Like many constructions, it started small. But now thousands of children with autism (自闭症) are making friends and learning social skills by playing a special version of online building game Minecraft.
Stuart Duncan got the idea through a popular blog he ran about his own experiences with autism as well as bringing up a son with autism. Other parents with autistic children started telling him that their kids were crazy about a game that let them explore a randomly generated wilderness. However, despite loving the game, many of the children were being bullied (霸凌) by other players.
So, in 2013, Duncan, a web developer in Canada, set up a server to run a version of Minecraft only for children with autism and their families. He thought the invite-only server would attract 10 or 20 people, but hundreds requested to join in the first few days. Now, almost three years later, running the special version, Autcraft, is his full-time job. The community has nearly 7000 members, along with a team of engineers to help manage its many activities. "Parents see such a benefit for themselves and their children," says Duncan.
In Minecraft, you use blocks of materials like wood and stone to build whatever you like. "This is a great way for them to play a game they love, but also have a social experience," says Kate Ringland from the University of California, who has spent 60 hours inside this virtual world, watching how the kids play and chat to one another. "It's giving an alternative way for these kids to express themselves and communicate without the stresses of the physical life stuff. "
Everyday social situations can be challenging for autistic children, who may struggle to pick up on social signals or understand another person's viewpoint. Duncan thinks Minecraft removes the pressures typical of the real world. There is no noisy or unfamiliar environment to distract (使分心) you, no pressure to track the other person's facial expressions or worry about eye contact. Joining a community like Autcraft could be a good first step to feeling less socially anxious and more engaged.
It is something one half of the population has long suspected and the other half always vocally denied– women really do talk more than men. In fact, women talk almost three times as much as men, with the average woman chalking up 20,000 words in a day – 13,000 more than the average man.
Women also speak more quickly, devote more brainpower to chit-chat, and actually enjoy hearing their own voices, a new book suggests. The book – written by a female psychiatrist, Dr. Luan Brizendine – says that inherent (生来就有的) differences between the male and female brain explain why women are naturally more talkative than men.
In The Female Mind, Brizendine says the differences can be traced back to the womb (子宫), where the sex hormone (激素) called testosterone moulds the developing male brain. The areas responsible for communication, emotion and memory are all reduced before a baby boy is born.
The result is that boys – and men – chat less than their female peers and struggle to express their emotions to the same extent. "Women have an eight-lane superhighway for processing emotion, while men have a small country road," said Brizendine.
There are, however, advantages of being the strong, silent type. Brizendine explains in her book that testosterone also reduces the size of the section of the brain involved in hearing – allowing men to become "deaf" to the most logical arguments put forward by their wives and girlfriends.
Other scientists, however, say many of the differences between the male and female personality can be explained by social conditioning, with a child's upbringing greatly influencing their character.
Deborah Cameron, an Oxford University linguistics professor with a special interest in language and gender, said the amount we talk is influenced by who we are with and what we are doing. "If you look through a large number of studies you will find there is little difference between the amount men and women talk," she added.
The time a person spends on different smartphone apps is enough to identify them from a larger group in more than one in three cases, say researchers.
Researchers analyzed smartphone data from 780 people. They fed 4,680 days of app usage data into statistical models. Each of these days was paired with one of the 780 users so that the models learned people's daily app use patterns.
The researchers then tested whether models could identify an individual when provided with only a single day of smartphone activity that was anonymous (匿名的). The models, which were trained on only six days of app usage data per person, could identify the correct person from a day of anonymous data one third of the time.
That might not sound like much, but when the models predict who the data belonged to, it could also provide a list of the most to the least likely candidates. It was possible to view the top 10 most likely individuals that a specific day of data belonged to. Around 75% of the time, the correct user would be among the top 10 most likely candidates.
In practical terms, a law enforcement (执法机构) investigation seeking to identify a criminal's new phone with these models could reduce a candidate pool of approximately 1,000 phones to 10 phones, with a 25% risk of missing them.
Consequently, the researchers warn that software given access to a smartphone's standard activity logging could make a reasonable prediction about a user's identity even when they were logged-out of their account. An identification is possible without monitoring conversations or behaviors within apps themselves.
Therefore, it is important to acknowledge that app usage data alone, which is often collected by a smartphone automatically, can potentially reveal a person's identity. While providing new opportunities for law enforcement, it also poses risks to privacy if this type of data is misused.
A But Peter said that he was too nervous to eat.
B "You'll have more energy if you do," said Peter's Mum.
C Mum told him that he should eat breakfast first, so that he would have enough energy after he got to school.
D A few weeks earlier, he decided to apply for the school basketball team. Peter ran downstairs to tell his Mum that he had to leave for school early.
E Peter got up early on Thursday morning because he would have a try at basketball that day.
Understanding Your Feelings Helps You Name And Tame (驯服) Them
We all experience various feelings all the time. Some of them feel great, some feel unpleasant, and it's helpful to be able to recognize and understand how you're feeling so you know how to deal with it.
They can include anger, sadness, worry, loneliness and shame, as well as surprise, happiness, courage and hope, among many others. All feelings are there to be felt and some can be more uncomfortable than others. It's OK and natural to experience different emotions – and that includes emotions that might not feel nice.
To deal with your feelings you need to recognize what they are. Are your fists clenched (攥紧)? Does it seem like there's a knot in your stomach? Next, pay attention to what you're thinking at this time. Or are you thinking that you really don't want to do something? Once you have identified how you're feeling, you can label it by saying, for example, "I'm feeling angry" or "I'm feeling lonely" .
You can understand a difficult feeling and help yourself to handle it. If you're upset about a difficult feeling, like "I'm feeling angry", you might count to ten to calm down. Perhaps you notice "I'm feeling nervous", and you might talk to someone about it. The person you talk to may be able to give you reassurance, more information, a different point of view, or even help you take action to deal with the cause of your difficult feeling.
A. Experts call this "name it to tame it" .
B. How can you deal with different feelings?
C. Perhaps you have the thought, "It's not fair" .
D. Feelings are how people experience emotions.
E. First of all, notice what's going on with your body.
F. They are shown through various body movements, to begin with.
G. Feelings are sometimes labelled as good or bad but that isn't helpful.
It was two days before Christmas and I still felt numb. My husband Steve had passed away in late September but I was doing the best I could to1 the season. My two adult sons wanted to carry on some of our family traditions like our Christmas Eve Open House, but I knew others would2.
Steve and I used to put a special gift for each other under the tree. I made sure he had something 3, and he made sure I had something from Saffees, my favorite women's clothing store. Although Steve was no longer here to celebrate, I stubbornly asked my sons, "What should I buy for your dad?"
I 4 decided to name a star after Steve. I knew it was the perfect gift for a 5 enthusiast like him. I didn't mind not having a 6 from him, except that it was just another 7 that he was no longer with us.
Later, Bonnie, the manager of Saffees, 8, saying she would stop by and give me something. I couldn't9 what she might have for me because I knew Steve was too10 to have prearranged something three months in advance. After Bonnie arrived, I was11 to see her holding a beautifully wrapped present to place under the tree.
She explained that she12 our tradition and thus had selected something she knew I would like. She wanted to13 that Steve's traditional gift for me continued on what would be a very14 Christmas Day.
For one last time, our15 was honored – I gave Steve a gift of fun, and my package from Saffees was under the tree.
When the Winter Olympics met Chinese New Year, Beijing made everyone's stay in China (enjoy) with a wonderful experience of Chinese culture. As the world's first "dual Olympic city", it (pay) attention to the details in every aspect to support the safe and smooth (operate) of the Games while overcoming the difficulties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beijing was applauded and praised by athletes its excellent venue (场地) services during the Games. One of the greatest is the Big Air Shougang Olympic venue witnessed the epic victory of 18-year-old Chinese freestyle skier Gu Ailing, also (know) as Eileen Gu. Eileen spoke (high) of this competition venue, all other athletes said the Shougang Big Air was the best of its kind that they had set foot on.
The design concept of this platform (develop) from the traditional painting in Dunhuang, Gansu Province. The Shougang Big Air is the only snow event venue in downtown Beijing, making it the coolest thing for Big Air athletes (jump) against the backdrop of coolant towers. Besides, the venue will be a permanent big air facility, the first of its kind in the world.
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A. to speak very quietly to sb ,so that other people cannot hear what you are saying B. Wait for the right moment to do sth. C. the act of communicating with sb,especially regularly D. making you feel embarrassed. E. Common people or things F. Help someone or something that has been in a serious accident G. Something that can be done without manipulation. H. Hoping to accomplish something or get something I. Something to do on a regular basis J. Make sure you can get something done. K. To be upset or very anxious L. The antonym of the big thing. |
