mindmap root((SENS)) sensor A device that detects a physical quantity （such as a movement or a beam of light） and responds by transmitting a signal.
🌱The outdoor lights are triggered by a motion sensor that detects changes in infrared energy given off by moving human bodies. 🌳Sensors are used today almost everywhere. Radar guns bounce microwaves off moving cars. A burglar alarm may use a photosensor to detect when a beam of light has been broken, or may use ultrasonic sound waves that bounce off moving objects. Still other sensors may detect pressure （barometers） or chemicals （Breathalyzers and smoke detectors）. Stud finders, used by carpenters to locate wooden studs under a wall, may employ magnets or radar. Wired gloves, which relay information about the position of the fingers, are used in virtual-reality environments. A cheap car alarm may be nothing but a shock sensor, in which a strong vibration will cause two metal surfaces to come together. desensitize To cause （someone or something） to react less to or be less affected by something.
🌱Even squeamish nursing students report becoming desensitized to the sight of blood after a few months of training. 🌳Physical desensitizing is something that biologists have long been aware of. Basic training in the armed forces tries to desensitize new recruits to pain. We can desensitize ourselves to the summer heat by turning off the air conditioning, or become desensitized to the cold by walking barefoot in the snow. But desensitize is more often used when talking about negative emotions. Parents worry that their children will be desensitized to violence by playing video games. Soldiers may become desensitized to death on the battlefield. Desensitizing may be natural and desirable under some circumstances, but maybe not so good in others. extrasensory Not acting or occurring through any of the known senses.
🌱A kind of extrasensory capacity seems to tell some soldiers when danger is near. 🌳Since extra means "outside, beyond" （See EXTRA,） extrasensory means basically "beyond the senses." Extrasensory perception, or ESP, usually includes communication between minds involving no obvious contact （telepathy, gaining information about something without using the normal senses （clairvoyance）, or predicting the future （precognition）. According to polls, about 40% of Americans believe in ESP, and many of them have had personal experiences that seem to prove its existence. When someone jumps into your mind months or years after you had last thought of him or her, and the next day you learn that the person has just died, it can be hard to convince yourself it was just coincidence. Still, scientific attempts to prove the existence of ESP have never been terribly successful. sensuous 1、 Highly pleasing to the senses.
2、 Relating to the senses.
🌱Part of what audiences loved about her was the delight she took in the sensuous pleasures of well-prepared food. 🌳Sensuous and sensual are close in meaning but not identical, and sensuous was actually coined by the poet John Milton so that he wouldn't have to use sensual. Sensuous usually implies pleasing of the senses by art or similar means; great music, for example, can be a source of sensuous delight. Sensual, on the other hand, usually describes gratification of the senses or physical appetites as an end in itself; thus we often think （perhaps unfairly） of wealthy Romans leading lives devoted to sensual pleasure. You can see why the Puritan Milton might have wanted another word.