5 . There have been countless books and television series on living with teenagers, yet parents don’t seem to have _________ how to get their children to pick up their clothes from the bedroom floor, or even clean their room occasionally. It might be difficult to accept, but a new approach to dealing with rude or difficult teenagers is for parents to look at their own _________.
“The key to getting teenagers to respect you is to respect them first,” says Penny Palmano, who has written a best-selling book on teenagers. “You can’t _________ to treat them the same way that you have been treating them for the previous 12 years: they have opinions that count. Imagine if you’d spent two hours getting ready to go out for the evening and someone said, ‘You’ve not going out looking like that, are you?’ You’d be very _________. You’d never say that to an adult, because it shows a total _________ of respect.”
Palmano, who has a daughter aged 19, has even allowed the girl to hold several teenage parties at her home. “I’ve found that if you have brought your kids up to do the right thing, and then _________ them to do it, usually they’ll behave well,” she says. “I make them sandwiches and leave them alone. But I make it clear that they have to clear up any mess. I’ve never had a(n) _________; in fact, the kitchen was sometimes cleaner than I’d left it.”
She agrees that teenagers can be annoying: enjoying a world that is free of responsibility, yet _________ for independence. She doesn’t think, however, that they are _________ to annoy you. Until recently, scientists assumed that the brain finished growing at about the age of 13 and that teenage problems were a result of rising hormones and a desire for independence. But it turns out that the region of the brain that controls judgement and emotions is not fully __________ until the early twenties.
“This would explain why many teenagers can’t make good decisions, control their emotions, priorities or concentrate on several different things at the same time. __________, they may find it difficult to make the right decision between watching television, ringing a friend, or finishing their homework. It means that they do not __________ do the wrong thing just to annoy their parents,” says Palmano.
The key to __________ for all, Palmano believes, is calm negotiation and compromise (妥协). If you want your teenagers to be home by 11 pm, explain why, but listen to their arguments as well. If it’s Saturday, you might __________ agreeing to midnight (rather than 1 am, which is what they had in mind). If they are up to 20 minutes late, don’t react angrily. __________, ask if they’ve had a problem with public transport and let it pass; they’ve almost managed what you asked.
1. A.questioned | B.discovered | C.discussed | D.taught |
2. A.behavior | B.responsibility | C.issue | D.procedure |
3. A.continue | B.stop | C.strive | D.hesitate |
4. A.curious | B.ashamed | C.upset | D.unwise |
5. A.mark | B.feeling | C.lack | D.level |
6. A.instruct | B.require | C.forbid | D.trust |
7. A.solution | B.problem | C.opinion | D.voice |
8. A.essential | B.grateful | C.desperate | D.famous |
9. A.affording | B.failing | C.promising | D.trying |
10. A.occupied | B.mature | C.valued | D.fruitful |
11. A.In addition | B.By contrast | C.On balance | D.For example |
12. A.occasionally | B.intentionally | C.universally | D.significantly |
13. A.happiness | B.justice | C.restriction | D.courage |
14. A.consider | B.forget | C.encourage | D.forbid |
15. A.Therefore | B.Otherwise | C.Furthermore | D.Instead |