The way we tell stories has naturally changed since Aristotle defined the rules of tragedy about 2,500 years ago. According to him, the role of storytelling is to imitate life and make us feel emotions. And that's exactly what storytelling as we know it has done very well since then. But there is an aspect of life storytelling could never really reproduce. It is the notion of choices.
Choices are a very important part of our lives. We as individuals (define) by the choices we make. As an interactive writer, (fascinate) with the idea of recreating this notion of choices in fiction, I have tried to put the audience in the shoes of the main characters. (explore) a way to achieve this is what I did in the past 20 years of my life.
So do you have an idea of my work is about as an interactive writer? Where a writer needs to deal with time and space, as an interactive writer, I need to deal with time, space and possibilities. I need to think about all the possibilities the characters could encounter different people and different things in a given scene and try to imagine everything that happen.
The interactive writer's experience is very unique, it is the result of the cooperation between a writer creating this narrative landscape and the player making his own decisions, telling his own story and becoming the cowriter but also the coactor and the codirector of the story. Interactive storytelling is a revolution in the way we tell stories.
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A. associated B. embarrassed C. emphasis D. forgetting E. forming F. advantages G. occurs H. relevant I. stimulates J. unusual |
The brain is a seemingly endless library, whose shelves house our most precious memories. To allow new memories to form, old information is sometimes pushed out of the brain.
Previous studies have shown that learning new information can lead to . But in a new study, researchers showed for the first time how this effect in the brain.
In daily life, forgetting actually has clear . Imagine, for instance, that you lost your bank card. The new card you receive will come with a new personal identification number (PIN). Each time you remember the new PIN, you gradually forget the old one. This process improves access to information, without old memories interfering.
And most of us may sometimes feel when old memories interfere with new, relevant memories. Consider trying to remember where you parked your car in the same car park you were at a week earlier. This type of memory is particularly interfering.
When we get new information, the brain automatically tries to combine it with existing information by associations. And when we retrieve（检索）information, both the desired and but irrelevant information is recalled.
The majority of previous research has focused on how we learn and remember new information. But current studies are beginning to put greater on the conditions under which we forget, as its importance begins to be more appreciated.
A very small number of people are able to remember almost every detail of their life. Though it may sound like an advantage to many, people with this rare condition often find their ability troublesome. In a sense, normal forgetting may help to ensure our brain doesn't become too full.
In 1986, the drug company Johnson & Johnson was faced with a crisis. Several people had died after taking Tylenol（泰诺）, a Johnson & Johnson product. The deaths were not the 1 of the company, but the work of a criminal who had put poison in some of the Tylenol capsules（胶囊）. The criminal was later caught and punished, but 2 the deaths, people stopped buying Tylenol. The management of Johnson & Johnson realized that they had to act 3and quickly to prevent serious consequences for the company. Within days, in fact, they 4 every Tylenol capsule in the United States to check for 5. Soon afterword they also introduced "tamperproof" bottles to prevent future problems. Sales of Tylenol 6 again, and in the end, people felt that Johnson & Johnson had acted well.
Not all companies respond to crisis as well as Johnson & Johnson. Some failed to realized the importance of acting responsibly and suffered a dramatic 7 in sales. Consumers no longer trusted the companies.
The key to managing a crisis lies in the company's 8 reaction. If they recognize a problem immediately and take measures to deal with it, they are less likely to suffer long-term consequences. One example of a quick reaction was that of the Pepsi Company in 1992, when hypodermic syringes （皮下注射器）were found in several soda cans. In a short time, the company was able to prove that the syringes had nothing to do with the production process, and they also found the criminals who had put the syringes in the cans. 9, they lost few customers. On the other hand, Wendy's fast-food company 10 millions of dollars in 2004 because it tried to deny bad news and did not act quickly enough.
A Life in Danger
Lucy, aged 15, lives in Bournemouth with her parents. Her parents aren't poor, and she was at a private school when she started getting bullied. This made her very unhappy and she began to misbehave. She made some new friends who went clubbing a lot. Later she even took drug and stole money to buy drug. Her parents were so worried about their daughter and so angry about her behavior that they decided to send Lucy to Turn-About Ranch (TAR), a tough camp for problem teens in Utah, in the USA.
Lucy didn't like the idea of going to the ranch（牧场）in Utah, but after spending three months there, she's changed her attitude. She said, "The staff at TAR cared about our emotional well-being but they also wanted us to be disciplined and respect the rules. They told us not to take any drugs, not even tobacco or alcohol, and they made us get up at 6.30 a.m. every day and to school work as well as jobs around the ranch. TAR is a real, working ranch with cows and horses, which we had to take care of.
At TAR they asked us not to wear make-up or jewelry or use hair products. They told us that teenagers with problems often use a cool appearance as a mask to hide behind and that they needed to break down those barriers to help us look inside at the confusion which causes our problem behavior. They also wanted us to take responsibility for all our actions."
Her time there has made her more self-confident, less aggressive and much happier. She's started a college course, she's got a part-time job, and she's also doing voluntary work helping underprivileged children. She hasn't taken any drugs since she left TAR. Lucy says, "TAR made me think very hard about the friends I used to see and where my life was going. I realized that the drugs were starting to become the only thing in my life that I cared about, which meant I stopped enjoying other things and treated people badly. I ought to have realized that, and I know I shouldn't have done a lot of things that I did. The ranch has really opened my eyes. They told me to believe I could achieve something with my life, and from now on I want to try."
After I was married and had lived in Japan for while, my Japanese gradually improved to the point where I could take part in simple conversations with my husband and his friends and family. And I began to notice that often, when I joined in, the others would look surprised, and the conversational topic would come to a stop. After this happened several times, it became clear to me that I was doing something wrong. But for a long time, I didn't know what it was.
Finally, after listening carefully to many Japanese conversations, I discovered what my problem was. Even though I was speaking Japanese, I was handling the conversation in a Western way.
A Western-style conversation between two people is like a game of tennis. If I introduce a topic, a conversational ball, I expect you to hit it back. If you agree with me, I don't expect you simply to agree and do nothing more. I expect you to add something-a reason for agreeing, another example, or a detailed explanation to carry the idea further. But I don't expect you always to agree. I am just as happy if you question me, or challenge me, or completely disagree with me. Whether you agree or disagree, your response will return the ball to me.
A Japanese-style conversation, however, is not at all like tennis or volleyball. It's like bowling. You wait for your turn. And you always know your place in line. It depends on such things as whether you are older or younger, a close friend or a relative stranger to the previous speaker, in a senior or junior position, and so on.
When your turn comes, you step up to the starting line with your bowling ball and carefully bowl it. Everyone else stands back and watches politely, murmuring encouragement. Everyone waits until the ball has reached the end of the alley（球场）and watches to see if it knocks down all the pins, or only some of them, or none of them. There is a pause, while everyone registers your score.
Then, after everyone is sure that you have completely finished your turn, the next person in line steps up to the same starting line, with a different ball. He doesn't return your ball, and he does not begin from where your ball stopped. And there is always a suitable pause between turns. There is no rush, no scramble for the ball.
If you have been trained all your life to play one game, it is no simple matter to switch to another, even if you know the rules. Knowing the rules is not at all the same thing as playing the game.
Directions: Complete the following passage by using the sentences in the box. Each sentence can only be used once. Note that there are two sentences more than you need.
Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they are meant to be there. They serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out who you are or who you want to become. You never know who these people may be your roommate, neighbor, professor, long-lost friend, lover or even a complete stranger whom you lock eyes with.
Sometimes things happen to you. But in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realized your potential, strength and willpower. Everything happens for a reason and nothing happens by chance or by means of good or bad luck.
The people you meet affect your life. Even the bad experiences can be learned from. In fact, they are probably the most important ones.
Appreciate every moment and take from it everything that you possible can, for you may never be able to experience it again. Talk to people you have never talked before, yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself. You can make of your life anything you wish. Create your won life and then go out and live it.
A. And the successes and downfalls you experience, create who you are.
B. At the time they may seem horrible, painful and unfair.
C. Humans have sought to discover the meaning of life for a very long time.
D. Each person has his or her own purpose and distinct path, unique and separate from anyone else's.
E. But you know that every moment they will affect you life in some deep way.
F. Make every day count.
The Negative Sides of Fast Food
With today's fast lifestyle, it is very hard to keep up with the traditional way of taking care of all human needs. Eating habits are no exception. According to an article in Success magazine(November 1994), America today eats more fast food than ever before. Ninety-six out of every one hundred Americans eat fast food on some kind of regular basis. There are many side effects related to this popular eating habit.
The food sold in most fast food restaurants may not be all that good for us. Everything in the restaurant has to look, taste, and smell the same way. In order for the food to still taste fresh, a lot of chemicals have to be added. As if that were not enough, the main element that the fast food market advertises and competes for is not good food or fresh ingredients, but lowest prices.
People who have the habit of eating fast food rarely even try to change their diet. Instead, people tend to get more and more used to the convenience and taste of fast food. According to a survey, out of every ten fast food eaters, only four will eat the same amount or less, and the other six will double their “loads” of fast food within four years; and out of every ten people who finally get to control their eating disorder, six will come back to eating fast food within six years. These alarming figures seem to be contrary to today's convenient ways of cooking at home. Easy-to-make dishes like those for microwaves, soups etc., would appear to be the solution for the fast food problem, but obviously the real problem is not the trouble of cooking at home, but the addicting simplicity of fast food.
