Topic 1: Does increasing travels between countries enable people to learn different cultures or to

Topic 94: Do you think that parents should be punished if their five-year-old child 
commits a crime? From what age should children be held responsible for their own 
behaviors?
(imitate the way parents speak and behave), ( tell right from wrong);
(commit their guardianship), ( accountable for negligence) ;
(provide education), (provide parental guidance), (cultivate a child's value and behaviour), (pay a 
price for being neglectful parents)
(display aggression), (naughty),
Parents' intervention can heavily influence a child's personality and behaviour 
development. It is an interesting subject of discussion whether parents should be liable for 
their five-year-old child's law offending behaviour or even subject to punishment. In my 
viewpoint, parents must be held responsible.
Unlike adults, children break the law in the absence of either incentive or motive. Their 
acts are accidental and intuitive, signaling the accumulative effect of the environment where 
they grow up. Children informative years are particularly susceptible to whom they meet and 
what they see in their daily lives. For example, their violent acts are very likely to reflect a 
mixed effect of their repeated exposure to violence. Parents should therefore act as 
gatekeepers to prevent their children from watching TV and playing video games, thereby 
negating the influence of media. Once a child uses violence, it reveals that his or her parents 
have habitually failed to fulfill those duties. For this reason, parents should be accountable for 
their child's wrongdoing.
Another example to show parents' effect on their child's behaviour is that many parents 
fail to set a positive role model. More often than not, parents have their own behaviour 
problems (such as using violence in the face of their children). As children have a natural 
ability to imitate others, their violent or unlawful behaviour is potentially a replica of their 
parents'. That's why children with fine upbringing normally show their courtesy and 
professional etiquettes in coping with real-life problems, such as conflicts with others, while 
those children with poor upbringing are more likely to act violently. People are thus not 
surprised to see that many young delinquents had unhappy lives and felt discontented with 
their life circumstances in which they grew up.
In general, 18 is the age when an individual starts to be legally responsible for his or her acts. 
This is an age from which a child is ready to explore life him-or-herself and assumes life 
responsibilities. For the most part they are allowed to vote, drive, drink and smoke. They 
have sufficient experience, knowledge and competence for decision making and reaching 
moral conclusions.
In conclusion, parents should be subject to punishment when their children violate the 
law, in view of their tremendous influence on their child's behaviour. It is their inescapable 
responsibility until their child comes of age.
 
1. Liable=responsible=accountable
2. Subject to= exposed to
3. In the absence of=lacking
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4. Accidental=unintentional=unplanned=inadvertent
5. Intuitive=instinctive=spontaneous
6. Signal=indicator
7. Formative=impressionable
8. Gatekeeper =guardian=protector=custodian
9. Negate=counteract=reverse=wipe out
10. Courtesy=politeness
11. Discontented=dissatisfied=unhappy=displeased
12. For the most part=on the whole=principally
13. Inescapable=inevitable
14. Come of age=come to maturity=become an adult
 
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