【倒计时】5月SAT考试DAY8—OG写作解析之The Digital Parent Trap

各位同学好，从今天开始本公众号将连续六天为同学们带来OG上写作文章的解析。今天是新东方写作老师赵灿来为同学们带来福利，分析“TheDigitalParentTrap”这篇文章。...



各位同学好，从今天开始本公众号将连续六天为同学们带来OG上写作文章的解析。今天是新东方写作老师赵灿来为同学们带来福利，分析“The Digital Parent Trap”这篇文章。



Adapted from Eliana Dockterman, “The Digital Parent Trap.” .2013 byTime Inc. Originally published August 19, 2013.

文章的主旨是“There are benefits to early exposure to technology.”

1 By all measures, this generation of American kids (ages 3 to 18) is the tech-savviest inhistory: 27% of them use tablets, 43% use smartphones, and 52% use laptops. And injust a few weeks they will start the most tech-saturated school year ever: Los Angeles

County alone will spend $30 million on classroom iPads this year, outfitting640,000 kids by late 2014.

文章开头用statistics讲高科技产品在3-18岁这一代的美国青年人中颇受欢迎，“27% of them use tablets, 43% use smartphones, and 52% use laptop”，学校也 “spend $30 million on classroom iPads, outfitting640,000 kids by late 2014”, 为孩子们使用高科技提供了便利的条件。首段作者主要提及了文章写作的大背景，通过最明显的数据让读者体会到自己确实生活在一个高科技的时代。2 Yet, according to the latest findings from the research firmGrunwald Associates,barely half of U.S. parents agree that mobile technology should play a moreprominent role in schools. Some are even paying as much as $24,000 to send theirkids to monthlong “digital detox” programs like the one at Capio Nightingale

Hospital in the U.K.

第二段接着讲，调查显示，大部分家长也认为在高科技大环境下应该及早让孩子接触高科技。3 So who’s right—the mom trying to protect her kids from the perils of new technologyor the dad who’s coaching his kids to embrace it? It’s an urgent question at a timewhen more than 80% of U.S. school districts say they are on the cusp of incorporating

Web-enabled tablets into everyday curriculums.第三段开头作者立即提出问题“Should parent protect her kids from the perils of new technologyor coach his kids to embrace it? ”话锋一转，作者提出问题，引导读者去思考，也引起了下文对高科技利弊的讨论。4 For years, the Parental Adage was simple: The less time spent with screens, thebetter. That thinking stems from, among other things, reports about the rise ofcyberbullying . . . as well as the fact that social media—specifically the sight of otherslooking happy in photos—can make kids feel depressed and insecure.

5 There’s also a fundamental aversion to sitting kids in front of screens, thanks todecades of studies proving that watching too much TV can lead to obesity, violenceandattention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

作者列举examples来说明看电视的缺点，会引起obesity, violenceandattention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder等。6 In that vein, the Waldorf Schools—a consortium of private K-12 schools inNorth America designed to “connect children to nature” and “ignite passion forlifelong learning”—limit tech in the classroom and bar the use of smartphones,laptops, televisions and even radios at home. “You could say some computer gamesdevelop creativity,” says Lucy Wurtz, an administrator at the Waldorf School inLos Altos, Calif., minutes from Silicon Valley. “But I don’t see any benefit. Waldorfkids knit and build things and paint—a lot of really practical and creative endeavors.”

第六段Quote 权威专家的话来代表“高科技无益论”，creativity不一定通过玩游戏培养，一些practical and creative endeavors能真正的培养孩子的创新能力。7 But it’s not that simple. While there are dangers inherent in access to Facebook, newresearch suggests that social-networking sites also offer unprecedented learningopportunities. “Online, kids can engage with specialized communities of interest,”says Mimi Ito, an anthropologist at the University of California at Irvine who’sstudying how technology affects young adults. “They’re no longer limited by what’soffered in school.”

从第七段到文章结尾一直讲现代科技产品给孩子带来的好处，比重大，从篇幅上就可以明显的看出作者的倾向。同样quotation, 虽然像Facebook类似的社交平台上又潜在的危险，但是它同时为孩子们提供了unprecedented learningopportunities8 Early tech use has cognitive benefits as well. Although parenting experts havequestioned the value of educational games—as Jim Taylor, author of RaisingGeneration Tech, puts it, “they’re a load of crap . . . meant to make money”—newstudies have shown they can add real value. In a recent study by SRI, a nonprofitresearch firm, kids who played games like Samorost (solving puzzles) did 12% betteron logic tests than those who did not. And at MIT’s Education Arcade, playing theempire-building game Civilization piqued students’ interest in history and wasdirectly linked to an improvement in the quality of their history-class reports.

第八段作者用了SRI和MIT’s Education Arcade的调查来说明“Early tech use has cognitive benefits”，玩游戏的孩子比不玩游戏的孩子在逻辑测验上表现好，历史课报告完成质量也比较高，通过两项测验提高了文章的可信度，也容易说服读者。9 The reason: engagement. On average, according to research cited by MIT, studentscan remember only 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear and 50% of whatthey see demonstrated. But when they’re actually doing something themselves—inthe virtual worlds on iPads or laptops—that retention rate skyrockets to 90%.

同样是一项调查，并且结合数据（only 10%， 20%， 50%，90%，数据层层递进）来讲真正的实践会帮助孩子提高记忆力。10 This is a main reason researchers like Ito say the American Academy of Pediatrics’recommendation of a two-hour screen-time limit is an outdated concept: activelybrowsing pages on acomputer or tablet is way more brain-stimulating than vegging

out in front of the TV.

11 The most convincing argument for early-age tech fluency, however, is more basic:staying competitive. “If you look at applying for college or a job, that’s on thecomputer,” says Shawn Jackson, principal of Spencer Tech, a public school in one ofChicago’s lower-income neighborhoods. Ditto the essential skills for jobs infast-growing sectors such as programming, engineering and biotechnology. “If we’renot exposing our students to this stuff early,” Jackson continues, “they’re going to beleft behind.”

Credible sources from authority是本文很突出的一个特征，同学们可以把文中的quotation放在一起单独成段分析。12 None of this means kids deserve unfettered access to the gadget of theirchoice—especially if, as McGrath notes, they’ve already been caught abusing it. Aswith any childhood privilege, monitoring is key. But parents should keep an openmind about the benefits of tech fluency.

整篇文章作者除了使用statistics, examples, quotation等比较常见的logo外，还使用comparison and contrast的方法，来对比分析高科技的demerits and merits。此外作者非常注意diction的选择：“studentscan remember only 10% of what they read”, only一词突出了孩子只读不做情况下，记忆力低下；“activelybrowsing pages on acomputer or tablet is way more brain-stimulating than veggingout in front of the TV.”Actively browsing和vegging形成鲜明对比， 使读者更加感觉到高科技的使用能带来更多的信息和知识。

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