2015年高考英语广东卷 - 阅读理解C

Daniel Anderson, a famous psychologist, believes it’s important to distinguish television’s influences on children from those of the family. We tend to blame TV, he says, for problems it doesn’t really cause, overlooking our own roles in shaping children’s minds.
著名心理学家丹尼尔·安德森认为，明确电视对家庭中儿童的影响很重要。他说，我们倾向于把并非电视真正造成的问题归咎于电视，忽视了我们自己在塑造孩子心智方面的作用。

One traditional belief about television is that it reduces a child’s ability to think and to understand the world. While watching TV, children do not merely absorb words and images. Instead, they learn both explicit and hidden meanings from what they see. Actually, children learn early the psychology of characters in TV shows. Furthermore, as many teachers agree, children understand far more when parents watch TV with them, explaining new words and ideas. Yet, most parents use an educational program as a chance to park their kids in front of the set and do something in another room.
关于电视的一个传统观点是，它降低了孩子思考和理解世界的能力。在看电视时，孩子们不仅仅是吸收文字和影像。相反，他们可以从中学习显性和隐性的含义。实际上，孩子们很早就学会了电视剧中人物的心理。此外，正如许多老师所同意的，当父母和他们一起看电视，解释新单词和想法时，孩子们会理解得更多。然而，大多数父母利用教育节目将孩子固定在电视机前，在另一个房间里做事。

Another argument against television is that it replaces reading as a form of entertainment. But according to Anderson, the amount of time spent watching television is not related to reading ability. TV doesn’t take the place of reading for most children; it takes the place of similar sorts of recreation, such as listening to the radio and playing sports. Things like parents’ educational background have a stronger influence on a child’s reading. “A child’s reading ability is best predicted by how much a parent reads.” Anderson says.
反对电视的另一个论点是它取代了阅读作为一种娱乐形式。但安德森认为，看电视的时间与阅读能力无关。对大多数孩子来说，电视并不能取代阅读；它取代了类似的娱乐活动，比如听收音机和做运动。父母的教育背景对孩子的阅读有更大的影响。安德森说：“孩子的阅读能力最好通过父母的阅读量来预测。”。

Traditional wisdom also has it that heavy television-watching lowers IQ scores and affects school performance. But here, too, Anderson notes that no studies have proved it. In fact, research suggests that it’s the other way around. “If you’re smart young, you’ll watch less TV when you’re older,” Anderson says. Yet, people of lower IQ tend to be lifelong television viewers.
传统观点也认为，看电视会降低智商，影响学校表现。但安德森也指出，没有研究证明这一点。事实上，研究表明情况恰恰相反。安德森说：“如果你从小聪明，长大后你看电视更少”。而智商较低的人往往是终身电视观众。

For years researchers have attempted to show that television is dangerous to children. However, by showing that television promotes none of the dangerous effects as conventionally believed, Anderson suggests that television cannot be condemned without considering other influences.
多年来，研究人员一直试图证明电视对儿童有害。然而，安德森表示，电视并没有像传统上认为的那样带来危险的影响，因此他认为，在不考虑其他影响的情况下，不能谴责电视。