Video Game Violence
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Video Game Violence PRE-READING QUESTIONS 1. Do you ever play video games? If so, how often do you play? 2. Do you have children? Do they play video games and if so, how often do they play? 3. What do you think is the average amount of time school age children in America play video games every day? 4. Do you think most popular video games contain violence? 5. Is there a law in your country (city, state, province, etc.) restricting the sale or rental of violent video games? 6. Who do you think might support this kind of law and who do you think might oppose it? Video Game Violence Many school-age children in the United States play video games for close to an hour a day. Almost 90% of the most popular video games contain violence, and much of it is extremely violent. The video game industry rates games that contain violence or sexual images as “"M”" for mature audiences. Researchers have discovered, though, that children as young as seven years old have played these games. In July 2005, the state of Illinois passed a law that makes it illegal to sell or rent a video game containing violence or sexual images to anyone under 18 years of age. Those who break the law face a year in prison or a $5,000 fine. The video game industry must label these games as “"violent”" or “"sexually explicit.”" Many parents and researchers support this law. They believe that children who play violent video games may act more violently in real life. They also believe that the industry is more interested in making money than protecting children from the harmful effects of seeing violent or adult sexual images. Those who sell or rent video games oppose the law. They think that parents, not video stores, should be responsible for what their children are doing or seeing. In the past, similar laws have been rejected by American courts, mainly on the basis of free speech. Illinois lawmakers think that their law will be more successful because they have dealt with many of the courts’' concerns. They also think that it is time for the courts to deal more seriously with the harmful impact of these games on children. In addition to the law, the state will set up a Web site where parents can learn how these games may affect their children. Parents can also report stores that continue to sell or rent these games to minors and companies that have not labeled their games properly. COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS 1. How can someone know if a video game contains violence or sexual images? 2. What kind of law did the state of Illinois pass in 2005 regarding video games? 3. Why do many parents support this law? 4. What do many people who rent or sell video games think about this law? 5. What will the punishment be for someone who breaks this new law in Illinois? VOCABULARY REVIEW A. Match the words on the left with the correct meaning on the right. _____ 1. rate a. be against; not support _____ 2. mature b. strong influence or effect _____ 3. illegal c. causing injury or hurt or damage _____ 4. researcher d. estimate the value; classify _____ 5. minor e. sum of money paid as a penalty or punishment _____ 6. image f. against the law _____ 7. fine g. refuse to accept _____ 8. label h. fully grown or developed; adult _____ 9. explicit i. clearly and fully shown or expressed _____ 10. harmful j. someone who studies and looks for answers _____ 11. oppose k. picture _____ 12. reject l. put a name or description on something _____ 13. impact m. young person (under the age of 18) B. Choose the correct word from the left column above to complete the following sentences. 1. Smoking is very _____________________ to your health. 2. When he drove through the red traffic light, the police gave him a $100 _________________. 3. If she doesn't love him anymore, she will _____________________ his marriage proposal. 4. His year of studying in a foreign country had a very positive _____________________ on his life. 5. His instructions were very _____________________. I understood them very well. DISCUSS IT Work with a partner or in small groups. Discuss the following questions. 1. Children's TV programs, comic books, and movies often contain violence. Do you think that violent video games have any different impact on children than these other forms of entertainment? 2. Do you think that a year in jail or a $5000 fine is a fair punishment for breaking the Illinois law? Explain your answer. 3. Do you think that the video game industry has any interest in protecting children from the harmful effects of watching violent or adult sexual images? 4. Do you think most parents carefully monitor the TV programs their children watch and video games they play? 5. Most countries have classifications for movies such as Family Entertainment, General Admission, Parental Guidance, Restricted Adult, etc. Do you think that video games should have a similar type of classification system? Why or why not? WRITE IT Choose one of the questions above and write a paragraph stating your own opinion. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ DEBATE IT Below are topics to debate in small groups or pairs. Your teacher will tell you if you will be debating for or against the idea. You will have ten minutes to prepare your arguments. (Your teacher will explain the rules of debate before you begin.) Topic #1: It is the responsibility of parents, not lawmakers, to decide which video games their children can play. Therefore, there should be no laws restricting the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. Topic #2: Violent video games have a very harmful effect on children and contribute to the increase in violence in our society. Notes: ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ |
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When Training Backfires: Hard Work That’s Too Hard
When Training Backfires: Hard Work That’s Too Hard
By GINA KOLATA
By GINA KOLATA
UNTIL last spring, running was going great for 15-year-old Erik Kraus. He had been training hard without a break for 18 months and was becoming faster and faster.
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Then, when spring track started, something went awry. Every time he raced 1,500 meters, his time was 15 seconds slower than in the previous race.
Erik’s father, Dr. William Kraus, a runner himself and a cardiologist at Duke University who studies exercise, was concerned. Erik was tired all the time; his legs felt heavy; he was frustrated, irritable. Could it be the condition that athletes dread: overtraining?
Overtraining is the downside of training, the trap that can derail an athlete’s success. It’s a real physical condition caused by pushing too hard for too long. It can happen with too much exercise, too much intense exercise, or both. Its hallmarks are poor performances, exhaustion and apathy.
“You just feel bad,” said Dr. William O. Roberts, an internist at the University of Minnesota who specializes in treating athletes and is a former president of the American College of Sports Medicine. “The spark is gone.”
It can come on so insidiously that before athletes know it, they find themselves trapped in a downward spiral. The harder they train, the worse they do.
But there’s another trap — the overdiagnoses of overtraining, said Dr. Steven Keteyian, the director of preventive cardiology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
Dr. Keteyian, who has written textbook chapters on the condition, cautions that it is quite rare. But many athletes worry about overtraining every time they fail to perform as well as they think they should.
“It doesn’t happen over a two-week period of time,” Dr. Keteyian said. And it is unlikely to strike someone running 20 miles or so a week or doing the equivalent amount of another endurance sport, he said.
“Twenty miles is nothing,” Dr. Keteyian said. “Talk to me when you are running 50 miles a week. If you are a runner and have a steady history of running 40 to 70 miles a week and now you are pushing it to 80, 90, 100 miles a week and your times are dropping and you are feeling sluggish, then I’ll start to listen.”
If overtraining has occurred, “it’s a long road back,” Dr. Keteyian said. The only cure is to take weeks or months off. No athlete wants that, Dr. Keteyian said, so it’s important not to jump to conclusions.
Dr. Kraus knew that overtraining was unlikely. But his son seemed to meet the criteria, such as they are. He began looking for credible data on overtraining but was soon disappointed to discover that overtraining remains poorly understood and understudied.
There is no definitive test for overtraining. Instead, the diagnosis is reached by exclusion. Besides slower times and fatigue, Dr. Keteyian and others say athletes may notice that their muscles are weaker and that their coordination is poorer. Their heart rates may be higher than they should be with moderate exercise. And their resting heart rates, taken first thing in the morning, can be higher, too.
Overtraining is an unintended consequence of the only known way for athletes to improve — by pushing their bodies and stressing themselves by deliberately going faster or longer than feels comfortable. “Training a little bit beyond your capabilities is the only way to get better,” Dr. Kraus said. “But you have to balance that with rest and recovery. It’s a fine line. Where is that edge and how do you get as close as possible without going over it?”
Elite athletes and their coaches are acutely aware of overtraining, said Frank Busch, the head coach for the University of Arizona’s swimming team and an assistant coach for the United States men’s Olympic swimming team. And they have become adept at heading it off.
Not too long ago, coaches thought that volume — hours upon hours of training — was the key to outstanding performances, Mr. Busch said. “The result was sort of an arms race among swimmers and other endurance athletes to see who could train the most,” he said. “Athletes began getting overtrained.”
Now coaches and swimmers know that there is a point of diminishing returns. Coaches look for signs that their athletes are doing too much. Performance is one indicator, of course, but so is something as simple as a swimmer who has stopped smiling, Mr. Busch said. “That’s usually a sign that they are dreading practice or there is something else going on. Maybe they are exhausted around the clock.”
Dr. Roberts said that among his recent overtrained patients was a young man who was a stellar Nordic skier. A year and a half later, in marched another: the man’s mother, a middle-aged woman, also a prize-winning Nordic skier.
“They both trained too hard,” Dr. Roberts said. Both, he added, “were more or less self-coached at the time.” No one was monitoring them.
“Athletes are obsessed and gullible,” Dr. Keteyian said. “They will do anything they can to improve their performance and they don’t know when to stop.”
Dr. Roberts suggested that athletes who feel tired all the time first take some time off from their sport, perhaps a few days to two weeks. If they still do not feel better, they should see their primary-care doctor and mention that they are concerned about overtraining. Or, he said, they might want to seek out a physician who specializes in sports medicine — a list is available on acsm.org.
“An athlete would want to look for a physician who practices the broader scope of sports medicine and has not limited his or her practice to musculoskeletal problems,” Dr. Roberts added.
As for Dr. Kraus, he told his son to take a two-week break. That did not help. He had the youth tested for ferritin, an iron storage protein. Overtrained athletes can have low iron levels and anemia, although overtraining is not the only cause.
But even though Erik’s ferritin levels were sub par, and even though they rose slightly when he took iron supplements, he felt as tired and sluggish as ever. In the end, Erik Kraus ended up taking two months off. It was not easy. Like other athletes, he wanted to train, wanted to race, and he worried that he would never be competitive again. Now, finally, he has returned to running.
“When he first started back, he said, ‘Oh, my gosh, this feels good,’ ” Dr. Kraus recalled. Then Erik went for an eight-mile run with the fastest runner on his team. He not only kept up with his teammate but pushed him at the end.
Erik returned home from that run all smiles. “He said, ‘Dad, I had a breakthrough today,’ ” Dr. Kraus said.
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Higher taxes and more optional features, says Hyundai Motor.
September 02, 2008 | ||
It was an ambitious project for the company. Hyundai Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Chung Mong-koo said that Genesis was the company’s first entry into the luxury car market, which had previously been dominated by European companies. In the U.S., the Genesis V6 3.8L sells at a starting price of $33,000, while a basic V8 4.6L costs $38,000. But in Korea, it went on sale this January with the Genesis V6 3.8L selling for about 52.8 million won ($48,485). This is a difference of more than $15,000.
According to Hyundai Motor, taxes and a different production system are to blame. A 24.3 percent tax is levied on domestic cars after they are made. Also, there are over 20 more optional features, including a sunroof and an electric power braking system, in the Korean Genesis 3.8L than the U.S. one. A Hyundai representative said, “In Korea a 3.8L model is considered relatively high-end whereas in the U.S., it is considered a basic model which is why we took out the extra options for the U.S. cars.” Even with all of this taken into consideration, the U.S. 4.6L Genesis has very similar optional features as the domestically sold 3.8L Genesis, and is 800 cubic centimeters bigger, but still costs less than the domestic 3.8L Genesis. Even if we exclude the extra tax on the domestic 3.8L Genesis, it still costs over 42.4 million won. In the face of customer dissatisfaction at these double standards, some Korean companies are moving quickly to “re-import” Genesis cars that were exported to the United States. This means that after a car that is made for the U.S. market is exported from Korea, it is brought back in by automobile import companies. So a customer who orders this re-import would be driving a U.S.-version Genesis on Korean roads. The automobile industry estimates that around 10 companies are preparing to re-import the Genesis. And customers are signing up to buy them. Kang Jin-seung, an executive at a Korean automobile import company, said that a significant number of customers have signed up to buy the re-imported Genesis. He added that the re-imports will arrive by October and be ready to run with Korean license plates. The 3.8L full-option Technology Pack Genesis in the U.S. has a starting price of $38,063 (excluding some options, such as seat warmers). With shipping and Korean tax fees, this comes to 60 million won. That’s around 5.8 million won less than the comparable Royal VIP Pack with full options sold in Korea. Automobile re-importing is mainly popular in Europe with expensive cars like Porsches. The re-import of regular passenger cars like the Genesis, however, is extremely rare. People who are skeptical of the Genesis re-import plans say that the savings are insignificant because the won has depreciated against the dollar recently. Others say that foreign imports have fewer optional features. Experts also argue that the difference in price is due to the cost of auto parts and raw materials as well as commodity prices in each country. Hyundai Motor also pointed out in its defense that in developing the Genesis, it carried out consumer surveys and studied the prices of similar cars in the U.S., including the Chrysler 300C and the Lexus GS. Hyundai Motor said that it had to lower the retail price of its cars in the U.S. market because fewer people have heard of the brand compared to other bigger automakers. The recent U.S. economic slowdown also contributed to the price being lower there. Representatives of Hyundai Motor added that Japanese and German cars are also much cheaper in the U.S. than in their home countries. These arguments, however, still do not sit well with many Koreans, who are furious that domestic-made cars and other products cost more here than overseas. Experts say that the domestic market for re-imported cars will grow if Korean companies keep their prices high. This means that more customers will choose to buy re-imports because they are cheaper. Many customers have complained following reports about the price differences in the Genesis. In July, Hyundai Motor advertised a new 3.8L Genesis in Korea with fewer optional features, for 47.5 million won. This gap in domestic and overseas prices can also be seen in foreign brands which have been imported to Korea. U.S.-based fashion brand Banana Republic first opened its doors in Korea last summer. But consumers were in for a nasty shock as the clothes were almost twice as expensive here than in the U.S. Some items cost up to 70 percent more here than their U.S. equivalents. Shinsegae International, which imports the brand to Korea, said the discrepancy was due to the high costs of leasing store space in Korea. Even so, Banana Republic in Korea received numerous complaints from local customers. As a result, the brand lowered its prices earlier this year. To achieve this, some clothing items are now delivered by ship, whereas they were all air freighted before. Banana Republic’s spring/summer collection in Korea was, therefore, considerably cheaper. A dress which would have cost 289,000 won last year was selling at 219,000 won this year. Men’s cotton T-shirts, selling last year for 179,000 won, now cost 139,000 won. By Cho Jae-eun Staff Reporter/ Han Ae-ran JoongAng Ilbo [jainnie@joongang.co.kr] WHAT ARE PARALLEL IMPORTS? Regular importing of goods is when a company brings a product for sale in its own country from another country through an agreed, legitimate deal between the two companies. Parallel importing is the importing of a genuine product from another country without an official deal with the original company. This allows for more than one local import company to bring foreign brand items into Korea. So for example, if an American toothpaste brand, called A, does not have an official deal to export their products to Korea, many smaller Korean importers can bring A’s products into Korea and sell them. The re-importing of Genesis is possible because the Korean government permits companies to make parallel import transactions, with some exceptions. Sometimes parallel importing is done to sell items which consumers want but can’t be found in Korea. Other times, this is done to sell products at a lower price. In New Zealand for example, some car dealers buy Mercedes-Benz cars in Malaysia at a lower price than they are sold at in New Zealand. Then they import the cars into New Zealand at a lower price than Mercedes-Benz cars sold directly there without this deal. In Korea, a recent popular parallel import item is the Nissan Cube mini MPV. This Japanese car is not yet officially imported here but around 100 parallel imports are being driven on Korean roads. Korean singer Lee Hyo-ri drives the Cube and since her appearance with the car, its popularity has escalated here. Nissan said that the car will be exported to the United States, Europe and Korea by the first half of next year. |
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Rice and veg for a new generation
Revival of traditional culture
September 01, 2008 | ||||||||||
Diners tend to want something different, and with well-being still a craze these days, restaurants are presenting selected traditional foods in a way even the most trendy of food aficionados can appreciate. At Cafe Sobahn Rice & Mix (www.sobahn.co.kr) in Gwanghwamun, bibimbap, mixed rice and vegetables, gets a makeover. “We decided on bibimbap because it’s one of the most representative Korean dishes and uses natural ingredients,” explained Kwon Hyung-jun of CJ Foodville, which owns the cafe.
The idea is to eliminate the frenetic atmosphere prevalent at most Korean restaurants, he said. Who’s the target customer? The working man or woman? “The Korean food industry tends to focus on the needs of the working female population. Most men here are not fussed about enjoying a unique dining experience,” said Kwon.
“Sales have increased by roughly 10 percent a year, with the biggest sales increase of 20 percent last year,” said Won Yong-hun, the manager of the Gwanghwamun branch. However, I would have to say sales have leveled off this year since other similar restaurants have opened nearby.” A cafe with a similar name, Soban, (www.soban.co.kr) also serves variations of traditional Korean dishes. The manager, Kim Dong-chul, said Soban tries to break ties with the past. You won’t find any spicy stews or exotic flavors at Soban, which is in Yeoksam-dong, southern Seoul.
“We don’t serve fusion but a selected choice of healthy Korean dishes. Since the health and well-being of our customers are a priority, we even try to limit the use of salt and different sauces. This might cause some first-time diners to think our dishes are bland,” Kim said. Soban’s popularity is impressive. Kim said sales figures have increased by nearly 20 percent since the restaurant opened in December 2005 and total annual sales have more than tripled since 2006. The rise of trendy health-conscious Korean restaurants does not mean traditional motif restaurants are on their way out. One of the more interesting places to try out is Seokparang (http://seokparang.co.kr) where you can sample traditional royal cuisine. The building dates back to the late-Joseon era and features a combination of Korean and Chinese architecture.
“After the popularity of the Korean TV drama ‘Dae Jang Geum (A Jewel in the Palace),’ many visitors from overseas have visited our restaurant,” said Ho Kyung-wook, the manager. “Seokparang is a great place to experience traditional Korean culture and history together as one.” The menu consists of dishes made from fresh seasonal ingredients. The set menus consists of neobiani (grilled beef), songitang (pine mushroom stew) and sinseollo (cooked rice mixed with assorted ingredients). You won’t find these dishes in the average restaurant on the street. If you want to know about food made from fresh seasonal ingredients in Korea, you should check out temple food eaten by Buddhist monks. Their diet shuns artificial additives and strong flavored ingredients such as onions, garlic and Korean leeks. “Temple food helps maintain a sound mind and body,” said Jeok Moon, a Buddhist monk at the Korean Traditional Temple Food Institute. Jeok Moon said a growing interest in meditation, temple stays and temple food indicates that many people want to change their hectic lifestyles. “Although the popularity of temple food increased in Japan during the 1960s, the interest in temple food here in Korea started in the 1990s. There are even temple food restaurants in Manhattan, which shows that interest in this diet is global, not just domestic,” Jeok Moon said. A more surprising sight of late has been tteok, or rice cakes, at cafes and coffee shops. While a mainstay at major celebrations and holidays, rice cakes were not exactly hot items until recently. But Starbucks Korea has announced a new line. “Rice cakes are low-calorie and have nutritional value,” said Park Han-jo of Starbucks Korea. So next time you head into a Starbucks, look out for tteok in strawberry, sagebrush, pumpkin, green tea and black raspberry flavors. They could make for a healthy alternative to a double chocolate muffin. |
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