愛和邏輯

江西侯昌瑋

當談到養育三個孩子時，比爾·蓋茨承認他的妻子在撫養孩子的工作中做的比他多。

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難詞探意

1.exert/?ɡ'zз?t/v.運用；施加

2.reprimand/'repr?mɑ?nd/v.斥責；懲戒

3.leash/li??/n.皮帶

4.rein/re?n/v.嚴格控制

When it comes to parenting his three children,Bill Gates admits his wife Melinda has done more than her share of the work raising the kids.

“My wife does 80%,”Gates told a crowd of Harvard students.Gates spent two years there taking math and computer science courses as a pre-law student,but never finished up his degree(though he was later gifted an honorary diploma from the Ivy League university).Gates said he and his wife have been quite deliberate about the model they've used to raise their three children.

They followed a 1970s“Love and Logic”parenting model.It's a formula that was created by a group of three men—a mix of a psychologist,a psychiatrist(精神科醫生)and a former school administrator.The core idea of their philosophy is centered on the idea ofexertingemotional control—essentially minimizing emotional reactions like shouting orreprimandingkids.“One of the greatest benefits of applying“Love and Logic”is that it helps us learn how to keep a tighterleashon our emotions and on our tongues,”cofounder Charles Fay wrote in a blog post about his model.

Aside fromreiningin hot-blooded parent tempers,the“Love and Logic”model also stresses the importance of not focusing on rewards for kids,but instead demonstrating unconditional love and admiring kids for who they are,not what they do(or don't)achieve,like a poor test score or a bad grade.“Many highly successful people struggled with grades as children,”Fay wrote on his site.“What's most important is that our children develop good character,curiosity,and problem-solving skills.”The model is a bit like the Socratic method,in which it pushes parents to focus on asking questions of their kids and getting them to think about how to solve their own problems,instead of feeding them answers.

The“Love and Logic”method wasn't the only way Gates set boundaries for his children while they were growing up.None of his kids owned a cell phone until they were 14 years old.And they will each get about $10 million of their parents'fortune as inheritance.“We want to strike a balance where they have the freedom to do anything,but not a lot of money showered on them so they could go out and do nothing,”Gates said.

Reading Check

1.What does the underlined word“They”refer to in paragraph 3?

A.Children of Bill Gates.

B.Bill Gates and his wife.

C.School administrators.

D.Charles Fay and his wife.

2.What can we know about“Love and Logic”parenting model?

A.It was created by a group of businessmen.

B.It has been adopted by most parents in the world.

C.It is the only boundary Gates set for his children.

D.It suggests decreasing emotional reactions to children.

3.What does Charles Fay think of the the“Love and Logic”model?

A.It will be popular with successful people.

B.It stresses much importance of children's grades.

C.It can help parents control their emotions better.

D.It pushes parents to feed children answers to some questions.

Language Study

熟詞生義

Gates said he and his wife have been quitedeliberateabout the model they've used to raise their three children.蓋茨說，他和他的妻子在撫養三個孩子的模式方面一直很慎重。

deliberateadj.小心翼翼的

e.g.She spoke in a deliberate way.她說話非常謹慎。