The Reading Passage has nine paragraphs, A-I.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
NB You may use any letter more than once.
Roger High field reports
Readers can join a unique experiment to discover what goes on in our brains and bodies at the fairground
A. For decades, thrill-seekers have happily queued to experience a few seconds of the adrenaline-spiking, intestine-twisting thrills of roller coaster and other funfair joy rides. Nowadays, people also spend hours living out the virtual excitement of computer games.
B. An experiment will soon lay bare the science of thrills and help to build the foundation of the next generation of funfair rides and sensational computer games. Brendan Walker, a self-proclaimed ‘thrill engineer’, is curating this extraordinary venture where people can become a guinea pig. Fairground: Thrill Laboratory, at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre, will include three different rides over three weeks - the Booster, to measure the physiology of excitement and thrill; a ghost train, to measure fear and the tingle of anticipation; and Miami Trip, a gentler ride designed to explore pleasure.
C. One of the collaborators in the thrill lab is Prof Tom Rodden. Its impetus is the blurring of the boundary between the real and the digital worlds, he explained: ‘Today, trainers count footsteps, wrist watches can measure heart rate, satellites can detect where we are and, all the while, computer games are being played in the streets not just the living room, and computer accessories such as joysticks are being replaced with real-world objects such as tennis racquets. ’
D. Doctors already understand the broad effects of joy rides. As a roller coaster puts the body through weightlessness, high gravitational forces and acceleration, the brain struggles to make sense of conflicting and changing signals from the senses. There are effects on the vestibular system, located in the inner ear, that detects position and motion, and on the somatic nervous system, which controls voluntary systems in the body, such as heartbeat.
E. Added to the confusion of these signals are the messages from the eye, which may be different from those of the other systems. This can lead to peculiar effects such as the vection illusion (think of when you are stopped at a traffic light and the car next to you edges forward - you feel as though you are moving).
F. Overall the brain responds to an exhilarating ride by triggering the release of a potent cocktail of biochemicals to deal with the body’s stress, including more adrenaline (epinephrine) and norepinephrine which can suppress pain and boost the glow of euphoria that follows. The result can be pleasure but can also be nausea. Military and Nasa researchers have studied the problem for half a century, calling it ‘simulator sickness’.
G. But engineers and scientists have not figured out how to fool the senses at the same rate at the same time. They still don’t know for sure who might get sick. Meanwhile, the latest rides are pushing the boundaries of endurance. The human body cannot take much more of a G-force than the latest rollercoasters, so we need to understand more about what distinguishes a spine-tingling thrill from a gutemptying fright to ensure the experience is memorable for the right reasons.
H. At the thrill lab, volunteers will be asked to try the fairground rides while hooked up to special equipment. This includes an accelerometer that measures the G-force their body is subjected to; a measure of blood oxygen levels; measures of skin conductance (sweating) and an ECG monitor that keeps track of their heart rate.
In addition, a helmet-mounted video camera will film their expressions, from the first gasp to the last scream. As with astronauts and test pilots, information will be beamed in real time to a computer. And measurements will be displayed publicly. Aside from providing amusement for onlookers, participants can relive their terrifying experiences.
I. This study will help designers of amusement parks to squeeze more shrieks out of people by creating the illusion of imminent death, said Prof Rodden. Equally, the next generation of rides will sense when too many people feel nauseous and wind down accordingly. In short, they will be able to distinguish terror from titillation. This work will also help computer games to escape the boundaries of the Xbox and PlayStation. Steve Benford, of the mixed-reality lab at the University of Nottingham, believes that the thrill lab will help to design more immersive rides and games, ‘real-time adaptive spaces’.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | the types of rides involved in the experiment | |||||||||
| 2 | what happens chemically in the brain as a result of thrill rides | |||||||||
| 3 | the fact that the volunteers will be filmed during the rides | |||||||||
| 4 | the way the experiment will help computer game designers | |||||||||
| 5 | the impact on the human auditory system | |||||||||
| 6 | what the lab experiments will show members of the public |