【Big Fish】2月28日arguement53-By gorby

gorbyUID: 2730851

Argument No.053Thirteen 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.
1痛苦的症状并不一定由刺激引起
2没有确定的数据表明表现出症状的小孩母亲荷尔蒙高，这只是由作者从一般的研究推测出的结果。3
害羞性格的养成的影响因素有很多，比如后天的教育，成长的环境。而且自认为害羞可能不是真正意义上的害羞。
   The arguer concludes that increased levels of melatonin before birth cause shyness during infancy and this shyness continues into later life in the argument.To support his conclusion,he or she shows us an survey of thirteen years age and build an relationship between the result of survey and the teenagers’s shyness.However,after analyzing the argument carefully,I find that there are several flaws which deeply weaken its credibility.
  First,the arguer failed to prove that the infant’s signs of mild distress were caused by the unfamiliar stimuli. And we don’t know how do the researchers define “signs of mild distress”. Being away from his mother or hungry may also leads to the signs of mild distress.Another possible cause of the mild distress is the instruments used to observe distress. We don’t do how the survey is conducted and whether it provide the correct data we need.
  Secondly,the relation between infants’ signs of mild distress and their mothers’ production of melatonin lacks credibility.We are not told about the exact production of the mothers’ melatonin while the increasing production of their melatonin is just an inference of other mother’s data. It has high possibility that the mothers whose infants are mentioned in the argument are different from general data as a result of their food habit.
   Thirdly,when comes to teenagers’ shyness,the speaker uses the phrase-- identified themselves as shy.We are not sure about the problem that whether they are really shy or this is just a modest way of saying.
   Last but not least,there are many factors which play key roles influencing the teenagers’ characters.Their shyness may be the consequence of education or isolation,aloofness throughout his childhood but their mothers’ increasing production of melatonin thirteen years ago.
   To sum up,the arguer failed to establish casual relationship between increasing production of melatonin and teenagers’ shyness.To strengthen the argument ,the arguer have to provide evidence about the true cause of infants’ mild distress and exact data of their mothers’ production of melatonin.At the same time,it is necessary for the arguer to take other factors into consideration which may exert an deep influence on children’s shyness .