【Flyer杀G作文组】1月22日作业Argument53_By Yuqivickey

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TOPIC: ARGUMENT53 - Thirteen years ago, researchers studied a group of 25 infants who showed signs of mild distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli such as an unusual odor or a tape recording of an unknown voice. They discovered that these infants were more likely than other infants to have been conceived in early autumn, a time when their mothers' production of melatonin-a hormone known to affect some brain functions-would naturally increase in response to decreased daylight. In a follow-up study conducted earlier this year, more than half of these children-now teenagers-who had shown signs of distress identified themselves as shy. Clearly, increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life.

The argument is well-formed, but not well-reasoned. The aruger holds the view that melotonin before birth cause shyness based the study that a group of infants conceived in the early autumn when the daylight is decreasing tends to show distress signed as shyness, and the melotonin affecting brain functions will increase with less daylight. Also, arguer believes the shyness will last into later life as after thirteen years more than half children have shown shyness. While in the process of inference, there are some flaws weakening the validation and credibility of the argument.

The first flow is about the research. The arguer doesn't have any detail information about the researchers, the recievers, and conduction to show the respectativeness and truthfulness. Hardly can the result of study on merely 25 infants be persuasive to every one, even if the study is well-conducted and believable. What's more, what if the infants all come from in a isolated town with small population. Then that these children are inclined to be more distress or shy may be understandable. Therefore, the details about the research affect the result and should be put out.

Granted that the research has representativeness and well-preceeded, there are no enough evidences to support that melotonin caused by the decreasing daylight is the key reason why these infant is shy. In the argument, it mentions
that melotonin is a hormone konwn to affect some brain functions. Did these functions, such as ability to communicate, smell or listen, do affect these children's response in the research, making researchers consider they showed signs of distress? Or,even their shyness has nothing to do with melotonin, as no evidence can prove it.

Moreover, granted that melotonin affects children to behave shyly, whether their distress has relation with the time they were conceived still needs more investigation. The pregnance lasts for 10smonths or so, during which the infants conceived in late spring, summer, early autumn will go through the autumns and winter when the daylight is less than spring and summer. Are these infants all going to show the signs of mild distress?

Furthermore, the assumption that the shyness will continue into the later life lacks of sound facts to support. More than half of 25 infants after thirteen years still show signs of distress may not result to the conclusion that such shyness stems from melotonin and thereby lasts in their life. As no details about how they lived during the thirteen years, the possibility exists that they might have confronted some problems, lived in an unhappy family, or performed bad in school and become timid, which has little to do with the inherent melotonin and the shyness caused by it.

In sum, the study still has a lot of works to do in order to get a scientific and responsible conclusion, such as expand the number of infants, improve the representativeness of it, detail the possible relation between melotonin and the shyness, and so forth.