Television And Violent Crime
Children are born ready to imitate adult behavior.That they can imitate an array of adult facialexpressions have been demonstrated in newborns asyoung as a few hours old, before they are even oldenough to know that they have facial features. It is amost useful instinct, for the developing child mustlearn and master a vast repertoire1 of behavior inshort order.
But while children have instinctive desire to imitate, they do not possess an instinct fordetermining whether a behavior ought to be imitated. They will imitate anything, includingbehavior that most adults regard as destructive and antisocial2. It may give pause forthought, then, to learn that infants as young as fourteen months demonstrably observe andincorporate behavior seen on television.
The average American preschooler watches more than twenty-seven hours of television perweek. This might not be bad if these young children understood what they were watching. Butthey don’t. Up through ages three and four, most children are unable to distinguish fact fromfantasy3 on TV, and remain unable to do so despite adult coaching. In the minds of youngchildren, television is a source of entirely factual information regarding how the world works4 .There are no limits to their credulity. 5 To cite one example, an Indiana school board had toissue an advisory to young children that, no, there is no such thing as Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtles6. Children had been crawling down storm drains looking for them.
Naturally, as children get older, they come to know better, but their earliest and deepestimpressions are laid down at an age when they still see television as a factual source ofinformation about the outside world. In that world, it seems, violence is common and thecommission7 of violence is generally powerful, exciting, charismatic, and effective. In laterlife, serious violence is most likely to erupt at moments of severe stress — and it is preciselyat such moments that adolescents and adults are most likely to revert to8 their earliest, mostvisceral sense of the role of violence in society and in personal behavior. Much of this sense willhave come from television.
閱讀自測
Ⅰ. Fill in each blank with the proper form of the words given in the brackets :
1. She has an________ ( instinct) sympathy with the poor people.
2. These conclusions are ________ ( demonstrate ) wrong.
3. There is a slight________ ( face ) resemblance between the two men.
4. This man has coaxed millions of pounds from a________ ( credulity) public .
Ⅱ. Are these statements True o r False according to the article :
1. Babies know they have facial features just after they come to the world.
2. Children can imitate everything because imitation is their instinct.
3. Television is a source of entirely factual information regarding how the world works.
4. Television plays an important role in giving rise to social violence .
參考答案
Ⅰ. 1. instinctive 2. demonstrably 3. facial 4.credulous
Ⅱ. 1. F 2. T 3 . F 4 . T
參考譯文
電視與暴力犯罪
孩子生下來就會模仿成年人的行為。出生幾個小時的嬰兒就能夠模仿成年人的一些 面部表情，那時他們太小，還不知道自己長有一副容貌。模仿是孩子最有用的本能，因為正在發(fā)育的孩子必須在短期內(nèi)學(xué)習(xí)并掌握大量的行為技能。
盡管小孩子天生具有模仿別人的欲望，但他們卻不具備判斷一種行為是否應(yīng)該模仿的本能。孩子們會模仿一切行為，其中包括被多數(shù)成年人視為破壞性和違背社會公德的行為。因此，當(dāng)我們認(rèn)識到只有14 個月大的嬰兒就能觀察并模仿電視里的行為的時候，我們是否應(yīng)該靜下心來，好好反思一下。
普通美國學(xué)齡前兒童每周看電視的時間超過27 小時。如果孩子們知道他們在看什么的話，這也許并不是件壞事;而問題是孩子們并不理解電視內(nèi)容。大多數(shù)三四歲左右大小的孩子還不能很好地辨別電視里的現(xiàn)實世界與虛幻世界，即使大人進(jìn)行教育引導(dǎo)，他們還是辨別不清。在小孩子看來，電視是世界如何運行的最真實信息的來源。他們對電視里的東西篤信不疑。舉例說，印第安納州一所學(xué)校的董事會曾被迫發(fā)布公告，告訴學(xué)校里的孩子：世界上沒有忍者神龜。學(xué)校之所以這樣做是因為有許多孩子為了尋找忍者神龜而爬入下水道。
當(dāng)然，隨著孩子慢慢長大，他們對這個世界會有更深入的了解，但在他們?nèi)詫㈦娨曇暈橛嘘P(guān)外面世界真實信息的來源的時候，電視給他們留下了最早、最深刻的印象。在電視中的世界里，暴力似乎平常無奇，實施暴力通常是一種強有力的行為，而且令人激動，充滿魅力，頗為有效。孩子們長大成人后，當(dāng)他們處于巨大壓力下的時候，很有可能會爆發(fā)嚴(yán)重的暴力事件。就是在這些時候，青少年和成年人的心中很有可能又泛起他們最早對暴力在社會以及在個人行為中所起的作用的真實感覺， 而這種感受主要來自于電視。