Question

【题目】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. They say parents suffer from a “truth bias(偏见)” with their own youngsters, 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 detect their children’s lies. Parents’ truth bias may result in parents being less suspicious of their children, allowing them to successfully cheat 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 looking, 49 lying about looking and 9 admitting 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 spot 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. Develop. C. Recognize. D. Damage.

【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 hiding their 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 tend 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 judge lies told by children of others.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】D

【2】A

【3】C

【4】D

【解析】父母对孩子的诚实过于自信，以及和自己孩子的亲密关系而无法察觉孩子的谎言。所以当发现孩子说谎时很震惊。

【1】D

猜测词义题。此处指心理学家发现，大多数父母对孩子的诚实过于自信，这可能会削弱他们发现谎言的能力。“impair”损害，削弱，与damage同义，故选D。

【2】A

推理判断题。根据第一段many parents may not even notice many of the lies their children tell them.第二段most parents are over-confident in their children’s honesty and this may impair their ability to discover a lie.第三段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.第四段“The close relationship that parents share with their own children may lead to parents failing to detect their children’s lies.等内容可知，由于父母对孩子的诚实过于自信，不愿意接受孩子撒谎的事实，再加上和自己孩子的亲密关系而无法察觉孩子的谎言。故选A。

【3】C

推理判断题。根据第四段Dr Evans的观点“The close relationship that parents share with their own children may lead to parents failing to detect their children’s lies. Parents’ truth bias may result in parents being less suspicious of their children, allowing them to successfully cheat them.”可知，他发现了为什么父母不能成功识别孩子谎言的原因，故选C。

【4】D

推理判断题。根据when faced with lies from other people’s children, they have less difficulty telling if a statement is true or not.和The researchers found that the parents were less able to spot lies told by their own children than by other people’s children.可知，父母判断别人的孩子说谎比判断自己孩子说谎更容易，故选D。

推理判断题的常见考查形式及解题方法：

推理判断题属于主观题，是层次较高的题目。此类题要求在理解表面文字的基础上，做出判断和推论，从而得到文章的隐含的意思和深层的意思，也就是通过文章中的文字信息，上下逻辑关系及事物的发展变化等已知的信息，推断出作者没有直接表达的态度和观点。

本文主要考查推测文章的观点或结论。小题2考查父母不容易发现孩子说谎的原因，根据第一段many parents may not even notice many of the lies their children tell them.第二段most parents are over-confident in their children’s honesty and this may impair their ability to discover a lie.第三段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.第四段“The close relationship that parents share with their own children may lead to parents failing to detect their children’s lies.等内容可知由于父母对孩子的诚实过于自信，不愿意接受孩子撒谎的事实，和自己孩子的亲密关系而无法察觉孩子的谎言。小题3根据第四段Dr Evans的观点“The close relationship that parents share with their own children may lead to parents failing to detect their children’s lies. Parents’ truth bias may result in parents being less suspicious of their children, allowing them to successfully cheat them.”可知，Dr Evans发现了为什么父母不能成功识别孩子谎言的原因。小题4考查文章观点，根据when faced with lies from other people’s children, they have less difficulty telling if a statement is true or not.和The researchers found that the parents were less able to spot lies told by their own children than by other people’s children.可知，父母判断别人的孩子说谎比判断自己孩子说谎更容易。