新世纪研究生公共英语教材阅读(B)Unit5.docxVIP

Unit 5 Text Can You Raise a Polite Kid in this Rude World? Suzanne Chazin Mention ill-mannered children and most people roll their eyes at the memory of a little hellion and his boorish parents. I still get angry about an incident that happened last summer. We were staying at a country inn that had a small movie theater. Before every evening1 s presentation, my husband and I instructed our three-year-old son to sit quietly. Except for an occasional whispered question, he sat in rapt attention. The soundtrack, however, was impossible to hear. That s because two children bounced on their seats, talked loudly and raced up and down the aisles. Never once did I see a parent. After several evenings of this, I followed the children to the dining room. There sat a man and woman enjoying a relaxed meal. “My family is having a hard time watching the film with your children running all over the theater, I said. Do you think that if they re not interested in the movie, you could keep them out here? The father regarded me coolly. uWe* ve paid for the use of the inn* s facilities, “ he said. Our children can go anywhere they please! I was dumbfounded. What could make a seemingly rational couple condone behavior that was so obviously rude? Have we as a society become so consumed with our own needs and the impulses of our chi Idren that everyone else s rights are ignored? “Take a look at television these days, and it s becoming almost commonplace to be arrogant and crude, notes psychologist Thomas Achenbach of the University of Vermont. While teenagers laugh at the vulgar antics of Beavis and Butthead, their parents yuk it up with the acerbic **Married With Children0 and the brash Roseanne. The assault on manners doesn* t just come in the form of comic relief. Witness the abominable display last September of Baltimore Orioles second baseman Roberto Alomar, who spat in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck before millions of fans. All of this seems to have a profound effect on kids.