Pong. It was an electronic form of ping-pong or table tennis that was easy enough for anyone to play. Atari video games became hugely popular at arcade2 centers.
Soon, other companies in Japan and the United States started making similar games. Popular games during the late seventies and early eighties included Space Invaders3, Asteroids4, Defender5 and Pac-Man.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Little by little, gaming technology became more complex.
Back in the nineteen sixties, an engineer named Ralph Baer started work on an idea. He wanted to turn television sets in every home into a gaming device. His work resulted in the development of the Magnavox Odyssey6, a video-game console for home use. The system was released in nineteen seventy-two and came with twelve games.
But it was hard to compete against Atari. Atari's video game system became the most successful on the American market. And it stayed that way until the market crashed briefly7 in nineteen eighty-three.
BARBARA KLEIN: By that point, another company had established itself as a big name in gaming: Nintendo. The Japanese company was not new at making games. It began in the nineteenth century as a producer of traditional playing cards.
The family-owned business later expanded into developing other kinds of toys.
Nintendo also began developing arcade games, and then game systems that could be played at home. One of the most influential8 programmers in the world works for Nintendo. Shigeru Miyamoto helped create hits like Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers and the Legend of Zelda.
Nintendo game programmer Shigeru Miyamoto celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Super Mario Brothers at an event in New York in November
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Nintendo also found success with the Nintendo Entertainment System for playing video games at home and the handheld Game Boy.
Today the main competitors to Nintendo systems are Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s X-Box 360.
In two thousand six Nintendo released its first Wii system. The Wii was not like a traditional video game. It was the first wireless9 system that could capture the movements of the player’s body. This way people could play sports against the game or against another person without ever leaving the house.
These days Wii systems can be found in retirement10 homes and community centers. One of Nintendo's aims with the Wii was to make video gaming more social and more popular with wider audiences.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: GamePro Media is a publishing company that follows the gaming industry. We asked news editor A. J. Glasser what makes a good video game.
AJ GLASSER: “It’s difficult to say. It will be different, I will say, for each platform.”
BARBARA KLEIN:
For example, games on mobile devices are less technically11 complex than games played on a system at home and with a high-definition TV. Those games can be enjoyed for hours.
Ms. Glasser says a great game on a mobile phone is a game that can be played for a short time -- even for just a minute on the train.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: We also asked her about some of the best games of the past year. She says the horror game Dead Space 2 has been extremely successful.
AJ GLASSER: “It’s sort of a visceral, very gory12 sort of horror game but at the same time sort of a psychological thriller13.”
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Another popular game is Red Dead Redemption.
AJ GLASSER: “It’s open world in the way that Grand Theft Auto14 is, so you play a character that can go almost anywhere, and do almost anything. But it’s set in the Wild West, so you are doing it with horses.”
BARBARA KLEIN: A.J. Glasser at GamePro Media says the video game industry recognizes that many gamers today are girls and women.
AJ GLASSER: “It’s no longer just the twelve- to twenty-one-year-old boys that want to shoot up people or just solve puzzles. It’s everyone wants to play a little bit. So they try to make games for everyone, or at least make games that don’t forbid anyone from enjoying them.”
(MUSIC)
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Ryota Wada is a ten-year-old boy who recently moved with his family from Tokyo to Herndon, Virginia, outside Washington. Ryota is listed in the twenty eleven Gamer's Edition of Guinness World Records. He received a perfect score on the most difficult level of Dance Dance Revolution.
The game plays music and requires players to move their feet in difficult dance moves. Ryota began playing Dance Dance Revolution when he was three. He spends hours day playing the game he loves.
BARBARA KLEIN: But is it healthy to spend so much time playing video games? The journal Pediatrics recently published a new study. Researchers studied about three thousand students in Singapore for two years. The study found that children who played video games "obsessively15" had higher rates of depression, social fears and stress. Of course, that observation alone does not prove that video games cause mental illness.
Other studies have linked violence in video games to aggressive behavior. In nineteen ninety-three American lawmakers pressured the video game industry to develop a rating system. Since then the industry has rated games based on the age group for which they are considered acceptable.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Video games may have their critics, but other experts see them as offering benefits. The Journal of Adolescent Health just published a new study by researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah.
The researchers said girls who played video games with a parent behaved better, felt more connected to their families and had stronger mental health. Said researcher Laura Padilla-Walker: “We’re guessing it’s a daddy-daughter thing, because not a lot of moms said yes when we asked them if they played video games."
For boys, playing video games with a parent made no noticeable difference in their behavior.
Other studies suggest that video games can be useful in teaching, supporting teamwork and improving hand-eye coordination16.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: Mobile phones and other devices have created big competition for the handheld video-game industry. People might wonder why they need to buy a device like Sony’s PlayStation Portable or Nintendo’s DS player. Games that can be downloaded to a phone cost a lot less than games for those handheld players.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: For example, the game Angry Birds is a huge hit on the Apple iPhone and other devices. Players launch birds to try to crush their enemies, the fat green pigs. The game is easy enough for children yet difficult enough to keep adults interested. The game has been downloaded tens of millions of times around the world.
A market research company reported an early estimate of fifteen and a half billion dollars in sales of all games content in the United States last year. The NPD Group said that was about the same as the year before.
BARBARA KLEIN: In March, Nintendo will launch the American release of a new device that might make some people forget about playing games on their phones.
The new handheld game player, the Nintendo 3DS, offers three-dimensional images that do not require special glasses. The 3-D technology is not for everyone, though. The company warns that children six years old and younger should not play its games in 3-D mode. Experts say looking at the images for long periods of time could damage young eyes.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Sony is also working on new handheld game devices. In late January, the company announced its next-generation portable entertainment system. The system does not have a name yet but it will have a touch screen, two cameras and 3G wireless service. The system is expected to be released by the end of the year, offering another example of the continuing evolution of video games.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Barbara Klein.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I’m Christopher Cruise. Our programs are online with transcripts17 and MP3s at voaspecialenglish.com -- where you can also tell us what video games you like and how often you play. You can also post comments on our Facebook wall at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 ted 9gazhs     
vt.翻晒,撒,撒开
参考例句:
  • The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
  • She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。
2 arcade yvHzi     
n.拱廊;(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道
参考例句:
  • At this time of the morning,the arcade was almost empty.在早晨的这个时候,拱廊街上几乎空无一人。
  • In our shopping arcade,you can find different kinds of souvenir.在我们的拱廊市场,你可以发现许多的纪念品。
3 invaders 5f4b502b53eb551c767b8cce3965af9f     
入侵者,侵略者,侵入物( invader的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • They prepared to repel the invaders. 他们准备赶走侵略军。
  • The family has traced its ancestry to the Norman invaders. 这个家族将自己的世系追溯到诺曼征服者。
4 asteroids d02ebba086eb60b6155b94e12649ff84     
n.小行星( asteroid的名词复数 );海盘车,海星
参考例句:
  • Asteroids,also known as "minor planets",are numerous in the outer space. 小行星,亦称为“小型行星”,在外太空中不计其数。
  • Most stars probably have their quota of planets, meteorids, comets, and asteroids. 多数恒星也许还拥有若干行星、流星、彗星和小行星。
5 defender ju2zxa     
n.保卫者,拥护者,辩护人
参考例句:
  • He shouldered off a defender and shot at goal.他用肩膀挡开防守队员,然后射门。
  • The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
6 odyssey t5kzU     
n.长途冒险旅行;一连串的冒险
参考例句:
  • The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
  • His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程,到此结束了。
7 briefly 9Styo     
adv.简单地,简短地
参考例句:
  • I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
  • He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。
8 influential l7oxK     
adj.有影响的,有权势的
参考例句:
  • He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
  • He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。
9 wireless Rfwww     
adj.无线的;n.无线电
参考例句:
  • There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
  • Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。
10 retirement TWoxH     
n.退休,退职
参考例句:
  • She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
  • I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。
11 technically wqYwV     
adv.专门地,技术上地
参考例句:
  • 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。
12 gory Xy5yx     
adj.流血的;残酷的
参考例句:
  • I shuddered when I heard the gory details.我听到血淋淋的详情,战栗不已。
  • The newspaper account of the accident gave all the gory details.报纸上报道了这次事故中所有骇人听闻的细节。
13 thriller RIhzU     
n.惊险片,恐怖片
参考例句:
  • He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
  • I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时,总带一本惊险小说看。
14 auto ZOnyW     
n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车
参考例句:
  • Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
  • The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。
15 obsessively 0c180424cba71c2e5a90cdda44a64400     
ad.着迷般地,过分地
参考例句:
  • Peter was obsessively jealous and his behaviour was driving his wife away. 彼得过分嫉妒的举止令他的妻子想离他而去。
  • He's rude to his friends and obsessively jealous. 他对他的朋友很无礼而且嫉妒心重。
16 coordination Ho8zt     
n.协调,协作
参考例句:
  • Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
  • The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好,使演出更具魅力。
17 transcripts 525c0b10bb61e5ddfdd47d7faa92db26     
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
参考例句:
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

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