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

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【Argument53】
Thirteenyears ago, researchers studied a group of 25 infants who showed signsof mild distress when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli such as an unusualodor or a tape recording of an unknown voice. They discovered thatthese infants were more likely than other infants to have beenconceived in early autumn, a time when their mothers' production ofmelatonin-a hormone known to affect some brain functions-wouldnaturally increase in response to decreased daylight. In a follow-upstudy conducted earlier this year, more than half of these children-nowteenagers-who had shown signs of distress identified themselves as shy.Clearly, increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shynessduring 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。另外除了激素的原因，还有很多别的方面也会影响的婴儿在研究中的反应，比如母亲的生活习惯，饮食习惯，工作环境，母亲本身的性格等等。
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 melatoninbefore birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continuesinto later life. To strengthen the conclusion, the author cites a studyabout a group of 25 infants who showed signs of wild distress whenexposed to unfamiliar stimuli thirteen years ago. The author also showsa evidence about a follow-up study conducted earlier this year of thesechildren. At first glance, the argument might be somehow reasonable,but scrutiny reveals that it contains several unconvincing assumptionsand is therefore unpersuasive.

At first, the author shows us a study about 25 infants and assumes that the responds
for （to）unusual odors or tapes recording ofunknown voices were the signs of shyness. However, he provides noevidence to prove it. (虽然逻辑上这样说是没有问题的，不过这里用“没有证据表明”这种表达略显生硬我认为，因为害羞的表现一般是不用证明的，是靠定义。所以，这里说它没有交代清楚害羞的定义会更恰当一些。)The author obviously overlooks others possibleexplanations for the phenomenon. It was very likely that the actionswere just caused by the uncomfortable stimuli. Perhaps the babies justwanted to show their alertness by these actions. Or perhaps only the vivacious infants had these distress. （以上这一系列可能性的假设很好！非常合理有说服力）Without ruling out suchpossibilites, it is hasty to conclude that the signs showed by theinfants were the signs of shyness.

Second, even assuming that the responds were made byinfants to show shyness, there were (was) no evidences （evidence）provided to show themelatonin caused the actions.(这句可以稍微改成这样，there was no evidence showing that it is just melatonin caused the actions. 有强调的语气 )Though the melatonin affects some brainfunctions （though melatonin is related to brain functions. 另外一个小问题，感觉文章里的the出现太频繁，有重复的感觉，比如这里mmelatonin前面的the就完全可以去掉）, the author did not tell us what would happen when themelatonin increased. We also did not know who will affected by thishormone, the mother or the baby. Furthermore, when the motherconcieved, there were so many hormones made by the body. Maybe, theshynesswas result of the other hormone. Without accounting for allother explanations, the author cannot reasonably conclude that themelatonin is responsible forthe responds.

Third, even I concede the melatonin caused the infantsshy, the author fails to got the conclusion that this shyness continuesinto the infants later life only by the follow-up study. Though morethan half of these children identified themselves as shy, we can notconclude any （result） from this. The number of the samples in this study was toosmall to be a representative of all other infants. The definition ofshyness made by oneself was not accurate. Perhaps these childrentreated themselves very strictly. (可以把要求严格也换一说法，比如说 每个人对shy的理解都不同，有的孩子理解的害羞在别的孩子那里可能根本就不算是害羞)Furthermore the author did notmention the environment where the children grew up. Maybe, it isprecisely becausethe enviroment affected these children so much, thechildren regarded themselves as shy.

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

参考链接
https://bbs.gter.net/thread-910735-1-1.html