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Text Structure Common Assessment PracticeBeautiful BrainsMoody. Impulsive. Maddening. Why do teenagers act the way they do? Viewed through the eyes of evolution, their most irritating traits may be the key to success as adults.By David Dobbs, National Geographic, Oct. 2011Adapted from fine May morning not long ago my 17-year-old-son phoned to tell me that he had just spent a couple hours at the state police barracks. Apparently he had been driving "a little fast." What, I asked, was "a little fast"? Turns out this product of my genes and loving care had been flying down the highway at 113 miles an hour. "That's more than a little fast," I said.My son's high-speed adventure raised the question long asked by people who have wondered about the class of humans we call teenagers: What on Earth was he doing? Scientists ask, What can explain this behavior? But even that is just another way of wondering, What is wrong with these kids? Why do they act this way?In the late 20th century, researchers developed brain-imaging technology that allowed them to see the teen brain in detail. Our brains, it turned out, take much longer to develop than we had thought. This new information about the brain suggested both a simplistic, unflattering explanation for teens' maddening behavior and a more complex, positive explanation as well.Scans have shown that our brains undergo a massive reorganization between our 12th and 25th years. For starters, the brain's axons get up to a hundred times faster at sending and receiving information. Meanwhile, the most heavily used synapses grow stronger while the synapses that see little use begin to weaken. This synaptic pruning, as it is called, causes the brain's cortex, where we do much of our conscious and complicated thinking, to become more efficient. Taken together, these changes make the entire brain a much faster and more sophisticated organ. But at times, and especially at first, the brain does this work clumsily. The brain development revealed in the scans offers a simple explanation for why teens may do stupid things and upset their elders: They act that way because their brains aren't done! This view presents adolescents as "works in progress" with "immature brains." The story you're reading right now, however, tells a different scientific tale about the teen brain. Over the past five years or so, even as the work-in-progress story spread, a few researchers began to view recent brain findings in a brighter, more flattering light. The resulting view of the adolescent brain—call it the adaptive-adolescent story—paints the teen less as a rough draft than as a highly adaptable creature wired almost perfectly for the job of moving from the safety of home into the complicated world outside. This view will likely sit better with teens.To see past the dopey teenager and glimpse the adaptive adolescent within, we should look not at specific, sometimes startling, behaviors, such as skateboarding down stairways, but at the broader traits that are responsible for those acts. Let's start with the teen's love of the thrill. We all like new and exciting things, but we never value them more highly than we do during adolescence. Here we hit a high in what behavioral scientists call sensation-seeking: the hunt for the neural buzz, the jolt of the unusual or unexpected.Seeking sensation isn't necessarily impulsive [done without thought]. You might intentionally plan a sensation-seeking experience, such as a skydive or a fast drive. Impulsivity generally drops throughout life, starting at about age 10, but this love of the thrill peaks at around age 15. And although sensation-seeking can lead to dangerous behaviors, it can also lead to positive ones: The urge to meet more people, for instance, can create a wider circle of friends, which generally makes us healthier, happier, safer, and more successful. This positive aspect probably explains why seeking out the new, though it can sometimes kill the cat, remains a key trait of adolescent development. As Jay Giedd, a researcher in teen brain development puts it, the hunt for sensation provides the inspiration needed to "get you out of the house" and into new territory.Also peaking during adolescence (and perhaps upsetting elders the most) is risk-taking. We take more risks as teens than at any other time. This shows reliably in the lab, where teens take more chances in controlled experiments involving everything from card games to simulated driving. And it shows in real life, where the period from roughly 15 to 25 brings peaks in all sorts of risky actions with ugly outcomes. This age group dies of accidents of almost every sort at high rates. Most long-term drug or alcohol abuse also starts during adolescence.Are these kids just being stupid? That's the normal explanation: They're not thinking, or by the work-in-progress model, their puny developing brains fail them. Yet these explanations don't hold up. As Laurence Steinberg, a psychologist who specializes in adolescence, points out, even 14- to 17-year-olds—the biggest risk takers—use the same basic thinking strategies that adults do, and they usually reason their way through problems just as well as adults. And, like adults, says Steinberg, "teens actually overestimate risk."So if teens think as well as adults do and recognize risk just as well, why do they take more chances? Teens take more risks not because they don't understand the dangers but because they weigh risk versus reward differently: In situations where risk can get them something they want, they value the reward more heavily than adults do.Some researchers believe this characteristic of believing the rewards are worth more than the risks involved has been selected for because, over the course of human evolution, the willingness to take risks during this period of life has created an adaptive edge. Being successful often requires moving out of the home and into less secure situations. This belief that rewards are worth more than the risks involved thus works like the desire for new sensation: It gets you out of the house and into new territory. The more you seek novelty and take risks, the better you do.Sensation-seeking, risk-taking . . . . These traits may seem to add up to nothing more than doing foolish new stuff with friends. Look deeper, however, and you see that these traits that characterize adolescence make us more adaptive. The move outward from home is the most difficult thing that humans do, as well as the most critical—not just for individuals but for a species. In scientific terms, teenagers can be a pain in the bum. But they are quite possibly the most adaptive human beings around. Without them, humanity might not have spread so quickly across the globe.Answer these questions about “Beautiful Brain” On Your Answer Sheet.1. (R.7.2) Which excerpt from “Beautiful Brain” best states the central idea of the text? A. “My son's high-speed adventure raised the question long asked by people who have wondered about the class of humans we call teenagers: What on Earth was he doing?” (Dobbs 2). B. “Over the past five years or so…researchers began [developing a different] view of the adolescent brain …[which] paints the teen less as a rough draft than as a highly adaptable creature wired almost perfectly for the job of moving from the safety of home into the complicated world outside” (Dobbs 5).C. “That's the normal explanation: They're not thinking, or by the work-in-progress model, their puny developing brains fail them” (Dobbs 9). D. “Being successful often requires moving out of the home and into less secure situations” (Dobbs 11). 2. (R.7.2) Which is NOT a detail the author of “Beautiful Brain” uses to develop his central idea? A. Teen brains are a work in progress and they take risks, because their brains haven’t fully developed. B. Moving away from home is a challenging but important for late teens/young adults. C. Teens take more risks than adults because they place more value on the reward associated with that risk.D. Risk-taking is a trait that shows how teens are adaptive. 3. (L.7.4.a) Based on the context in “Beautiful Brain,” which is the best synonym for “unflattering” in paragraph 3. A. uneasyB. unappealingC. unachievableD. unbiased4. (L.7.4.a) Based on the context in “Inside the Teenage Brain,” which is the best synonym for “impulsivity” found in paragraph 7. “ A. harmless behaviorB. humorous behaviorC. hurtful behaviorD. sudden behavior5. (R.I.7.5) Which statement best describes how the author structured “Beautiful Brains”?A. He presents a popular view on teen brain development that people use to explain teen behavior, then presents a different, less common view.B. He presents problems parents experience that are caused by teen brain development, then presents solutions for dealing with the problems.C. He presents the changes teen brains experience in chronological order, beginning with the first changes that occur and ending with the last changes that occur.D. He presents ways teen brains are similar to adult brains, then presents ways they are different and explains what these differences mean for parents.7. (R.I.7.5) Short Answer Question: Explain the text structure the author used to convey the main idea of paragraph 10. (This is exactly what we did on all the quizzes: The author used _______________ to show_________________________. 8. (RI.7.5) Extended Response Question: Identify the text structure the writer used to organize paragraph 1 of “Beautiful Brains.” Next, describe the purpose of this paragraph and how it contributes to the overall development of the article. ................
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