【英语语言学习】虚拟现实游戏

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Lots of people play video games to escape the real world, but a new type of virtual reality experience does just the opposite. It takes you to the streets of Syria and other conflicts zones gripped by very real violence. But as reporter James Delahoussaye discovers, the new video game could be a useful tool for journalists.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Are they comfortable on your face?

ALLISON BEGALMAN: Yep. That's good.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: OK.

BEGALMAN: Yeah.

JAMES DELAHOUSSAYE, BYLINE¹: University of Southern California student Allison Begalman donnes bulky, virtual reality goggles² and headphones.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing in foreign language).

BEGALMAN: Oh, my God.

DELAHOUSSAYE: And in the moment, she is transported to a sunny street corner in Aleppo, Syria. There is a cart selling food, cars and trucks passing by and a group of people circled around a singing little girl. But then...

(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)

BEGALMAN: All of a sudden, there's, like, a bomb that goes off. It's completely full of dust and dirt, and you - I'm sort of walking back and forth³.

DELAHOUSSAYE: In this virtual world, Begalman has experienced a mortar⁴ shelling from Bashar al-Assad's regime. This is Project Syria, a virtual reality experience built by a team of students at the University of Southern California. The bomb blasts, the destruction, they're all created using the same kind of tools videogame makers⁵ use, except that this is not a regular videogame.

NONNY DE LA PENA: In America, we're deeply involved in Syria, but we're very disconnected about what is that place? Who are the people? Why do I care? Why are we there?

DELAHOUSSAYE: Nonny de la Pena is the lead for Project Syria and a long-time journalist in print and film

PENA: I sometimes call virtual reality an empathy generator⁶. It's astonishing to me. People all of a sudden connect to the characters in a way that they don't when they've read about them in the newspaper or watched it on TV.

DELAHOUSSAYE: Pena sent her team to the Middle East to film refugee camps and interview survivors⁷. The audio heard in Project Syria, from the singing girl to the bomb blast, was taken from YouTube videos of an actual mortar strike in Aleppo. What Pena's doing - using virtual reality in combination with actual reporting - is part of a wider landscape of video games being used to explore the news. And they're called, appropriately enough, newsgames.

IAN BOGOST: There's an argument to be made that games are perfect at getting at the systemic problems and challenges in the world.

DELAHOUSSAYE: Ian Bogost, a professor at Georgia Tech says games are really good at showing us the complex under belly⁸ of stories. Take a game that he helped make - "Oil God." The player controls an oral rich region waging wars and inciting⁹ coups¹⁰.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "OIL GOD")

DELAHOUSSAYE: In playing, the user learns that oil prices are contingent¹¹ on all sorts of factors rarely mentioned in a story about the price of a gallon of gas.

BOGOST: When you go to the cinema or you turn on the radio and you hear someone's story, you relate to it at a remove. You're not really in their shoes. You're not make choices on their behalf. You're not thrust into their situation.

DELAHOUSSAYE: But in a game, players interact with the real forces making different choices and seeing their consequences. And Bogot says that creates a deeper understanding. In the game, "Oil God," you can go to war and see why oil prices jump. In Project Syria, you can walk straight into a bomb blast to understand a cold reality of the Civil War.

Back at the University of Southern California, student Allison Begalman steps out of the game lab. She says that while she's heard about the war in Syria, she never felt that she could empathize with its refugees until she played this game.

BEGALMAN: You can only understand so much, but when you get to see if for yourself, yes, I'm not actually there, but this is a huge step.

DELAHOUSSAYE: A step, she says, that will lead to more time spent with all kinds of media learning about a complex war in a far off land. For NPR News, I'm James Delahoussaye.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 goggles   

n.护目镜

参考例句：

• Skiers wear goggles to protect their eyes from the sun.滑雪者都戴上护目镜使眼睛不受阳光伤害。
• My swimming goggles keep steaming up so I can't see.我的护目镜一直有水雾，所以我看不见。

3 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

4 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

5 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

7 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

8 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

9 inciting   

刺激的，煽动的

参考例句：

• What are you up to inciting mutiny and insubordination? 你们干吗在这里煽动骚动的叛乱呀。
• He was charged with inciting people to rebel. 他被控煽动民众起来叛乱。

10 coups   

n.意外而成功的行动( coup的名词复数 )；政变；努力办到难办的事

参考例句：

• China has seen many political coups within the ruling class. 中国统治阶级内部发生过很多政变。 来自互联网
• Thailand has had eighteen coups or coup attendance since nineteen thirty-two. 泰国1932年以来有18次政变或参加政变。 来自互联网

11 contingent   

adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队

参考例句：

• The contingent marched in the direction of the Western Hills.队伍朝西山的方向前进。
• Whether or not we arrive on time is contingent on the weather.我们是否按时到达要视天气情况而定。