問題詳情：
Sometimes having a teenager at home can be a real headache. Many teenagers smoke, drink, wear strange hairs and even fight. Basically, they are often taking risks.
Earlier studies have shown that teenagers are more likely to make irrational decisions than people from any other age group, including children and adults. Is it that teenagers are too young to tell right from wrong? Not really. So what explains their risky behavior?
According to Laurence Steinberg, a professor at Temple University, US, that is because teens care a lot about how their peers (同齡人) view them – that’s the effect of “peer influence”, reported Science Daily.
As children enter their teenage years, they spend more time with their friends and classmates and also become more sensitive to their feedback (反饋). This sensitivity drives teenagers to focus on the short-term benefits of making risky choices and overlook the costs.
In a test, a group of teenagers were asked to play a video driving game. When they played with their friends watching, they took more chances and drove more carelessly because that would increase their possibility of winning. But when they played alone, they tended to drive more safely.
Why does pressure from peers have such a big influence on teens’ behavior?
As Steinberg sees it, a teenager’s brain is like a car with a good accelerator (油門) but a weak brake (剎車). The “accelerator”, the brain’s ability to notice the benefits of things, is fully developed by teenage years while the “brake”, the brain part related to controlling impulses (衝動) and long-term thinking, is still not mature (成熟的). When teens are under the pressure of being judged by their peers, they tend to push hard on the accelerator. Given how weak the brake is, it is likely that they are going to end up in a crash.
But the good news here, according to Steinberg, is that a violent teenager doesn’t necessarily become a violent adult. About two-thirds to three-quarters of violent youth grow out of it. “They get more self-controlled,” Steinberg told Live Science. Also, people who haven’t committed a violent crime by age 19 are less likely to start doing it later, added Steinberg. underlined word “irrational” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to ______. y k ful pendent are teenagers likely to take risks according to the text? are too young to tell right from wrong. are eager to challenge themselves. care a lot about what their peers think of them. r brains are more sensitive to thrilling events. does Steinberg explain the influence of peer pressure on teens’ behavior? performing an in-depth analysis. giving examples. using a metaphor (比喻). presenting research findings. can we conclude from the text? e who love taking risks are more likely to commit violent crimes. majority of teenagers become less violent when they grow up. ent teenagers often grow to be adults who cannot control themselves well. le who are over 19 years old are less likely to commit a crime than teenagers.
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