What we don’t know about kids and television could fill a weeklong miniseries. Given worries about everything from childhood obe

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问题     What we don’t know about kids and television could fill a weeklong miniseries. Given worries about everything from childhood obesity to scholastic shortcomings, it’s high time to find out. But before Congress approves $20 million a year to research children and the media, it should get more specific assurances that the money will pay for comprehensive, high-quality studies instead of bits of teasing information.
    Up to now, a patchwork of research on kids and TV has yielded plenty of suspicion but little real knowledge. Yes, a study two years ago found that teenagers who watched a lot of TV tended to be more aggressive. But what does that mean? Maybe more-aggressive kids are drawn more to TV. Ditto for the April study about preschoolers who watch hours of TV tending to have attention-span problems later on. It’s possible that children with a propensity toward attention problems are drawn more to that jumpy on-screen world in the first place.
    For better or worse, U.S. kids spend a lot of time in front of a TV or computer screen, two hours daily for those 5 and younger. If the schools spent two hours a day on a single activity, there would be intense concern about its value.
    So there is worth in legislation by Sen. Joe Lieberman to provide $100 million over five years for research on child development and electronic media. A scientific panel would set up a list of the key issues to be studied and review grant applications from universities or nonprofit institutes. This centralized approach makes sense—especially considering the money involved.
    Good studies are costly, and there haven’t been enough of them on this subject. Merely showing a link between TV viewing and a certain behavior doesn’t prove anything. In addition to the possibility the behavior is causing the TV watching instead of the other way around, a third factor could be causing both. Only carefully controlled studies obtain worthwhile results.
    At their best, such studies might tell us whether educational computer games for toddlers interrupt the natural development of the brain instead of aiding it, or whether seeing Ronald McDonald cavort on a soccer field makes a child more active or just more likely to crave French fries. Parents could decide limits based on more than instinct.
    But before spending the money, Congress should insist on a quality of research that will give the public answers about TV instead of more arguments. This shouldn’t be a handout to think tanks for more mushy research on a complicated but vital issue.
The author tries to suggest that______.

选项 A、there are worries about childhood obesity and scholastic shortcomings
B、parents should decide limits based on more than instinct
C、mere are more than enough studies on the issues caused by viewing
D、studies on child development and TV viewing have not given the public satisfactory answers

答案D

解析 第一段中作者提出,政府应特别保证资助全面的高水平的研究,而不是一星半点的取笑资料的研究。最后一段再次提出,国会在下拨研究款项时,应当坚持强调研究的质量水平,要求有关研究能够让公众了解电视的影响而不是引发更多的争议。这说明迄今为止,尽管耗资巨大,有关电视对儿童的影响的研究结果并未给公众以满意的答案。因此选D。
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