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UNIVERSITY Tips What a good idea!This week, we take a look at the way ideas are organised. We�ll look at the order of main ideas and also at how subsidiary (less important but related) ideas connect with them. After this we will take a look at "connectors" � words that join ideas together and allow us to follow the direction of thoughts easily. By Ajarn Helen Jandamit First read the following story. The paragraphs are numbered for the questions that follow. ONLINE GAMINGTeenager falls sick from game playing, similar incidents not uncommon By Karnjana Karnjanatawe
2. "He played so hard he became sick, with purple lips and white eyes,'' she said, adding that he was taken to hospital. 3. The doctor said that his condition was a result of stress, which his mother blamed on computer games and herself for neglecting her son. 4. "He went to an Internet cafe every day after school. I return home late every day due to too much work. I know only that my son is a good boy and I had never noticed his quietness until it was too late,'' she said. 5. The teenager is not the only one with such troubles. Another frustrated father had to go to the police when his son went missing, only to find that he left home and school to play the popular online game Ragnarok, according to Deputy Commander Pol-Col Yanaphon Youngyuen, the so-called cyber cop. 6. He was speaking at a seminar called "My parents know the Internet'' organised by Nectec recently. 7. The ICT Ministry now says that it will shut down access to the Thai Ragnarok game from 10:00 pm until 6:00 am for two and a half months from July 15 to avert health and social problems here. 8. Last week, a group of five undergraduate students injured a 25-year old university student in Bang Bon after they could not agree on paying 15,000 baht for 75 million "zeny,'' the currency used in the Ragnarok game. 9. The students, aged between 21 and 24, were charged over the incident and ordered to pay a fine. Their game accounts have also been blocked by BM Media, the distributor of AsiaSoft International, the game's owner in Korea. 10. On the same day, another woman was shot dead in an Internet cafe by her boyfriend, who was angry about his girlfriend's relationship with a guy she met in Ragnarok. 11. Ragnarok is a so-called massively multiplayer game that is popular in Korea and allows thousands of people to play at the same time. 12. Players choose a preferred character such as a warrior or a wizard, explained M-Web chief editor Piyapong Pongpai, 33, a fan of the game who shared his views at the seminar. 13. Players get points by joining together to fight monsters. "The game needs teamwork and somehow a child might think that if they stop playing the game it will be like leaving a friend in the real world,'' he noted. 14. When the monsters are killed, players are rewarded with items they can sell in order to earn "zeny'' to buy new powerful weapons. 15. The game is quite complicated and builds relationships between players, he said, adding that there is a web board service where players chat. 16. Players who have morals and principles will not have problems with the online games, he suggested, noting as an example that when Korean players apply to be dancers in the game, they queue up for a virtual audition. 17. "The things that happen in the game can reflect the society that we live in. Korean players know they should queue up even though there is no rule about this,'' he noted. (Bangkok Post, Wednesday 09 July 2003) 1-5. In which paragraphs are the following ideas first expressed? Write the number of the paragraph after each idea. 1. The owner of the Ragnarok game is in Korea ............... 2. A mother says that she did not pay enough attention to her child .......... 3. Players can chat through the Ragnarok web board service ............ 4. A seminar was organised by Nectec recently .................... 5. Access to the Thai Ragnarok server will be limited for two and a half months from mid July ............... 6 and 7. The following are main ideas from the news story. They are not in the order that they occur in the story. In the space provided, write down in the order that they are found there (first, second, third, etc.). After you have found the correct order, note whether there are any follow-on details for each idea in the story or not. Write �Yes� or �No� in the space provided. a. Giving the source of the information about excessive online game playing. Order in the story................. Details .................... b. A description of the scope of the game. Order in the story............. Details ..................... c. An example of a person who played games so much that his father thought he had gone missing. Order in the story............. Details ...................... d. A comment about the emotional maturity of the players and how this shows us something about the society they live in. Order in the story............... Details .................. e. An example of stress caused by playing online games too much. Order in the story............... Details ................. f. Details of how one online game will be limited in terms of usage time. Order in the story.............. Details .............. g. How relationships between players can be built up through the game. Order in the story............ Details ............... h. A result of overreaction to an on-line game situation. Order in the story............... Details ............... i. An even more serious reaction to a situation arising out of playing an online game. Order in the story......... Details ................... Tips to help you follow the ideas in written English.Connectors There are many ways that ideas can be put together in English. Of course we will take notice of the order of ideas but there are many other "clue" words to help a reader see how ideas link together and also to tell us which ideas are more important and which are less important. You will find many �connectors� (in italics) in the story. 8. Write here the connectors that tell us about "what happened next." They tell about time and sequence. ������������������������������������������ 9. Now find "connectors" that show us how different parts of an idea go together to produce a coherent thought. ������������������������������������������ Vocabulary fall sick (v): become ill
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1. A 17-year-old
boy has been forced to miss school this semester after falling ill from
playing online computer games excessively, according to his mother,
who wished to remain anonymous.