As is often the case, parents are very shocked to discover their children have lied to them for the first time. But new research has suggested many parents may not even notice many of the lies their children tell them.

Psychologists have discovered that most parents are over-confident in their children’s honesty and this may impair their ability to discover a lie.

The findings may help to explain why some parents seem to be willing to let their children get away with almost anything even in the face of the evidence (迹象). They say parents suffer from a “truth bias (偏见)” with their own teenagers, but when faced with lies from other people’s children, they have less difficulty telling if a statement is true or not.

Dr. Angela Evans, a psychologist at Brock University in Canada, said, “The close relationship that parents share with their own children may lead to parents failing to discover their children’s lies. Parents’ truth bias may result in parents being less doubtable of their children, allowing them to successfully cheat (欺骗) them.”

Most children are thought to start lying as early as two years old but start telling more believable lies at around the age of four years old. Learning how to lie is considered as a key part of cognitive (认知的) and social development in children. But many parents are shocked when their children start lying to them. In their study, Dr Evans and her colleagues filmed 108 children aged between 8 and 16 as they performed a test after being asked not to look at the answers. They were then asked afterwards if they had looked, with 50 truthfully denying (否认) looking, 49 lying about looking and 9 admitting (承认) to looking.

Videos of those denying looking were then shown to 152 parents of children aged 8 to 16, 80 of whom had children who had taken part in the test. The researchers found that the parents were less able to discover lies told by their own children than by other people’s children.

1.What does the underlined word “impair” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A.Show. B.Harm. C.Realize. D.Develop.

2.When lying to their parents, children can’t be easily found because ________.

A.their parents aren’t prepared for the lies

B.their parents can’t notice any of their lies

C.they are very good at telling lies

D.they know how to lie to their parents

3.What does Dr. Evans want to find about children’s lying?

A.What makes parents lose trust in their children.

B.What causes children to tell lies to their parents.

C.What makes parents fail to see their children’s lies.

D.What affects children’s relations with their parents.

4.What can be inferred from Dr. Evans’s study in the last two paragraphs?

A.Parents prefer to protect their own children.

B.Lying is a part of children’s development.

C.Children aged 8 to 16 are very likely to tell lies.

D.Parents can easily discover lies told by children of others.

Song Qian, 14

I can partly decide how to use my gift money. I got 3,600 yuan this year. I would like to use this money to buy some books and school supplies (用品). The money will also be useful for after-class activities and study projects.

Zhang Ping, 13

During Spring Festival, I got over 2,000 yuan in gift money. I can decide how to use the money. I chose to put all of it in the bank. I hope to use it if I have a chance to study abroad the future. I know that studying abroad is expensive.

Li Ai, 12

The gift money I got this year was over 1,000 yuan. I gave most of it to my parents. They will use the money to pay for some of my school fees (费用). Of course, I still have some left for myself. I am planning to buy gifts for my parents on their birthday.

Li Lei, 14

I can use part of my gift money. I saved 4,800 yuan in the bank this year and left 700 yuan for myself. I will use the money to buy books, snacks and go to see movies. The first book I will buy is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I am a big fan of science fiction (科幻小说).

1.________ received the most gift money according to the form above.

A.Song Qian B.Li Ai C.Zhang Ping D.Li Lei

2.Song Qian planned to use her gift money to ________.

①buy books, snacks and go to see movies

②buy books and school supplies

③buy some birthday gifts for parents

④pay for after-class activities and study projects

A.②④ B.②③ C.①② D.①③

3.Which of the following is TRUE from this passage?

A.All of the kids got the same amount of gift money.

B.One of the kids hopes to study abroad in the future.

C.All of the kids gave the gift money to their parents.

D.None of the kids really likes reading science fiction.

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