題組 6You read this headline on your smartphone, and without much thought, you share the link with your friends and thencontinue scrolling. Does this sound familiar? Every day, we are jammed with so much news on the Internet that we hardlyhave time to read beyond headlines. But if we actually take our time to read what happened behind the catchy titles, wemay find huge gaps in information.To see what these gaps might be, we have to examine closely on the study which the above headline is based on. Thestudy had 46 female participants between the ages of 55 and 75. Of the 46, 23 were told to sing for 10 minutes each day,while the other 23 were given daily doses of a placebo. At the end of the three-month study, the participants who sang for10 minutes a day showed lower blood pressure levels. The women in the other group, however, did not.As you have already known the basic information of this study, can you guess why the headline is misleading? Tobegin with, check the participants. This study only included 50 women. Their result can’t stand for the real situation of thewhole population. A good study should invite thousands of people with both sex to join in. Second, the time. How longdid the study last? Since it only took place over three months, the total time frame is too short for us to believe thefindings. Last, there’s the question of correlation. Although music plays an important part to lower people’s pressure inthe study, can it be directly linked to longevity? To live a long life, people need to do more than just lowering bloodpressure by singing. Therefore, it is oversimplified to say singing makes you live longer and ignore any other factors thatcould be at play.There are many other questions that you can raise before accepting the findings of a scientific headline. Next timewhen you share a news report, make sure you won’t accidentally spread fake news by taking an extra step to dig deeperthrough scientific reports. *adapted from Yeh, Helen (2019) Science Says What?!, All Plus Interactive English Magazine, P. 29-34 catchy 朗朗上口的 scroll 滑動(網站頁面或文件) participant 參與者 placebo 安慰劑mislead 誤導 population 人口 time frame 時間範圍 correlation 相關性 longevity 長壽oversimplified 過於簡化 ignore 忽視 factor 因素 at play 左右結果、影響結果
【題組】37.Which of the following can be the main idea of this reading?
(A)Scientific news articles can’t be trusted； therefore don’t bother to read them.
(B) Scientific reporters should be professional enough to write honest and truthful headlines.
(C) People should do their part to examine a headline and the scientific study under it.
(D)The spread of false information could be prevented if people stopped sharing scientific newsheadlines.