Download The Only Child: Not a Loner

M Academic Reading – Handout
Here are the following articles from
The New York Times. Read the articles
and then complete the worksheets
below.
The Only Child: Not a Loner?
(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/fashion/12Studied.
html?ref=sociology)
By PAMELA PAUL
Published: September 10, 2010
The Gist: Growing up without siblings doesn’t harm social
skills.
The Source: “Good for Nothing? Number of Siblings and
Friendship Nominations Among Adolescents,” by Donna
Bobbitt-Zeher and Douglas B. Downey, Ohio State
University.
siblings in the kindergarten study were quite modest.
Second, the study relied on teacher evaluations, and
teachers may not be reliable judges of friendships among
their charges.
Why We’re Still Happy
5. And now it seems that any benefits documented in
kindergarten disappear altogether by middle school. Using
a metric called “peer nomination,” in which youths are
asked to identify their friends by name, Dr. Downey and
Dr. Bobbitt-Zeher drew on data from the National
Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, with a sample
size of 13,466 students in 7th through 12th grades. They
then counted how many people named each individual as a
friend. This was used to proximate social skills since the
socially inept would be unlikely to have lots of friends. The
result: children without siblings had just as many friends as
children with siblings.
By SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY
Published: December 26, 2008,
Riverside, Calif.
6. Dr. Downey speculates that continuing school, youth
clubs and other group activities — especially in an era of
overscheduled children — provide ample opportunity for
onlys to sharpen their skills.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/opinion/27lyubomi
rsky.html?ref=sociology)
1. These days, bad news about the economy is everywhere.
So why aren’t we panicking? Why aren’t we spending our
days dejected about the markets? How is it that we manage
to remain mostly preoccupied with the quotidian tasks and
concerns of life? Traffic, dinner, homework, deadlines,
sharp words, flirtatious glances. Because the news these
days affects everyone.
2. Research in psychology and economics suggests that
when only your salary is cut, or when only you make a
foolish investment, or when only you lose your job, you
become considerably less satisfied with your life. But when
everyone from autoworkers to Wall Street financiers
becomes worse off, your life satisfaction remains pretty
much the same.
3. Indeed, humans are remarkably attuned to relative
position and status. As the economists David Hemenway
and Sara Solnick demonstrated in a study at Harvard, many
people would prefer to receive an annual salary of $50,000
when others are making $25,000 than to earn $100,000 a
year when others are making $200,000.
1. Serial parents may think that each new sibling offers
their offspring the gift of companionship. But while we
tend to think that siblings teach one another conflict
resolution and other interpersonal skills, new research says
they are no better off socially than children without
siblings.
4. Similarly, Daniel Zizzo and Andrew Oswald, economists
in Britain, conducted a study that showed that people would
give up money if doing so would cause someone else to
give up a slightly larger sum. That is, we will make
ourselves poorer in order to make someone else poorer, too.
2. Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, the lead author of the study
decided to “look at social skills to see if there was any other
possible benefit to having brothers or sisters.” She and her
co-author, Douglas Downey are sociologists at Ohio State’s
Marion campus, and neither is an only child. They
presented their findings at the annual meeting of the
American Sociological Association in August.
5. We care more about social comparison, status and rank
than about the absolute value of our bank accounts or
reputations. For example, Andrew Clark, an economist in
France, has recently shown that being laid off hurts less if
you live in a community with a high unemployment rate.
What’s more, if you are unemployed, you will, on average,
be happier if your spouse is unemployed, too.
3. Dr. Downey found that kindergarten teachers rated
children without siblings worse in interpersonal skills, selfcontrol and problem behaviors.
4. But an only child isn’t necessarily a loner, misfit and
brat. First, the social advantages found in children with
1
The Bad News First
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/opinion/24christak
is.html?ref=sociology)
By NICHOLAS A. CHRISTAKIS
Published: August 24, 2007
Boston
1. No surprises” is a basic rule in hospitals. Junior doctors
are supposed to notify their superiors promptly about
worrisome developments in a patient, and information is
supposed to move smoothly up the chain of command.
2. Research has revealed doctors’ tendency to contribute to
the problem by avoiding making prognoses. In one study of
nearly 5,000 hospitalized adults who had roughly six
months to live, only 15 percent were given clear prognoses.
course of their final illness: the family loses its life savings,
a caregiver has to quit work or a spouse falls seriously ill.
7. For reliable prognoses to become a routine part of
medical care they must become a priority of medical
research and education. Less than 5 percent of research
focuses on prognosis. Textbook descriptions of diseases
cover prognosis less than 25 percent of the time. And
medical schools and residency programs almost completely
neglect training in prognostication.
8. Doctors often say they worry that predictions about
survival may cause patients to lose hope. But a realistic
assessment of how long a patient has to live need not cause
either the patient or doctor to become pessimistic. It should
only refocus attention on the quality of the patient’s life.
Sometimes living life to its fullest requires knowledge of its
finitude.
3. In a smaller study of 326 cancer patients in Chicago
hospices, all of whom had about a month to live, only 37
percent of the doctors interviewed said they would share an
accurate prognosis with their patients, and only if patients
or their families pushed them to do so.
4. Even when doctors do prognosticate, the research shows,
they typically overestimate the time a patient has left to
live, often at least tripling it, perhaps because they feel
overconfident. Doctors who wrongly think that patients are
going to live much longer wind up recommending
needlessly painful and expensive treatments.
5. By not making or communicating prognoses, doctors can
make the end of life more unpleasant. Patients are given no
chance to draft wills, see distant loved ones, make peace
with estranged relatives or even discuss with their families
their wishes about how to live the end of their lives. And
they are denied the chance to make decisions about what
kind of medical care they want to receive.
6. Roughly half of Americans die with inadequately treated
pain. Large minorities suffer symptoms like shortness of
breath, nausea or depression. Four in five die in hospitals
and nursing homes, rather than at home as most prefer. And
more than half significantly burden family caregivers in the
2
Worksheet 1 – Scanning
Scan the reports and answer the following questions:
1. Which research involved doctors? Bad news first
2. Which study was published in California? Why we’re still happy
3. Who conducted a study that showed that people would give up money if doing so
would cause someone else to give up a slightly larger sum? Why we’re still happy
4. Which study has the most participants? How many? The only child: Not a
loner?13.466
5. Which studies were led by economists? Why we’re still happy
6. Which researcher(s) study findings were presented at the annual meeting of the
American Sociological Association in August? Bad news first
7. Where were the hospices of the 326 cancer patients located? Chicago
Worksheet 2 – Skimming
Skim the articles and complete the table, using one of the following terms: procedure,
general assumptions (including previous work on the subject), conclusions, summary
(including researcher(s) and publication), result.
Also indicate the paragraphs which contain the certain information.
The Only Child – Not a Loner?
Why We’re Still Happy
The Bad News First
(par. 1- general
assumption)
(par. 1- general assumption
)
(par. 1- general assumption )
(par. 5 - procedure)
(par. 4 procedure )
(par. 3- procedure )
(par. 2 summary )
(par. 5, 6 - summary )
(par. 4 - results )
(par. 5 results)
(par. 2,4- results )
(par. 6 - conclusions )
(par. 3 conclusions)
(par. 7,8 – conclusions )
(par.
2,3 - summary )
3
Worksheet 3 – Intensive Reading (Checking Understanding)
Read carefully “The Only Child – Not a Loner?” and answer the following questions:
1. What does new research say about children with/without siblings, from the point
of view of their social skills? The new research says that children with siblings
are no better off than children without siblings.
2. How did teachers describe children without siblings? They described those
children as being worse in interpersonal skills
3. Which was the result of the study conducted at the National Longitudinal Study of
Adolescent Health? Children without siblings had just as many friends as
children with siblings
4. Did the sex of the participants matter (or influence in any kind the results)? No.
5. How can an only child improve his skills? The onlys can improve their skills by
continuing school, youth clubs and other group activities.
Read “Why We’re Still Happy” and answer the following questions:
1. Which are the quotidian tasks and concerns of life? Traffic, dinner, homework,
deadlines, sharp words, flirtatious glances.
2. In what situation would people give up money? People would give up money if
doing so would cause someone else to give up a slightly larger sum.
3. What are husbands’ reactions towards unemployment? Husbands are happier if
their wife is unemployed like many others in the community.
4. What do we care less about? We care less about economic problems even those
are more important.
5. What salary would most people prefer? Many people would prefer to receive an
annual salary of $50,000 when others are making $25,000 than to earn
$100,000 a year when others are making $200,000.
Worksheet 4 – Intensive Reading (Information Extraction)
Read “The Only Child – Not a Loner?” and complete the following table:
Title of research(es)
Researcher(s) and affiliation(s)
Published in
When conducted
Procedure
Results
“Good for Nothing? Number of Siblings and Friendship Nominations Among Adolescents”
Donna Bobbitt-Zeher and Douglas B. Downey
American Sociological Association in August
Dr. Downey and Dr. Bobbitt-Zeher drew on data from the National Longitudinal Study of
Adolescent Health, with a sample size of 13,466 students in 7th through 12th grades. They then
counted how many people named each individual as a friend
The result: children without siblings had just as many friends as children with siblings.
4
Worksheet 5 – Checking Understanding
Re-read “The Bad News First” and decide if the statements below are True or False:
1. 15 or 5000 hospitalized patients were given the right prognoses. False
2. Less than 5 percent of research focuses on prognosis. False
3. Four in five die not in hospitals and nursing homes, but at home as most prefer.
True
4. Patients who are going to live much longer wind up with needlessly painful and
expensive treatments. True
5. Doctors tend to avoid making prognoses. True
6. Medical schools and residency programs focus on training future doctors in
prognostication. False
Worksheet 6 – Vocabulary Work
Find the words in the texts, decide the word class, and write it and the translation of the
word in the space provided. Then try to find synonyms and antonyms for the words.
Word and Location
Dejected (2, par. 1)
Class
adjective
Translation
dezamăgit
Earn (2, par. 3)
Verb
A câştiga
Finitude (3, par. 8)
Foolish (2, par. 2)
noun
adjective
finalitate
Prostesc, absurd
Misfit (1, par. 4)
Noun
Needlessly (3, par. 4)
Adverb
Nonconformist,
neadaptat
Inutil
Proximate (1, par. 5)
Adjective Apropiat, recent
Reliable (3, par. 7)
Adjective
De încredere
Resolution (1, par. 1)
Noun
Roughly (3, par. 2)
Adverb
Țel, decizie,
hotărâre
Aproximativ
Sharpen (1, par. 6)
Verb
A îmbunătăți
5
Synonym(s)
Unhappy,
dissapointed
acquire, attain,
obtain
End, death
Absurd, crazy,
brainless
Dropout,
outsider
Useless,
unnecessary
Direct,
forthcoming,
approaching
Trustworthy,
faithful
Aim,
declaration
Around, more
or less
Work out,
accustom
Antonym(s)
Happy, satisfied
cost, lose, spend
eternity
Careful, prudent
Popular
Useful
Away, beyond,
far
Unreliable
Indecision,
weakness
Exactly,
precisely
Cease