GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT Grammar

(a) Conditional clauses

(b) should and its functions

(c) would and its functions

Active Vocabulary

1. adolescent, n подросток; юноша, девушка adolescent, adj подростковый adolescence, n подростковый возраст; юность

2. adult, n, adj взрослый, совершеннолетний adulthood, n взрослость, совершеннолетие

3. age, n 1. возраст 2. период; эпоха age, v взрослеть, стариться ageing, п старение

4. community, п 1. сообщество, коллектив, группа 2. общность (людей)

5. concern, п 1. отношение, касательство 2. беспокойство, забота 3. участие, интерес

concern, v 1. касаться, иметь отношение 2. интересоваться; изу­чать to be concerned (with) concerning, prep относительно, касательно

6. height, n рост

7. heredity, inheritance, n наследственность hereditary, heritable, adj наследственный heritage, n наследие

inherit, v наследовать

inherited, adj врожденный, унаследованный

8. infant, n младенец, ребенок

infancy, n младенчество, младенческий возраст

9. maturity, n зрелость

maturation, n созревание, возмужание, рост, развитие

mature, adj зрелый

maturate, mature, v развиваться, созревать (о людях)

10. rate, п скорость, темп; интенсивность

11. self-preservation, п самосохранение

12. self-protection, п самозащита

13. a series, {pi. — unchanged) п 1, серия 2. ряд

14. species, {pi. — unchanged) п 1. биол. вид 2. род, разновидность, порода

15. teenager, п тинэйжер, подросток

16. tolerance, п толерантность, терпимость, выносливость tolerant, adj толерантный, терпимый, выносливый, устойчивый

17. trait, п 1. характерная черта (особенность, свойство) (человека) 2. признак

18. transition, п 1. переходный период 2. переход (превращение) из одного состояния в другое

transitional, adj переходный, промежуточный; неустойчивый

19. weight, п вес

weigh, v 1. взвешивать 2. весить 3. иметь вес (значение); влиять

20. youngster, п мальчик, юноша

youth, п 1. юноша 2. молодежь, юношество

Text

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

The process of growth and development is something that is taken for granted, since it happens to us all and seems to be a normal, natural series with little variation.

The two main influences which affect our development are inherited potential and environmental experience. Our inborn characteristics determine our constitution as members of human species: they determine skin colour, eye coiour, bone structure and internal make-up. These inborn traits govern in a real sense the rate of growth and the limits of bio­logical and physical development.

Some extremists have contended that heredity is the more important determinant of behaviour, implying the mechanistic view of human nature. Others have taken the opposite viewpoint that 'all men are created equal' and the effects of environmental pressures and opportunities cause the main dis­tinction between one man and another. Environment, through learning and experience, certainly nurtures inherited potential so that normal, healthy growth progresses to maturity. The kind of adults we become, however, is the result of the cumulative and combined effects of these two influences.

To discover the ages and stages of growth, many children have carefully been studied and their behaviour recorded. The early years are essentially concerned with movement and physical development. Mental develop­ment also occurs, and this will be discussed later.

From the moment of birth, the child appears as a feeding, crying, sleep­ing, body-waste producer, not very different from any other infant crea­tures. None of the human characteristics such as speech, thought, sociabil­ity and so on, are apparent. Within a few weeks the child's muscles mature enough for him to be able to focus his eyes on things and people around him, and show an awareness of his environment. The reflex patterns of behaviour that are inborn include sucking, breathing, and the other body functions. The infant is so helpless that he cannot even perform such basic survival responses as escape from pain-causing stimuli, or obtaining food and drink, without adult assistance. By six months he can sit up, and at the end of the first year he is usually able to stand and crawl around. Within two or three months more he is on his feet and walking without assistance. Speech development takes place in a somewhat similar manner. In the early months the only sounds are crying or babbling noises. After six months, dis­tinct learned speech sounds can be made, such as 'mamma' and 'dadada'. By the first year these have become 'Mama' and 'Daddy', and are associ­ated with particular people. Although the spoken vocabulary is quite limited at this age, quite a few commands and demands can be clearly understood by the child, such as 'sit still' or 'open wide' or 'don't touch that'. By about fifteen months the child is able to issue one-word demands 01* comments such as 'out' or 'doll'. Soon the words are connected in crude but meaning­ful combinations of two or three words: 'we want sweet' and 'we play toys'. The child is now becoming a human being, to be influenced by the experi- • ences which make people social.

The first years of human life are characterized by development of lan­guage, motor ability, and socialization. The child, however, is quite self-centred in his view of life and generally does not know how 10 coop­erate with other children in play and other activities. Children at this age may play in the same location but there is no genuine understanding one for the other. School experiences, however, open up a whole new world for the child. He learns to become partly independent of his mother and home. He learns new facts of life. He learns how to behave in society.

As the child matures he develops more complex powers of reason­ing. The child rapidly acquires many intellectual skills, including the ability to use symbols such as letters and numbers. The acquisition of knowledge is also integrated with the development of other skills, such as the ability to play certain games, the use of artistic materials, tools, etc., and the formation of attitudes. The schools are also charged with

the task of moulding the children into useful members of their commu­nity and society.

During adolescence the child undergoes changes in his psychological шаке-up as important and significant as those in the first years of life. During this period between the dependency of childhood and freedom of adulthood, the physical, social, and emotional changes that occur some­times cause dramatic open conflict between the adolescent, his parents, and society. This, of course, is not true of all teenagers, and many young­sters ripen into adulthood with little or no difficulty.

As the adolescent becomes older and stronger and gains more freedom he may abuse his independence or he may become shy and withdrawn. Many adjustments have to be made, many skills learned, and new styles of behaviour have to become a part of the normal life of the individual. Height and weight increase very rapidly, the sex organs mature, and the child now is biologically able to be a parent. Generally, girls enter adoles­cence two yeais еатНет than boys, and between the ages of H and 15 many girls are taller than the boys. Age 11 is the typical beginning of the adoles­cent stage for girls and age 13 for boys. During adolescence the rate of growth is faster than at any other stage since early infancy.

Adolescence is often described as 'the awkward age', but in fact there is generally no loss in physical skill and coordination. Tests of physical skills, muscular coordination, and athletic ability show a steady increase in abil­ity during the transitional years.

If a single word were needed to characterize adolescence it would be 'freedom'. They want to be treated like adults and also wish the parents to have tolerance for their efforts to be individualistic, regardless of the con­sequences. The transition is made most smoothly if the change is antici­pated and provisions are made through which the chVid natu ratty assumes more and more independence.

To help themselves over the uncertainties and the feelings of insecu­rity that permeate this stage of life, teenagers have found that grouping together is an aid to self-protection and psychological self-preserva­tion. There is strength and sympathy and comradeship among mem­bers with the same problems.

(L.S. Skurnik , F. George . «Psychology for Everyman». Penguin Books, 1972, pp. 50-56)

Exercises

I. Transcribe the following words and practice them for pronunciation:

potential, species, trait, to contend, to nurture , to mature, creature,

sociability, survival, distinct, to mould, community, consequence

II. Form adjectives from the following verbs by means of the suffix ■able. Translate the adjectives into Russian.

to adjust, to drink, to digest, to depend, to excite, to move, to laugh, to notice

III. Translate the following sentences and word combinations from Eng­lish into Russian. (The exercise is to be done orally):

rate of growth; rate of development; rate of ageing; at the rate of 7 presentations per ten minutes;

heredity is one of the factors that determine our growth and devel­opment; to pay attention to heredity; to investigate the problem of heredity;

progressive maturation of structures; maturation of the nervous system; the individual reaches biological maturity between the age of 15 and 25; as a science matures its theories become more complex;

sometimes adults can't understand children; five adults were cho­sen for the tests; difficult adulthood;

he aged very quickly; what's his age?; at the age of seven he went to school; ageing is a very unpleasant period of life for many people;

I am not concerned with the problem; the investigator was con­cerned with the behaviour of his subjects ; concerning the problem of heredity our views differ; many interesting results have been received concerning the stage of ageing; we shall be concerned with the more traditional view of psychophysics;

grown-ups and adolescents; the rate of growth during adolescence; adolescence is a very important stage of development; adolescents often have conflicts with their parents;

a group of teenagers; the problem of teenagers; sometimes teenag­ers cause much trouble to their parents and teachers;

a youth movement; a youth organization; youngsters tend to group together; a youngster stopped me in the street;

to measure one's height and weight; to grow in height and weight; they are of the same height;

infancy period; he was a healthy infant; the infant fell asleep at once.

IV. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English using the active vocabulary:

1. За последнее время наблюдается акселерация темпов роста и развития у детей. 2. Умственные способности изменяются с воз­растом с одинаковой скоростью у мужчин и женщин. 3. Новый shall start the experiment at once. 3. Unless the acquired reflex is rein­forced occasionally, it will diminish. 4. If the conditioned stimulus is under the control of the subject himself, he can regulate it.

IX. Translate the following conditional sentences without conjunctions and make the necessary changes by inserting if:

1. 83 per cent of the subjects felt that their performance would have been different had they been by themselves rather than with a group.

2. Had we analyzed the results of the experiment in time we should have taken another course in our studies. 5. Had they any experimental ani­mals at their disposal at the moment they could start the research with­out any delay. 4. I am sure that the problem would have been solved had not only psychologists but physicists as well investigated it.

X. Define the functions of should in the following sentences:

1. The subjects were told that they should write as many responses as possible. 2. If we had at least two experimental animals we should start the investigation at once. 3. The teacher asked me when I should be ready with a report about visual perception. 4. You should consult the doctor once a year. 5. An experienced investigator suggested that our data should be tested once more. 6. The congress recommended that the research in this field should be expanded. 7. It should be noted that we are also building up instrumental responses during these periods of experimentation. 8. Although most of these measurements have not been made in psychological laboratories, they form an important part of what the experimental psychologist should know about vision . 9. Without explaining anything to the woman the doctor recom­mended that she should stay at home for a few days. 10. They should try to develop methods which may advance their knowledge.

XI. Define the functions of would in the following sentences:

1. The lecturer informed the audience that an expedition to study the culture and habits of some African tribes would be sent to the Congo the following spring. 2. Life, as we know it today, would be impossible if man — and other animals — were unable to «benefit by experience». 3. If we did not know the special history of these animals, we would find their behaviour abnormal. 4. Positive trans­fer must necessarily occur more often than negative transfer, or it would not be true that maturity brings wisdom. 5. In Lott's study it would be almost impossible to reproduce the observed behaviour in laboratory conditions. 6. This book would not have been possible without the cooperation of a great number of people. 7. It would be

t

difficult to test the accuracy of this explanation. 8, Pavlov found that when a dog had been conditioned to a musical sound other tones would produce the same effect though to a lesser degree. 9. Early this century the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who was carrying out research on the digestive processes observed that dogs would salivate before food was presented. 10. The speaker said that he would continue his experiments on chimpanzees. 11. I would gladly act as a subject for you. 12. Presumably in such an operation the subject would take very little time to recognize an object 13. We have developed a hypothesis that explains and predicts the apparent regularity of eye movement. The eye would tend to move from fea­ture to feature in a fixed order, scanning the picture.

XII. Answer the following questions based on the text:

1. What are the two main influences that affect our development?

2. What does heredity determine?

3. What views do scientists have concerning heredity?

4. What are the early years of children concerned with?

5. Does the human infant differ greatly from other infant creatures during the very first weeks after birth?

6. What human characteristics are not seen in human infants at the very first stage of their development ?

7. What facts can prove that within a few weeks after birth an infant is ab­solutely helpless?

8. What can a child do by 6 months?

9. When does the child begin to crawl and walk?

10. In what way is speech developed?

11. What changes occur during adolescence?

12. What is the cause of conflict between the adolescent, his parents and society?

13. Who enters adolescence earlier, boys or girls?

14. At what age do boys (girls) enter adolescence?

15. Why is adolescence often described as «the awkward age»?

16. Why do teenagers tend to group together?

XIII. Translate the following text in written form. Look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary:

The Trying Twenties

The trying twenties confront us with the question of how to live in the

adult world. Our focus shifts from the interior turmoils of late adoles­cence — «Who am I?», «What is truth?» — and we become almost totally preoccupied with working out the externals. «How can I realize my dreams?», «What is the best way to start?», «Where do I go?», «Who can Help me?», «How did you do this?»

In this period which is longer and more stable compared with the period that leads to it, the tasks are enormous: To shape a Dream, that vision of our­selves which will generate energy, aiiveness, and hope. To prepare for lifework. To find a mentor if possible. And to form capacity for intimacy, without losing in the process whatever the consistency of self we have thus far mastered-

Doing what we «should» is the most important theme of the twent ies. The «shoulds» are largely defined by family models, the press of culture'', or the views of our peers. If the prevailing cultural instructions are that one should get married and settle down behind one's own door, a nuclear fam­ily is born. If instead the peers insist that one should act independently, the 25-year-old is likely to have no commitments.

One of the terrifying aspects of the twenties is the inner belief that the choices we make are irrevocable. It is largely a false fear. Change is quite pos­sible, and some alternations of our original choices must probably be made.

Two impulses, as always, are at work. One is to build a firm, safe struc­ture for the future by making strong commitments, «to be set». Yet people who accept a ready-made form without much self-examination are likely to find themselves locked-in. The other urge is to explore and experiment, keeping any structure tentative and therefore easily changeable. In the extreme cases, these are people who constantly change jobs and acquain­tances, spending their twenties in the transient state.

Although the choices of our twenties are not irrevocable, they do s£t in motion a Life Pattern. Some of us follow the locked-in pattern, others the transient pattern, the wunderkind pattern, the caregiver pattern, and there ase. a. wimh^ oC sUo^v^ wftvvtw^t

questions raised for each person during each period.

Having powerful illusions and belief in the power of will, we commonly insist in our twenties that what we have chosen to do is the one true course in life. Our backs go up at any remark that we are like our parents, that two decades of parental training might be reflected in our current actions and attitudes.

«Not,me», is the motto, I'm different.

(After Gail Sheehy. «Passages». N.Y., 1974, pp. 200 -203)

XIV. Choose one of the problem-questions given below and speak on it. (Make use of the text in Ex. XIII:

1. What Life Pattern would you like to follow? What is this pattern char­acterized by?

2. Why do you prefer it to any other?

3. Would you like to follow the Life Pattern of your parent(s)? Why?

4. In what way are you different from your parents?

XV. Here are five annotations to books taken from different Book Cata­logues. All of them are in some way connected with the topic «Growth and Development». Look through them and say which one seems to be most interesting to you. Put them in order of preference and ex­plain your reasons: