背诵为王 第 二 册 第 55 课（在线收听）

Lesson55 At Dinner Table
As any homemaker knows， there is far more to a family meal than food．

Sociologists have been studying families to find out just how much more．
Lewis and his co-workers carried out their study by videotaping the families

while they ate ordinary meals in their own homes． They found that parents

with small families talk actively with each other and their children． But

as the number of children gets larger， conversation gives way to the

parent's efforts to control the loud noise they make． That can have an

important effect on the children． “In general the more question-asking the

parents do the higher the children's IQ scores，” Lewis says． “And the

more children there are， the less question-asking there is．”
The study also provides an explanation for why middle children often seem to

have a harder time in life than their siblings． Lewis found that in

families with three or four children， dinner conversation is likely to

centre on the oldest child， who has the most to talk about， and the

youngest， who needs the most attention “Middle children are invisible，”

says Lewis． “When you see someone get up from the table and walk around

during dinner， chances are it's the middle child．”
There is， however，one thing that stops all conversation and prevents

anyone from having attention：“When the TV is on，” Lewis says， “dinner

is non-existent．”

sociologist 社会学家
videotape 录影
sibling 兄弟姐妹
invisible 看不见的
non-existent 不存在的

餐桌上
正如每个主妇都知道的，一顿家餐并不只是食物那么简单。社会学家已经开始研究家庭

以更多地了解家餐所起的作用。
刘易斯和他的同事通过录影家庭平时在家吃饭的情况进行研究。他们发现小家庭中父母

喜欢互相交谈并和孩子们说话。但是当孩子多了以后，谈话减少了，取而代之的是父母

们努力控制孩子不要发出噪音，这对孩子们的影响很大。“总的来说，父母问题问得越

多，孩子的IQ越高。”
研究还解释了中间的孩子的生活为什么似乎总是比他们的兄弟姐妹艰难一些。刘易斯发

现在有三四个孩子的家庭里，餐桌上的话题总是集中在最大和最小的孩子身上，最大的

孩子可说的事情最多，而最小的孩子最需要关注。“中间的孩子被人忽视，”刘易斯说

，“当你看到有个人在吃饭时起身离开餐桌四处走动，这个人很可能就是中间的孩子。

”然而，有一样东西可以使所有的谈话停止，分散大家的注意力。“当电视打开时，”
刘易斯说，“晚餐就不存在了。”