阅读理解
If you want to teach your children how to say sorry, you must be good at saying it yourself, especially to your own children. But how you say it can be quite tricky.
If you say to your children “I''m sorry I got angry with you, but …” what follows that “but” can render the apology ineffective: “I had a bad day” or “your noise was giving me a headache” leaves the person who has been injured feeling that he should be apologizing for his bad behavior in expecting an apology.
Another method by which people appear to apologize without actually doing so is to say “I''m sorry you''re upset”; this suggests that you are somehow at fault for allowing yourself to get upset by what the other person has done.
Then there is the general, all covering apology, which avoids the necessity of identifying a specific act that was particularly hurtful or insulting, and which the person who is apologizing should promise never to do again. Saying “I''m useless as a parent” does not commit a person to any specific improvement.
These pseudo-apologies are used by people who believe saying sorry shows weakness, Parents who wish to teach their children to apologize should see it as a sign of strength, and therefore not resort to these pseudo-apologies.
But even when presented with examples of genuine contrition, children still need help to become a ware of the complexities of saying sorry. A three-year-old might need help in understanding that other children feel pain just as he does, and that hitting a playmate over the head with a heavy toy requires an apology. A six-year-old might need reminding that spoiling other children''s expectations can require an apology. A 12-year-old might need to be shown that raiding the biscuit tin without asking permission is acceptable, but that borrowing a parent''s clothes without permission is not.
If you want to teach your children how to say sorry, you must be good at saying it yourself, especially to your own children. But how you say it can be quite tricky.
If you say to your children “I''m sorry I got angry with you, but …” what follows that “but” can render the apology ineffective: “I had a bad day” or “your noise was giving me a headache” leaves the person who has been injured feeling that he should be apologizing for his bad behavior in expecting an apology.
Another method by which people appear to apologize without actually doing so is to say “I''m sorry you''re upset”; this suggests that you are somehow at fault for allowing yourself to get upset by what the other person has done.
Then there is the general, all covering apology, which avoids the necessity of identifying a specific act that was particularly hurtful or insulting, and which the person who is apologizing should promise never to do again. Saying “I''m useless as a parent” does not commit a person to any specific improvement.
These pseudo-apologies are used by people who believe saying sorry shows weakness, Parents who wish to teach their children to apologize should see it as a sign of strength, and therefore not resort to these pseudo-apologies.
But even when presented with examples of genuine contrition, children still need help to become a ware of the complexities of saying sorry. A three-year-old might need help in understanding that other children feel pain just as he does, and that hitting a playmate over the head with a heavy toy requires an apology. A six-year-old might need reminding that spoiling other children''s expectations can require an apology. A 12-year-old might need to be shown that raiding the biscuit tin without asking permission is acceptable, but that borrowing a parent''s clothes without permission is not.
文章大意：议论文。本文围绕如何向别人道歉展开议论。文章首段提出论点：怎样道歉是十分微妙的，需谨慎对待。第二段到第三段分别列举了三种人们十分常用却起不到效果的道歉方式来支持中心论点。第四段对以上三段的内容进行总结。最后一段起到递进作用，阐明了教孩子道歉还要考虑到他们的年龄。
单选题
If a mother adds ”but” to an apology,________.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】事实细节题。本段是说，如果你在给孩子道歉之后又加上了“但是…”这样的转折语气，就会使这次道歉变得无效。注意本句中的he指代the person who has been injured，而这个受到伤害的人就是你对他说“but”的人。这样会使他觉得，他似乎应该为他的行为向你道歉，即owes sb. an apology。
单选题
According to the author, saying “I''m sorry you''re upset” most probably means”________”.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】推理判断题。解答此题的关键在于对for allowing yourself to get upset的理解。这句话的意思是说，你感到沮丧是因为你主观造成的，而不管别人对你做了什么。这又似乎是说，全怪你自己庸人自扰，而责任却不在别人。
单选题
It is not advisable to use the general, all-covering apology because________.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】推理判断题。本段中“avoids…”部分是说这种笼统的道歉没有针对某个具体的行为，因此是模糊的(vague)；“does not commit…”部分是说这种道歉不会使道歉的人有任何进步，所以是无效的(ineffective)。
单选题
We learn from the last paragraph that in teaching children to say sorry________.