单选题 A clear-blue-eyed 19-year-old with a blond ponytail, Ben Alexander of Iowa City, tramps along a mossy trail, pops into a chicken coop he recently helped build and grins while clambering up a swinging bridge to a counseling room in a treehouse. This is therapy a la Swiss Family Robinson.
Alexander is the first patient at the newly opened RESTART, a video-game and Internet addiction recovery program in Fall City, Wash., about 30 miles east of Seattle. It's hard to imagine Alexander, now merrily giving a tour of the woodsy facility, glued to a computer game for more than 16 hours a day, but he says, "It was pretty much all l was doing when I was in college."
Nearly a year ago, Alexander had gotten so consumed with the online fantasy game World of Warcraft that he would skip meals and forgo sleep to keep up with the action. Several times he tried unsuccessfully to wean himself off the game. On the brink of failing out of school, Alexander approached his dad for help. "I had a brief moment of clarity," he says.
Alexander's parents were supportive, and checked him into an addiction treatment center in Eastern Washington. But his fellow patients at the center were battling alcoholism, heroin addiction and other serious substance abuse problems—issues Alexander couldn't relate to. "It wasn't really working for me," he says. He left the center to try a wilderness adventure program in the Utah desert (which didn't help either), until his parents discovered RESTART, where, for $15,500 (including application, screening and treatment fees), "guests" could spend 45 days cut off from the computer, integrated into a real family's home with chores, daily counseling sessions and weekly therapy.
The program, run by psychotherapists Cosette Dawna Rue and Hilarie Cash, is located in Rae's house, where her husband and son also reside. There's room for six patients, but during Alexander's treatment, he is the only one at the facility. He is given a regular schedule, with outdoor activities (including carpentry projects or caring for chickens and goats) plotted throughout the day, plus chores and meals. Rue says the program is designed to mimic what life will be like once patients return home — downtime is built into the routine, so people can learn to cope with boredom. Alexander spends some of that time running — when he first got to the facility, he expressed an interest in running, so Rue and Cash set him up with a local trainer, who now takes him on regular jogs. Alexander also has daily counseling sessions with Rue, where they discuss his long-term goals, and even work on a plan for a tutoring business he hopes to start. Once a week, he has a therapy session with Cash, a specialist in video game and Internet addiction.
Not every psychologist would agree that Internet or video-game dependency is a legitimately diagnosable problem. Some suggest that pathological game-playing or Internet surfing is not an addiction per se, but a symptom of a deeper issue, such as depression or anxiety. But Cash believes the virtual world can be no less addicting than other activities, such as gambling. She describes her first patient who exhibited signs of compulsion: He had come to her in a moment of crisis 15 years ago — having discovered a text-only role-playing computer game that was conceptually similar to Dungeons and Dragons, he had begun dedicating nearly all of his time to the game. He got fired from his job at nearby Microsoft, and his marriage was falling 1o pieces. Cash realized he was showing the classical signs of addiction. "I was so intrigued," says the co-author of the recent book Video Games and Your Kids: How Parents Stay in Control. "That was what started me on my path."
Since then, Cash has focused her practice on video-game and Internet addiction, treating patients who use their electronic media so obsessively that they stop sleeping and eating properly, ruin relationships with loved ones, suffer repetitive use injuries such as eye strain and carpal tunnel syndrome, and develop depression and anxiety, among other things. Cash's private practice is located in Redmond, Wash, the home of Microsoft — not an entirely surprising hub of compulsive Internet and video-game use, she says. Indeed, the Seattle-Tacoma area is the nation's 13th largest media market, and has the highest level of Internet use in the country; according to a recent study, more than 45% of adults in the area regularly play video games. "There's nothing wrong with this technology," says Cash, who is careful to note that it's not the medium that is to blame, but rather, the lack of education about it. "It's all in how it's used."
单选题 Which of the following statements about Alexander is true?
  • A. He is unaware of the seriousness of his addiction to computer game playing.
  • B. His treatment in RESTART is supported by his parents financially and spiritually.
  • C. He has other serious substance abuse problems besides computer game addiction.
  • D. He feels restrained and unhappy during the treatment in RESTART.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。第四段首句说他父母very supportive并且check him into“带他登记”一家网瘾治疗中心，显然是父母出资，可见父母是在精神和经济上双重支持他，故选B。第三段后两句说亚历山大在片刻清醒时，向他父亲求助，正是因为亚历山大意识到自己网游成瘾才可能有求助的行为，故A错误。第四段第二句提到同时接受治疗的人都有酒瘾、毒瘾或者药物滥用等成瘾症，而这些亚历山大都没有，故C错误。文章没有提到亚历山大在ReSTART接受治疗时拘谨或不快乐，D属于无中生有，排除。
单选题 Which of the following words is used literally, NOT metaphorically?
  • A. Glued. (Paragraph 2)
  • B. Battling. (Paragraph 4)
  • C. Plotted. (Paragraph 5)
  • D. Built. (Paragraph 5)
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 修辞格题。Plot字面意思是“策划；安排”，第五段中plotted throughout the day在这里用的是其原意，故C正确。Glued原意是“用胶水粘”，第二段中用glued to a computer game，用其比喻义“盯住不放，沉迷”，故A排除。Battle是“战斗”的意思，第四段中battling alcohol引申为“戒酒”，故B排除。Built原意是“建筑”，在第五段中引申为“规划，安排”的意思，相当于plotted，故D排除。
单选题 ReSTART's treatment on Alexander does NOT include
  • A. assigning him some tasks like building a chicken coop or cooking.
  • B. helping him explore joy from developing other hobbies.
  • C. offering some psychological service.
  • D. tutoring him on business which he hopes to engage in.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。第五段倒数第二句，雷和亚历山大讨论他的长期规划，甚至和他一起做计划都是为了做心理咨询，并未提及有人会为亚历山大指导他想做的生意，D属于推导过度，故选D。在首段首句说“钻进他最近帮忙修建的鸡棚”；由第五段第三句可知他每天的活动包括做饭，故A排除。第五段第五句提到亚历山大表示出对跑步的兴趣，雷和凯西就为他找来当地的教练，可见他们很注意用兴趣爱好来让亚历山大更充实，故B排除。山第五段倒数第二句的daily counseling secessions可知ReSTART会为亚历山大提供心理咨询，故C排除。
单选题 Which of the following is Cash's opinion?
  • A. Internet or video-game dependency shouldn't be treated as a psychological problem.
  • B. Video-game playing is more addictive than gambling and other activities.
  • C. Given more instructions and supervisions, people will have less Internet-related problems.
  • D. The more advanced technology is, the more dependent people will be on it.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 推理判断题。尾段尾句中凯西说不应该谴责媒介本身，而应该提供更多的教育和指导。故“如果有更多指导和监督，互联网问题就会减少”属于她的观点，选C。由第五段首句可知对成瘾症患者的治疗是由凯西和另一位心理治疗师共同开展的，作为心理治疗师开展救治游戏成瘾者，那她必定是把其当做心理问题的，故A错误。由第六段第三句可知凯西认为虚拟世界成瘾症和现实世界中的一样糟，故B错误。尾段第二句讲到凯西的私人诊所位于微软总部所在地时，凯西说这里网游成瘾也就不足为怪了；故由这句话可以看出凯西认为电脑技术越先进人们越有可能沉迷网络，故D错误。
单选题 Which of the following is NOT among the possible effects of video-game addiction?
  • A. Obesity.
  • B. Poor eyesight.
  • C. Handicap of interpersonal relationship.
  • D. Sleep disorder.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 推理判断题。尾段首句说沉迷于网游的人没有正常的睡眠和饮食、疏远亲朋好友、患上眼疾等疾病。文中没有提到肥胖问题，而根据常识沉迷网络的人经常不吃饭也不大可能引起肥胖，故选A。由eye strain可排除B；由mined relationship with loved ones可排除C；由stop sleeping properly可知排除D。