[a习作temp] Argument53 【0906G 文以载道三月四月小组】第二周第一次作业 by sibslcc [复制链接]

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发表于 2009-1-19 00:56:10 |显示全部楼层

【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.
13年前，研究者研究了一组在受到不熟悉的刺激比如不寻常的气味和未知声音的录音时表现出轻微紧张的25名婴儿。他们发现这些婴儿比其他婴儿更可能在早秋怀孕，而早秋是他们的母亲分泌的melatonin--一种已知会影响一些大脑功能的荷尔蒙--因日照的减少而增加的季节。在今年早些时候所作的跟踪调查中，这些表现出紧张迹象的儿童--现在已经是十几岁--有一半以上认为自己害羞。显然，出生前melatonin的增加导致婴儿期的羞涩并且这种羞涩将延续至生命更晚的阶段

提纲：
1.没有证据证明孩子对刺激的反应是害羞，可能只是对不舒服事物的本能反应。
2.没有证据表明，这种反应跟melatonin有关系。即使melatonin对大脑有作用，作者没说对谁有作用，是对母亲还是对孩子。怀孕时候有众多激素，可能是别的激素导致的。
3.后续的研究也有问题，可能环境大大影响了他们，再说自己对害羞的定义不一致，可能有些小孩子对自己要求过高。

The author claims that increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life. To strengthen the conclusion, the author cites a study about a group of 25 infants who showed signs of wild distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli thirteen years ago. The author also shows a evidence about a follow-up study conducted earlier this year of these children. At first glance, the argument might be somehow reasonable, but scrutiny reveals that it contains several unconvincing assumptions and is therefore unpersuasive.

At first, the author shows us a study about 25 infants and assumes that the responds for unusual odors or tapes recording of unknown voices were the signs of shyness. However, he provides no evidence to prove it. The author obviously overlooks others possible explanations for the phenomenon. It was very likely that the actions were just caused by the uncomfortable stimuli. Perhaps the babies just wanted to show their alertness by these actions. Or perhaps only the vivacious infants had these distress. Without ruling out such possibilites, it is hasty to conclude that the signs showed by the infants were the signs of shyness.

Second, even assuming that the responds were made by infants to show shyness, there were no evidences provided to show the melatonin caused the actions.Though the melatonin affects some brain functions, the author did not tell us what would happen when the melatonin increased. We also did not know who will affected by this hormone, the mother or the baby. Furthermore, when the mother concieved, there were so many hormones made by the body. Maybe, the shynesswas result of the other hormone. Without accounting for all other explanations, the author cannot reasonably conclude that the melatonin is responsible forthe responds.

Third, even I concede the melatonin caused the infants shy, the author fails to got the conclusion that this shyness continues into the infants later life only by the follow-up study. Though more than half of these children identified themselves as shy, we can not conclude any from this. The number of the samples in this study was too small to be a representative of all other infants. The definition of shyness made by oneself was not accurate. Perhaps these children treated themselves very strictly. Furthermore the author did not mention the environment where the children grew up. Maybe, it is precisely becausethe enviroment affected these children so much, the children regarded themselves as shy.

In sum, the author's conclusion about the correlation between increased levels of melatonin and shyness is not well supported as it stands. To bolster it, the author must convince that the melatonnin cause mild distress and this distress is responsible for the shyness which continues into the later life of infants.