节目资讯
刊物:生活知识家
日期:2010-06-18
难易度:High
关键字:addiction, fast, retail, stimulate, rehab, dopamin
(Music).
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
My name is Steve.
Well, there’s no question about it.
The Internet is an amazing marvel.
Truly, it has revolutionized our lives.
We use it to communicate, do business, entertain ourselves, find information and
so much more.
Now, with all these uses, it’s easy to spend a lot of time on our computers.
In fact, it’s too easy.
And this is the subject of today’s TECHNOLOGY lesson: Are we spending too much
time online?
If you are, then you may be addicted.
Let’s learn more about this growing social problem on page 36 in your Studio
Classroom magazines.
(Music).
Internet Addiction.
Spending too much time online?
You might be addicted.
For most people these days, going online requires little effort.
But leaving the Internet can be another story.
For some, the act of going online is addicting, and they find it hard to log off
and return to everyday life.
Ben Alexander realized he had a problem after he found himself playing the
online game World of Warcraft more than 16 hours a day.
Not long after flunking out of college,
Alexander decided to check himself into reSTART, the first rehab center in
America devoted to treating Internet addicts.
Hi, friends and welcome. I’m Chelsea.
And I’m Chip.
And thanks for joining us on a day when we’re talking about technology.
This is our TECHNOLOGY article this month and we’re talking about the Internet.
But actually we’re talking about Internet addiction.
Now, first of all, we need to talk about that word ”addiction”.
An addiction is a physical or mental dependence on something.
So here we might be talking about a very strong habit that you might have to the
Internet.
It’s a habit that you try to resist.
You try to stop doing this habit uh, because it might be causing problems in
your life.
But because it’s an addiction, it’s very hard to stop doing it.
And there are many different kinds of addictions, aren’t there, Chelsea?
Some more common addictions that we might hear about are drug addictions and
alcohol addictions.
People who have the habit of doing drugs and drinking alcohol and it’s very hard
to break those addictions.
But here, as Chip said, we are talking about Internet addiction.
People who spend so much time online and we see in our deck that those people
might be addicted.
OK. And our article starts off by saying that for most people these days, going
online requires little effort.
And that’s very true. Going online, getting on to the Internet, is pretty easy.
But leaving the Internet, stopping that Internet activity, can be very
difficult.
That can be another story.
Well, that sounds like an interesting phrase there, ”can be another story.”.
So, let’s see if Liz can help us understand this phrase a little bit better with
Grammar on the Go.
Hello, friends. How are you today?
My name is Liz and it’s time for Grammar on the Go.
Our article today is about Internet Addiction.
For some people with a serious addiction,
they check themselves into a rehabilitation center, which you’ll learn more
about in today’s article.
But for others, it’s about learning to manage their time online and finding
other things to do,
like what I’m doing right now: out on a hike in the wilderness.
Anyhow, here’s today’s Grammar Tip sentence.
But leaving the Internet can be another story.
Notice the phrase at the end of the sentence: another story.
This use of ”story” does not mean the same thing as what you would tell
children, like a fairy tale.
Instead, ”another story” means a different matter or a different subject.
So going back to today’s sentence, the writer is saying that even though it’s
easy for most people to go online, leaving the Internet is not as easy.
In fact, it’s a different situation for some people.
Use this expression, ”another story,” when you want to let people know how two
situations, though they may seem similar, are actually quite different.
For example, Sarah and Sally are identical twin sisters.
Sarah is very organized and efficient in her work.
Sally is another story.
Or: Going up the mountain in the late afternoon wasn’t hard for me; coming down
in the dark was a different story.
There’re so many other ways to use the word ”story,” and you’ll find some
examples in today’s Grammar Tip in your Studio Classroom magazine.
That’s it for today.
This is Liz with Grammar on the Go, signing off. Bye-bye.
Thanks, Liz.
So, getting online or going online is pretty easy.
But leaving their computer can be another story.
For some, the act of going online is addicting, and they find it hard to log off
and return to everyday life.
And we have an example of someone who struggled with this, an example of someone
who was addicted to the Internet.
And we see his name in our next paragraph: Ben Alexander.
And Ben realized he had a problem after he found himself playing the online game
World of Warcraft more than 16 hours a day.
Now, Chip, we all know that there are 24 hours in a day.
Mmhm.
And if he’s playing for 16 of those hours, that sure sounds like an addiction to
me.
Yeah. That is a large portion, or a large part of the day.
And that actually is uh, more than most people would work in a day.
Uh, so that he is spending a lot of time playing World of Warcraft, an Internet
game.
Now, not long after flunking out of college, Alexander decided to check himself
in to reSTART,
which is the first rehab center in America devoted to teaching Internet addicts.
Now we have some words to talk about here, Chelsea.
First of all, what does... what does it mean if he flunked out of college?
Well, that just means that he was forced to leave college.
He was forced to leave school because his grades were not good enough.
That probably means he spent so many hours per day playing computer games that
he didn’t make time to do the things that were important, like study and go to
class.
And so clearly his grades would have dropped; he would begin to flunk or fail
his classes.
And the phrase we use for when people have to leave school because of poor
grades is ”flunking out”.
So he flunked out.
And at this point he’s finally realizing that he needs some help though.
Right.
So he goes to a rehab center.
Right. Our article says that he checks himself in to a rehab center.
And a rehab center would be a center or a place, maybe a community, that is
dedicated to helping someone stop an addiction.
So maybe someone would go to a rehab center to stop their drug addiction or stop
their alcohol addiction.
And in this case, Ben is checking himself into a rehab center named reSTART to
curb or to stop his Internet addiction.
And I think this is a very good first step, of course.
It says that ”he checked himself in,” that means he willingly went there.
Sometimes people who need to go to a rehab center, also known as
”rehabilitation,” they’re maybe forced to go and they don’t want to go.
But maybe somebody else recognizes their problem and so they go.
But it sounds like here Ben was willing.
He realized he had a problem and so he checked himself in to rehab.
OK. And yeah, Chelsea, as you use the word, ”rehabilitation,” that word also
communicates that it’s not just stopping the addiction,
it’s not just that a rehab center will try to get you to stop the habit,
but it also tries to help you restore yourself and get yourself back into good
health.
Well, we have a very uh, interesting article that we’ll continue after the
break.
Before we take a break, let’s visit the Chat Room.
Hey, Ashley, what are you reading?
Oh. I’m just looking at the Used Car ads.
Used Car ads? If you want to drive a different car, get a new one.
Uh, Ken, I have little money saved, so I can’t afford a new car.
Well, at least you’ve saved up a little.
No, I said I have little money saved, not saved up a little.
I have to borrow money from my parents to buy a used car.
Little money? How was that differ from ”a little money”?
Well, if I have ”a little money” saved, I’m happy with how much money I have.
But, if I say I have ”little money” saved,
I’m saying I barely have any money and I’m not happy with how much money I have.
Oh, so the difference is in the attitude.
Exactly.
In fact, little money and a little money could even be exactly the same amount
of money.
The difference is ”little” has a negative connotation,
and ”a little” has a much more positive connotation.
What about ”few” and ”a few”?
They’re the same thing.
If you say, ”I met a few people at the party,” it’s positive.
It implies you are happy about the number of people you met.
But, if you say, ”I met few people at the party,” it’s negative.
It implies you would like to have met more people.
Oh, I see.
Well, since you have little money and I have a little money saved up, I can
probably spot you a few hundred for that car.
Oh! That’d be wonderful, Ken. Thanks so much.
No problem.
(Chinese).