Argument53 【0906G 文以载道三月四月小组】 第二周第一次作业 by ukcolour

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Argument53 【0906G 文以载道三月四月小组】 第二周第一次作业 by ukcolour
【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
【作者思路分析】
结论:  出生前M素的含量高导致婴儿害羞，并且这种害羞会继续
论据：1.研究者在13年前对25个对陌生刺激表现敏感的婴儿进行了研究，发现他们比其他婴儿更多地在秋季怀上
          2.秋季母亲体内的影响大脑功能的某素产量会因为日光的下降而天然上升
          3.跟踪调查发现现在他们大部分都认为自己很害羞
【提纲】（英文或中文）
   1.作者未说明孩子害羞是由于M素增多引起的，如果二者存在正相关的话，冬季怀上的孩子才最害羞，而不是秋天。
      就算是秋天M素增多产生了重要影响，那么众所周知，怀胎十月，绝大多数人的孕期都会经历秋天，原文自相矛盾
   2.无法证明婴儿的反应是“害羞”的表现。同时也无法证明，青年人的害羞仅仅是因为M素的影响。
   3.Survey技术过小，缺少参考组。

【正文】

Recently, doctors and biological experts pay more attention to researching the connections between human behaviors and their living surroundings and growth conditions before they are given to birth. Some of the conclusion due to the sound logic and solid evidence are accepted; while some others failed to convince the public as being lacking of logic reasons.

It may be right that “their mothers' production of melatonin” would naturally response to decreased daylight and enhance in early autumn, but the arguer fails to prove the anomalous behaviors of the generations are caused by the melatonin, the daytime of winter in the north hemisphere are more insufficient than that of autumn, no evidence is given to substantiate that the infants conceived in winter are more likely to be shy. Admitted that gradually abbreviate daytime truly effects, as we know, an infant is usually born after 10 months' pregnancy, 10 months duration makes enough possibility to cover the autumn time, in fact, only the infants conceived in the earlier winter avoid spending autumn in their mothers' matrix, therefore most of us will be considered shy according to the arguer, that's nothing but ironic.

Even if we say that a babies' behavior correlate with their mother's melatonin, it's too unprofessional to arbitrarily contribute “signs of mild distress” is the reflection of shyness. Common sense informs us that infants are not self-conscious and most of their acts are caused by the so called conditional-reflection, which is widely verified in pediatric research, hence the conclusion the author draw is not convincing. Likewise, the mere fact that grow up generations who identified themselves as shy are relate with the melatonin. The teenager has been ten more years old and has so much experience in the society. Almost everything would affect one's characters and personalities, parents tempers, family atmosphere, peers and classmates relationships, and so on. It is not guaranteed that affirm the melatonin causes the problem without further in-depth analysis to rule out other factors which might contribute to the result.

Moreover, when cast an analysis on social activity or human characteristic research, a sufficient number of population should be take into account and will act as fundamental evidence. The researchers in the argument only include 25 babies, a number may be suitable for a recreative gamble game but quite inadequate for a serious research project, the result of the survey lacks credibility and therefore could not lend strong support to the arguer’s claim. Besides, the survey lacks other comparison with corresponding group of infants, which would also renders the result of the survey meaningless.

In sum, there is no data available, however, to support any causal relation between mother's melatonin increasing and child's signs of mild distress, we should cast our sight towards practical results instead of hypothesis.(462,4H)