第3篇文 多多指点多多指教~ Argument No.53 高频

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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.
WORDS: 432
TIME: 12:30:00 AM
DATE: 6/7/2011

The arguer for forward a causal statement that fact increased levels of melatonin during pregnancy take responsibility of the shyness during infancy and later life has been proven due to a thirteen-years-ago study of 25 infants. The statement is quiet well-presented but not well-founded and convincing because the insufficient data base, huge year gap and unsounded consideration diminish the reliability of the conclusion enormously.

Firstly, the research only contains 25 infants. With such a small number of data samples, it is very likely been affected by accidents or individual situation in a great deal. Moreover, for these 25 infants, we know nothing about them. There is no family condition record; no parent’s description; no medical history of the parents and even not a single word describing the infants. If some of the parents take pills to comfort the baby during the pregnancy, the side effect of the medicine could be an influential power changing the characteristics of the baby. Also, without knowing what kind of environment did they grown up, we can not rule out the possibility that some of the family might live in a noisy or dirty neighborhood that might also affect the infants. Without considering all these situations, it would be a weak and unreliable argument saying the a single special hormone should taking the responsibility of the shyness.

Secondly, the thirteen year gap makes the test even less dependable since a lot of things could happen between these thirteen years. For example, the kids might been bullied in the elementary school or been abused by the step parents. It is lack persuasive saying a thirteen year ago hormone in the mother's body manipulating the development of the children's spirits and characteristics. Moreover, some of the kids might be shy in the first place when they were little. Even without that hormone, it is very likely kids born shy might continue being shy into later life. The arguer did not clearly informed us for those more than half of these children who are shy until now, what were like when they were little. And are they even those whose mother conceived in early autumn? If the shy teenagers are randomly and equally match the mothers conceived in early autumn and mothers conceived in the other time of the year, there would be no reason to argue that melatonin which usually increased in autumn determined the shyness of the children.


In conclusion, the reasoning of the author lacks sufficient evidences, sounded reasoning and well-founded considerations as discussed above. More rounded experiments and solid consideration are needed to reach the conclusion.