淘金高阶英语六级巅峰阅读快速阅读02：令人窒息的爱_大学英语阅读

淘金高阶英语六级巅峰阅读快速阅读02：令人窒息的爱

　　Call it smother love,indulged-kid syndrome,parental neurosis(神经症).Even though todays children have the universe at their fingertips thanks to the Internet,their physical boundaries are shrinking at a rapid pace.According to British social scientist Mayer Hillman,a childs play zone has contracted so radically that were producing the human equivalent of henhouse chickens-plump from lack of exercise and without the flexibility and initiative of freerange kids of the past.The spirit of our times is no longer the resourceful adventurer Tom Sawyer but rather the worry-ridden dad and his stifled only child in Finding Nemo.

　　In short,child rearing has become an exercise in risk minimization,represented by stories such as the father who refused to allow his daughter on a school picnic to the beach for fear she might drown.While its natural for a parent to want to protect their children from danger,you have to wonder;Have we gone too far?

　　Parents Wrap Kids up in Cotton Wool

　　A study conducted by Paul Tranter,a lecturer in geography at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra,showed that while Australian and New Zealand children had similar smounts of unsupervised freedom,it was far less than German of English kids.For example,only a third of ten-year-olds in Australia and New Zealand were allowed to visit places other than school alone,compared to 80 percent in Germany.

　　Girls were even more restricted than boys,with parents fearing assault or molestation,while traffic dangers were seen as the greatest threat to boys.Bike ownership has doubled in a generation,but independent mobility ---the ability to roam and explore unsupervised---has radically declined.In Auckland,for example,many primary schools have done away with bicycle racks because the streets are considered too unsafe.And in Christchurch,New Zealands most bike-friendly city,the number of pupils cycling to school has fallen from more than 90 percent in the late 1970s to less than 20 percent.Safely strapped into the family 4x4,children are instead driven from home to the school gate,then off to ballet,soccer or swimming lessons--rarely straying from watchful adult eyes.