Why people always say“kids these days...”

山東威海乳山市教學研究中心 劉 娜

題材 心理 體裁 議論文 文章詞數 398 建議用時 8 min

難詞探意

1.trait/tre?t/n.特點；特性

2.authoritarianism/??θ?r??te?ri?n?z?m/n.權威主義

3.cognitive/?k?ɡn?t?v/adj.認知的；感知的

4.category/?k?t?ɡ?ri/n.類別

5.speculate/?spekjule?t/v.推測

6.impose/?m?p??z/v.迫使；把……強加于

7.bias/?ba??s/n.偏向；偏見

8.mediocre/?mi?di???k?（r）/adj.平庸的

9.vanity/?v?n?ti/ n.自負；自大

預讀思考

1.What drives the old to belittle the kids these days according to the text?

2.Have you ever been belittled by the old,including your parents?How will you react toward such behavior?

3.Can you find any expressions with similar meaning to “look down upon”from the text?Please list them as many as possible.

What is it about kids these days that makes older generations so easily angry?In some way or another,older generations have been disappointed at the youth's decline since the earliest days of civilization.Even Aristotle talked smack about how young folks thought they knew everything back in the 4th century BC.

So why do people throw all the shade on the next generation?A study out last month in Science Advances shows that negative opinions about kids aren't always based on their actions;it's more about how adults praise their past and current selves.

In the study,researchers looked at a trio oftraitsin three groups of US adults:respect for elders orauthoritarianism,intelligence,and enjoyment of reading.The team,led by John Protzko,acognitivescientist at the University of California,Santa Barbara,asked the participants whether they thought kids in the modern age shared the same qualities.They found that adults who tested especially strong in one of thecategoriestended to see children today as weak in it.For example,if an adult got tagged or self-identified as intelligent,they were more likely to see “kids these days”as less intelligent than they used to be.This,Protzko thinks,is because they remembered their younger selves to be smarter,whether true or not.What's more,they only reserved their strong opinions for traits they related to.

In another stage of the study,the authors assigned random scores to participants to trick them into thinking how well-read they were.Many of the adults changed their opinions on kid's reading ability as a result.Protzkospeculatesthat there are two reasons for the shift:How memories can go wrong and the lack of objective knowledge of what childhood is really like. “People who are high in a trait areimposingtheir current high standing in that trait back in time,thinking ‘Oh this must have been what all kids were like,'”he says.Over the years,the same memorybiaskeeps occurring,making it seem like kids are somehow failing more and more.In fact,the older a participant was,the more heavily this bias came into play,Protzko says.

While there's still a lot to learn about why adults might see younger generations asmediocre,this research can hint that an age-old phrase can boil down to one classic human trait:vanity.

—FromPopular Science

閱讀自測

Please write a summary of the text.Your article should be about 60 words.

文本探究

探究視角1：語言學習

Ⅰ.文本填空

1.What is it about kids these daysmakes older generations so easily angry?

2.A study out last month in Science Advances shows that negative opinions about kids aren't always basedtheir actions.

4.People who are high in a trait are imposing their current high standing in that trait back in time,（認為）“Oh this must have been what all kids were like.”

5.Over the years,the same memory bias keeps occurring,（使得）it seem like kids are somehow failing more and more.

Ⅱ.話題表達

1.與“輕視”有關的話題表達

be disappointed at the youth's decline 對年輕人的不思進取感到失望

talk smack 批評；貶低

throw shade on 對……公開批評/嚴厲批評

negative opinions 負面觀點

share the same qualities 擁有同樣的品質

see children today as weak in it 認為今天的孩子在這一方面是弱者

get tagged or self-identified as intelligent 被貼上聰明的標簽或自作聰明

see “kids these days”as less intelligent than they used to be 認為現在的孩子沒有他們以前聰明

remember their younger selves to be smarter 記憶中他們年輕時的自己更聰明

only reserve their strong opinions for traits they related to 僅保留與他們特質相關的強烈意見memory bias 記憶偏差/偏見

see younger generations as mediocre 認為年青的一代平庸

boil down to one classic human trait 歸結為一個典型的人類特征

2.其他表達

in some way or another 以某種方式或另一種方式

be based on 以……為依據

tend to do 傾向于……

be likely to do 極有可能做……

trick sb into doing 誘騙某人做某事

探究視角2：語篇分析

一些年長者會拿他們自身在某一領域的優勢表現與年輕人在該領域的表現做對比，由此認為年輕人不如他們。有時，他們的這種偏見甚至是一廂情愿的。一項新的研究對此進行了調查并分析了其中的原因。研究表明：成人容易認為年輕時的他們比當下的年輕人更聰明。更有甚者，他們只對與他們相關的特征保留他們的強烈意見。而且，年齡越大，偏見就越嚴重，而造成這些偏見的根本原因則是人類的虛榮心。

本文是一篇議論文。議論文的目的在于說服讀者同意或支持其觀點。本文的基本結構包括引論（Para.1&2）、本論（Para.3&4）和結論（Para.5）。引論提出討論的問題，本論擺出證據，結論重申在文章開頭已提出的見解或主張。

Structure Paragraph（s） Main idea(s)Phenomenon Para.1 T po h ie n ty eo du.th's decline has long been making older generations disap-Topic/Opinion Para.2 N th e eg i r a t pi v ae s t o ap ni dn i o cn u s rr e a nb to u s e t lv k ei d s s t ha ar ne kb ia ds se'd a cm t i o or ne s .o n how adults praise●Adults behaving well in a certain category would see children today as weak in it.Para.3●Adults unconditionally considered their younger selves to be smarter and only held their strong opinions for traits they were Findings andconnected to.reason（s） ●Many of the adults'opinions on kid's reading ability changed when the adults were assigned random scores.Para.4●An adult's bias against the kid might increase as he grew older.●Memories can go wrong and there lacks objective knowledge of what childhood is really like.Conclusion Para.5 M ge a nn e'rs a tv i o a nn si t y a si s m t eh de i oc fu r n e.damental reason for the old to see younger

探究視角3：論證方法

議論文的閱讀需要關注其論證方法。議論文中常見的論證方法有舉例論證、道理論證、因果論證、比喻論證、對比論證以及歸謬論證等。其中歸謬論證首先假設對方的論點是正確的，然后對這一論點加以引申、推論，從而得出極其荒謬可笑的結論，以駁倒對方論點。歸謬法主要用于駁論文章。這種論證方法常和潑辣、犀利的語言相配合，以達到辛辣、有力而富有幽默感的表達效果。

論證方法 舉例舉例論證 b（P ac a kr a i.n1 t）hE ev 4 e tn h A c e ri n s tt uo rt l ye Bt a Cl.k ed smack about how young folks thought they knew everything（Para.4）Over the years,the same memory bias keeps occurring,making it seem like kids道理論證are somehow failing more and more.In fact,the older a participant was,the more heavily this bias came into play.對比論證 （（P P a a r r a a..3 4） ）I I n n t ah ne o ts ht eu rd y s,t a r ge es e oa fr c t h h ee r ss t ul o do yk,e t d he a a t.u..thors assigned random scores...

探究視角4：思維拓展

從陶行知的四粒糖看皮格馬利翁效應

一次，陶行知看見一個男孩用泥塊砸自己班上的男生。陶行知趕緊上前制止了他，并請舉泥塊的孩子到辦公室去一下。當男孩已低著頭做好了接受一番“口水轟炸”教育的準備時，陶行知從口袋里摸出一粒糖遞至男孩跟前。他說：“這顆糖獎勵你很守時，老師請你來，你就來了，沒有磨蹭！”

陶行知又從口袋里掏出一粒糖：“這顆糖是獎勵你對我的尊重，老師叫你來你就來了，沒有違拗，所以我要獎勵你！”

緊接著，陶行知又從兜里掏出第三粒糖，說：“這顆糖是獎勵你有正義感，你是因為那個男孩欺負別的女孩子才對他舉起泥塊的……”

這次，男孩羞赧了，說：“老師，即使他欺負別人我也不該用泥塊砸他，那多危險呀！”

陶行知笑瞇瞇地又從兜里掏出第四顆糖：“你真是個知錯就改的好孩子！”

男孩蹦蹦跳跳地走了，快樂的手心攥著四顆甜蜜的糖。

陶行知先生在“四粒糖”的故事中，給那位犯錯的孩子四粒糖，這四粒糖其實是“守時的糖”“尊重的糖”“見義勇為的糖”“知錯就改的糖”，這就是教育的藝術。這是陶行知先生巧妙應用皮格馬利翁效應教育孩子， 使其達到自己預設目標的經典案例。

皮格馬利翁效應（Pygmalion Effect），又稱羅森塔爾效應。美國心理學家羅森塔爾和雅克布森在智力測驗中發現，通過教師對學生心理的潛移默化的影響，學生可以取得教師原來所期望的進步現象。

孩子的成長需要美好的環境。望子成龍、望女成鳳是家長對孩子們的普遍期望。在陪伴孩子成長的過程中，家長們應該多一分耐心、鼓勵和引導，少一點指責、輕視和謾罵。

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Yours,

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