小孩子為什麽說謊?
【內容提示】
小孩子全都天真無邪，但並非全都誠實。有好多小孩經常撒謊。小孩撒謊的責任在誰?怪孩子還是怪大人。請你就這一問題寫一篇文章，用間接推理的方法論證小孩說謊的原因在家長和老師。
【作文示範】
Why Do Children Tell Lies?
All children are innocent, but not all of them are honest. Quite a few of them tell lies. We frequently hear about children being punished by their parents or teachers for lying. My nephew, an eleven-year-old boy, is often scolded by his mother. Whenever he comes home late, he says that he was at school. But more than once he was found playing with other naughty boys on their way home. Who is to blame now? Is it the children themselves who enjoy telling lies or other people, such as their parents or teachers, who cause them to do so?
We have no doubt that children are born to be pure. They grow up, affected by their surroundings. Although they take interest in almost everything, they haven"t developed their own powers of independent judgement. They can"t tell what"s right or what"s wrong. Their powers of observation①, in contrast, are much stronger than their powers of judgement. And above all, they are good at imitating②. Unfortunately, we adults sometimes lie. Maybe we find it necessary or have to to do so sometimes. This is something like white lies③. The trouble is that most of us don"t avoid doing so before children. Thus, children"s lying is, in a way, the result of adult"s act.
We also believe that children certainly make mistakes. At first, they do have some interest in truth and honesty. A boy has broken a glass, and have admitted his mistakes; he is almost likely scolded instead of being praised by his parents. And when a pupil admits that he misses class one time, he is usually warned not to do that again another time by his teacher. Gradually the child loses the courage to tell the truth; on the contrary, he feels it helpful to tell lies: at least, he can escape being punished here and now. And at last, he concludes that to tell lies is somehow a good way to get rid of trouble. Before long the parents and the teacher will be complaining that the child is always lying, but they seldom realize that it is they who have brought this on the child.
【詞語解釋】
①observation[?&bs+"veiM+n]n.觀察力
②imitate["imiteit]v.模仿
③white lie善意的謊言
【寫法指要】
本文在引言段一開頭用了一個轉折句排除了“all”中的一部分，接著舉了一個具體事例引出一個選擇性論點“是……還是……”。在正文中，作者運用“排他法”間接論證了孩子們說謊的兩種原因：一是環境影響，二是成人誤導。最後得出的結論是：小孩說謊的原因不在孩子本身，而在家長和教師。所以，最後還是用排除法把引言段中的選擇性論點確定在“還是……”的強調部分了。所以，我們說，本文從頭到尾都是用的排他法間接因果論證。排他法的優點是在對錯誤觀點的逐個否定中加強了自己論點的正確性;在肯定或否定一種情況時，既說明了理由，又比較了優劣，有很強的說服力，使人相信最終的選擇是惟一正確的。