首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Should A Kid Be Guided to Tell a White Lie? It’s my family’s tradition to exchange girls on Christmas Eve. Before we did so,
Should A Kid Be Guided to Tell a White Lie? It’s my family’s tradition to exchange girls on Christmas Eve. Before we did so,
admin
2010-07-24
23
问题
Should A Kid Be Guided to Tell a White Lie?
It’s my family’s tradition to exchange girls on Christmas Eve. Before we did so, I whispered to my uncle and his wife, "Just want you to know: I think what I got you is really cool, so just tell me you like it, no matter what, okay?"
I know that sounds rude, but there’s another Christmas custom in my family: we give each other weird gifts.
There is a sweet reason for this. My grandparents grew up during the Depression, and there were years when they had no gifts at all. So my grandmother and her siblings(兄弟姐妹) would gift-wrap their old socks and clothes, just so they had something to open on Christmas. Pretend presents were better than none at all.
My grandmother never really got over those early years, so, for the rest of her life, she went a little crazy at the holidays. She’d start buying gifts in October. It didn’t matter what it was. Socks, toothbrushes, used paperbacks she’d read but didn’t like, all went under the tree. Contents of catalog "mystery boxes" meant we spent another hour unwrapping presents. One of my more memorable gifts: a single piece of clear plastic labeled "face shield." I was apparently to hold it in front of my eyes when I used hair spray.
We all thanked Grandma greatly no matter what we got. As a little kid, this pattern of gratitude for the terrible presents puzzled me; it took a long time for me to understand it was all right to laugh at some of her gifts. Now I don’t really know if my aunt and uncle actually liked the gift I gave them. They said they did, but since I coached them to tell me they love it, I’ll never really know if that was the truth.
All of these make me think of the work of McGill professor Victoria Talwar. As an expert in children’s lying behavior, Talwar has been studying how kids respond to unwanted gifts. When they get a gift they hate, can they still thank someone and pretend to love it?
Talwar tests kids’ ability to do this, by asking kids to pick a toy they want; if they win a game, they get the chosen toy. There are plastic horses, a small car, a few other items, including an unwrapped, dirty, worn, used bar of soap. At some point in the game, there’s a switch in the adults who play with the kids. So, instead of giving the child her chosen toy, the late-arriving adult gives the child the soap.
Then, the researchers watch what happens. 68% of kids, aged 3 to 11, will spontaneously say they love the gift of old ugly soap. The older they are, the more likely they are to say a white lie about the gift. And if parents encourage the children to say how much they like the present, the percentage of kids lying about the gift increases to 87%.
At this point, some may be saying that a white lie isn’t a lie. That’s because you are looking at lying from the adult perspective--that lies are acceptable, when told with the intent of helping someone, or protecting another’s feelings. But kids don’t think of lying in the same way. For them, the intent behind a lie--for good or for ill--is irrelevant. It is so irrelevant that, for very young kids, you can’t even lie by accident. Someone who gives out wrong information, but believed it to be true, is still a liar in these kids’ book.
Kids just don’t believe that lying comes in shades of white or gray. Lying is much simpler than that: lying is telling somebody something that isn’t so; lying is really bad; and lying gets you punished. And if it gets you punished, you shouldn’t do it. In Talwar’s lab, parents have literally cheered to hear their kids lie about how great it is to have received the old soap. The parents have pride over their children’s knowing the socially appropriate response.
Talwar’s regularly amazed by this. The parents never even seem to realize that the child told a lie. They never want to scold the child afterwards, or talk about the kid’s behavior.
Regardless of the parents’ pride, the kids aren’t happy about their successfully lying. Instead, it can be torture for them.
I was at Talwar’s lab when she was doing a version of the unwanted gift experiment with kids in the first and second grades. Watching kid after kid react to that gross bar of soap, I could really see how emotionally difficult it is for kids to tell a white lie. The kids were disappointed when they were handed the soap, but that was nothing compared to the discomfort they showed while having to lie about liking it. They are uneasy. Some looked like they were going to cry. It was simply painful to watch. Indeed, Talwar has found that some kids just can’t even bring themselves to say something nice about the present. About 20% of 11-year-olds just refuse to tell a white lie about that unwanted gift--even after their parents encouraged them to do so. And about 14% of kids still won’t tell a white lie, even after their parents specifically explained the prosocial (亲社会的) reasons to tell the lie. These kids just can’t reconcile the disconnect between knowing how bad lying is, and being told they should now lie. Talwar cautions that we need to recognize that, at least from the kids’ point of view, white lies really are still lies. We should take care to explain the motivation behind the untruth--that we want to protect the other person’s feelings. Kids may still fail to completely understand the distinction, but at least it will encourage them to think about others’ feelings when they act. And we need to reassure children that they won’t be punished for a specific white lie--because they did something nice for someone else.
Talwar also warns that we adults should pay attention to our own use of white lies. Kids notice these untruths-and that we rarely get punished for them. If kids believe that we regularly lie to get out of uncomfortable social situations, they are more likely to adopt a similar strategy of lying. If we don’t watch it, we could unintentionally be giving kids yet another present: a license to lie.
The author isn’t sure whether her aunt and uncle really liked the gift because ______.
选项
A、the gift was not good enough for them
B、they had been guided to say they liked it
C、they were accustomed to tell white lies
D、they were too polite to hurt her feeling
答案
B
解析
该段最后一句since引出原因,对应题干的问题。由I coached(教导:指导)them to...看出是作者让叔叔阿姨说喜欢自己送给他们的礼物,B用了被动语态改写该句,意思一致,故选B。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/E0N7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
A、Tohelpinternationalstudentspreparetoenterinstitutionsofhigherlearning.B、ToteachstudentshowtouseEnglishinthe
Althoughthepossibilityoflivingalongandhappylifenowadaysisgreaterthaneverbefore,everydaywewitnesstheincredib
PreparingforTestsIdeallyitshouldbeloveoflearning,achievement,andself-improvementthatpromptsalllearning.But
A、Hireagardener.B、Getabetterattitude.C、Buyanewtool.D、Plantmoretreesintheyard.B
Themanyenthusiasticusersofe-mailfinditaveryuseful【S1】______forconductingbusinessandforsocializingfastand【S2】__
TheUnitedStatesisacountrymadeupofmanydifferentraces.Usuallytheyaremixedtogetherandcan’tbetoldonefromanoth
A、Becauseheforgotoneofhissuitcases.B、Becausehewassuspectedofcarryingsomethingdangerous.C、Becausehewantedtogo
A、Twosportsfans.B、Twoacquaintances.C、Customerandshop-assistant.D、Foreigntouristandhisguide.C理解判断题。从第一个句子可得到提示,他们可能在
A、Better.B、Exciting.C、Disappointing.D、Interesting.C本题中女士没直接回答问题,而是含蓄地说名字蛮有趣,我们对它的期望还是蛮高的。说明电视剧是令人失望的。
随机试题
设∫f(x)dx=F(x)+C,f(x)可微,且f(x)的反函数f-1(x)存在,证明:∫f-1(x)dx=xf-1(x)-F(f-1(x))+C.
A.缺铁性贫血B.慢性失血性贫血C.巨幼细胞性贫血D.再生障碍性贫血E.急性失血性贫血造血干细胞异常可导致
最有助于临床诊断肺脓肿的症状是
用紫外线灯管消毒物品,下列哪项是错误的( )。【历年考试真题】
造成右心功能不全呼吸困难的原因是
银行开展债券投资业务既面临市场风险,又面临信用风险和操作风险。()
根据公司法律制度的规定,有限责任公司股东对股东会特定事项作出的决议投反对票的,可以请求公司按照合理的价格收购其股权,退出公司。下列属于该特定事项的有()。
右图是局部区域经纬网及太阳高度等值线(A和B)示意图,读图回答下列问题。(1)图示时刻,太阳直射点M的地理坐标为:经度________,纬度________。(2)该日正午太阳高度随纬度变化的规律是________;地球上有极夜现象的范围是___
在面向对象程序设计语言中,(31)是利用可重用成分构造软件系统的最有效的特性,它不仅支持系统的可重用性,而且还有利于提高系统的可扩充性;(32)可以及实现发送一个通用的消息而调用不同的方法;(33)是实现信息隐蔽的一种技术,其目的是使类的(34)相互分离。
在下列模式中,能够给出数据库物理存储结构与物理存取方法的是
最新回复
(
0
)