2. 外语
  3. The following appeared on the website Science News Today. "In a recent survey of more than 5,000 adolescents, the teens who repo

The following appeared on the website Science News Today. "In a recent survey of more than 5,000 adolescents, the teens who repo

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问题 The following appeared on the website Science News Today.
"In a recent survey of more than 5,000 adolescents, the teens who reported eating the most meals with their families were the least likely to use illegal drugs, tobacco, or alcohol. Family meals were also associated with higher grades, better self-esteem, and lower rates of depression. Almost 30 percent of the teens said they ate at least seven meals per week with their families. Clearly, having a high number of family meals keeps teens from engaging in bad behaviors."
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
选项
答案 In an article published on the website Science News Today, the author argues that a high number of family meals is the key to keeping teenagers from engaging in bad behaviors. His or her conclusion is based on two important pieces of observations. First, among more than 5,000 respondents, the teens who reported eating the most meals with their families were the least likely to use illegal drugs, tobacco, or alcohol. Second, higher grades, better self-esteem, and lower rates of depression are found to correlate with family meals. While family meals may be the very reason that keeps teens from those bad behaviors, there are other possible alternative explanations that could rival the author’s explanation. Specifically, we must ask if the apparent correlation between family meals and better behaviors, instead of being causally linked as the author suggests, has some common reasons. First, a higher number of family meals may simply mean the parents have more free time at their disposal and therefore able to pay more attention to their children’s education and behaviors. When a family is financially struggling, it is not uncommon that parents will have to work extra hours or find additional jobs to make the ends meet. In this case, it is not a lack of family meals that lead to teens’ bad behaviors and worse performance at school. Instead, the real reason is the fact that their parents cannot pay enough attention to their behavior and afford quality education. By inference, it could even be hypothesized that the financial hardship may force the family to live in neighborhoods with high crime rates. In those environments, it is not surprising to see the adolescents, without the proper supervision from their legal guardians, fell prey to the drug dealers on the street. In this case, what is behind the apparent connection between family meals and teenage behavior is a shared fundamental factor: the socioeconomical class that the family is in. Families with more income would naturally be able to have family meals more. Second, to extend the argument above even further, one could envision another alternative hypothesis that focuses on the relationship within the family. That is, even if a family is rich, what if the parents are in constant fight? In such a hypothetical scenario the teenager may have witnessed domestic violence and could be more prone to committing offenses themselves, thereby explaining why in the survey they were more likely to possess illegal drugs, tobacco, and alcohol. Perhaps their parents were doing the same. To extrapolate this possibility to the extreme, teenagers with most severe crime behaviors and worst school performance might come from single-parent family, in which the parents got divorced. This could be a serious psychological shock to the child, making them unconfident at school and leading to depression. As sad as it may sound, these poor kids with bad behaviors and/or low self-confidence cannot have family meals because they do not have a happy family in the first place. To wrap up, I have presented two alternative hypotheses to explain the observation that teenagers have more family meals tend to behave better. While the author claims that family meals are the cause of those good behaviors, a causal relationship is not the only explanation. Instead, they could share a common cause, such as the family’s financial situation and/or the family relationship. Without more in-depth analysis of those families, we cannot hastily conclude what the real reason behind the teens’ bad behaviors is. (578 words)
解析     本题中作者把“和家人一起吃饭”和“青少年表现更好”这两件同时发生的事情进行了因果关联，并认为前者是后者的原因，其逻辑为：
    和家人一起吃饭多，非法药物使用少+和家人一起吃饭多，成绩好，自尊心强，不抑郁+30％的受访者说每周和家人吃7顿饭→和家人一起吃饭有助于避免青少年不良行为
    这一类型逻辑推导的问题在于，两件同时发生的事情不代表它们之间有因果关系，也有可能是具有共同的原因。在本题中至少有两种可能性，其一是家庭足够有钱，才能让全家一起吃饭，否则家长需要去打工，这也就意味着他们无法陪伴自己的小孩。其次，一块吃饭可能象征着家庭和睦，亲子关系好，这就使得小孩成长过程中能够感受到更多的关爱。在这种情况下，“和家人一起吃饭多”只是诸多背后深层因素的外在表现之一，不是青少年表现更好的原因。
    当然，从理论上来说本题可能有一个相反的因果关系，也即只有小孩表现好，家长才愿意与孩子一块吃饭当作奖赏。但就本题的情况，从共同原因(经济、家庭关系)的角度出发更加合适。
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