2012考研英语一真题Text1

本文选自Time《时代周刊》2011年4月9日一篇题为Herd Mentality (从众心理)的文章。文章通过着力批驳蒂娜·罗森伯格新作《加入俱乐部》中观点“同侪压力借由社会治疗运动可发挥巨大作用”（一、书作本身未就“社会治疗效力”作有力阐述，二、靠外力对同侪压力施以正向引导的社会治疗并未真正奏效)从根本上质疑“同侪压力的社会疗效”。

同侪压力的作用

Come on—Everybody's doing it. That whispered message, half invitation and half forcing, is what most of us think of when we hear the words peer pressure. It usually leads to no good—drinking, drugs and casual sex. But in her new book Join the Club, Tina Rosenberg contends that peer pressure can also be a positive force through what she calls the social cure, in which organizations and officials use the power of group dynamics to help individuals improve their lives and possibly the world.

快来吧——大家都在这样做呢。这句半邀请半强迫的耳语是我们大多数人在听到“同侪压力”一词时会想到的。它通常引发坏事酗酒、吸毒以及随意性行为。但蒂娜·罗森伯格在其新作《加入俱乐部》中声称，通过她所谓的“社会治疗”，同侪压力也可以成为一种积极的力量。在“社会治疗”中，组织机构和官员们利用群体互动的力量来帮助个人改善生活，甚至可能改进整个世界。

词汇注释与难句分析

知识补充

①whisper ['wispo ]v.小声说，耳语

②contend [kan'tend]v.主张，坚决认为

经典搭配

①whispered message (耳语）

②peer pressure (同侪压力)

③lead to no good (带不来什么好事)

④social cure (社会治疗)

⑤group dynamics (群体互动)

But in her new book Join the Club, Tina Rosenberg contends that peer pressure can also be a positive force through what she calls the social cure, in which organizations and officials use the power of group dynamics to help individuals improve their lives and possibly the world.

Rosenberg, the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, offers a host of examples of the social cure in action: In South Carolina, a state-sponsored antismoking program called Rage Against the Haze sets out to make cigarettes uncool. In South Africa, an HIV-prevention initiative known as Love Life recruits young people to promote safe sex among their peers.

The idea seems promising, and Rosenberg is a perceptive observer. Her critique of the lameness of many public-health campaigns is spot-on: they fail to mobilize peer pressure for healthy habits, and they demonstrate a seriously flawed understanding of psychology. "Dare to be different,please don't smoke!" pleads one billboard campaign aimed at reducing smoking among teenagers- teenagers, who desire nothing more than fitting in. Rosenberg argues convincingly that public-health advocates ought to take a page from advertisers, so skilled at applying peer pressure.

But on the general effectiveness of the social cure, Rosenberg is less persuasive. Join the Club is filled with too much irrelevant detail and not enough exploration of the social and biological factors that make peer pressure so powerful. The most glaring flaw of the social cure as it's presented here is that it doesn't work very well for very long. Rage Against the Haze failed once state funding was cut. Evidence that the Love Life program produces lasting changes is limited and mixed.

There's no doubt that our peer groups exert enormous influence on our behavior. An emerging body of research shows that positive health habits  well as negative ones-pread through networks of friends via social communication. This is a subtle form of peer pressure: we unconsciously imitate the behavior we see every day.

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