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New York (Reuters) --- Television can act like a painkiller when it comes to children and is more effective than a mother’s comforting, according to a small Italian study.
The University of Siena study, published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, was based on 69 children aged 7 to 12 who were divided into three groups to have blood taken.
One group was given no distraction while the blood was being taken. Meantime mothers of children in the second group attempted to distract the youngsters by talking to them, soothing(安慰), and/or caressing them.
In the third group, the children were allowed to watch television cartoons while the procedure was being carried out.
After the samples were taken, the children and their mothers rated their pain scores.
The children recording the highest pain scores were in the group getting no distraction. These scores were about three times as high as those recorded by children allowed to watch the cartoons.
Children comforted by their mothers recorded middling scores.
On average, the mothers rated pain scores higher than the children but they also recorded the lowest pain scores for children who had been allowed to watch television.
“The higher pain level reported by children during mothers’ efforts at distraction shows the difficulty mothers have in interacting positively at a difficult moment in their children’s life,” the researchers said in their report.
They added that watching television also seemed to increase children’s pain tolerance(容忍力).
64. If children are concentrated while having their blood taken, they will _______.
A. feel no pain B. record the lowest pain scores
C. record the highest pain scores D. feel less pain
65. According to the Italian study, children who are suffering from pain had better _______.
A. get comfort from their mothers B. watch cartoons on TV
C. read picture books D. get no distraction
66. The underlined word “distract” in the third paragraph probably means “_______.”
A. reduce one’s pain B. get one’s attention away
C. help one get concentrated D. give comfort to
67. From the passage, we can infer that _______.
A. mothers can soothe their children greatly at hard moments
B. mothers’ love and comfort is the best medicine for children
C. children can have their pain tolerance increased by mother’s efforts
D. mothers’ comfort does not reduce much of their children’s pain
