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1、The Other Difference Between Boys and Girls Richard M.Restak 1.There is no denying it:Boys think differently from girls.Even though recent brain research evidence is controversial,that conclusion seems inescapable.I know how offensive that will sound to feminists and others committed to overcoming s
2、exual stereotypes.But social equality for men and women really depends on recognizing these differences in brain behavior.2.At present,schooling and testing discriminate against both sexes,ignoring differences that have been observed by parents and educators for years.Boys suffer in elementary schoo
3、l classrooms,which are ideally suited to the way girls think.Girls suffer later,when they must take scholarship tests that are geared for male performance.3.Anyone who has spent time with children in a playground or school setting is aware of differences in the way boys and girls respond to similar
4、situations.For example,at a birthday party for five-year-olds,its not usually the girls who pull hair,throw punches,or smear each other with food.4.Typically,such differences are explained on a cultural basis.Boys are expected to be more aggressive and play rough games,while girls are presumably enc
5、ouraged to be gentle and non-assertive.After years of exposure to such expectations,the theory goes,men and women wind up with widely varying behavioral and intellectual repertoires.As a corollary,many people believe that if child-rearing practices could be equalized and sexual stereotypes eliminate
6、d,most of these differences would eventually disappear.The true state of affairs is not that simple.5.Undoubtedly,many differences traditionally believed to exist between the sexes are based on stereotypes.But evidence from recent brain research indicates that some behavioral differences between men
7、 and women are based on differences in brain functioning that are biologically inherent and unlikely to be changed by cultural factors alone.6.One clue to brain differences between the sexes came from observations of infants.One study found that from shortly after birth,females are more sensitive to
8、 certain types of sounds,particularly to a mothers voice.In a laboratory,if the sound of a mothers voice is displaced to another part of the room,female babies react while males seem oblivious to the displacement.Female babies are also more easily startled by loud noises.7.Tests show girls have incr
9、eased skin sensitivity,particularly in the fingertips,and are more proficient at fine motor performance.Females are also generally more attentive to social contexts:faces,speech patterns,subtle vocal cues.By five months,a female can distinguish photographs of familiar people,a task rarely performed
10、well by boys of that age.At five to eight months,girls will babble to a mothers face,seemingly recognizing her as a person,while boys fail to distinguish between a face and a dangling toy,babbling equally to both.8.Girls can also sing in tune at an earlier age.In fact,if we think of the muscles of t
11、he throat of fine controlthose in which girls excelhen it should come as no surprise that girls exceed boys in language abilities,and this early linguistic bias often prevails throughout life.Girls read sooner,learn foreign languages more easily,and,as a result,are more likely to enter occupations i
12、nvolving language mastery.9.Boys are clumsier,performing poorly at something like arranging a row of beads,but excel at other activities calling on total body coordination.Their attentional mechanisms are also different.A boy will react to an inanimate object as quickly as he will to a person.A male
13、 baby will often ignore the mother and babble to a blinking light,fixate on a geometric figure,and,at a later point,manipulate it and attempt to take it apart.10.A study of preschool children by psychologist Diane McGuiness of Stanford University found boys more curious,especially in regard to explo
14、ring their environment.Her studies also confirmed that males are better at manipulating three-dimensional space.When boys and girls are asked to mentally rotate or fold an object,boys overwhelmingly outperform girls.“I folded it in my mind”is a typical male response.Girls are likely to produce elabo
15、rate verbal descriptions which,because they are less appropriate to the task,result in frequent errors.11.In an attempt to understand the sex differences in spatial ability,electoencephalogram(EEG)measurements have recently been made of the accompanying electical events going on wihtin the brain.Ord
16、inarily,the two brain hemispheres produce a similar electical background that can be measured by an EEG.When a person is invlved in a mental tasksay,subtaraccting 73 from 102the hemisphere that is activated will demonstrate a change in its electical background.When boys are involved in tasks employi
17、ng spatial concepts,such as figuring out mentally which of three folded shapeds can be made from a flat,irregular piee of paer,the right hemisphere is activated consistently.Girls,in contrast,are more likely to activate both hemispheres,indicating that spatial ability is more widely dispersed in the
18、 female brain.12.These differences in brain organization and specialization are believed by some scientists to provide a partial explanation of why members of one sex or the other are under-represented in certain professions.Architects,for example,require a highly developed spatial sense,a skill fou
19、nd more frequently among men.Thus,the preponderance of male architects may be partially caused by the more highly developed spatial sense that characterizes the male brain.13.Psychological measurements of brain functioning between the sexes also show unmistakable differences.In eleven subtests of th
20、e most widely used general intelligence test,only two reveal similar mean scores for males and females.These sex differences are so consistent that the standard battery of this intelligence test now contains a masculinity-femininity index to offset sex-related proficiencies and deficiencies.14.Most
21、thought-provoking of all are findings by Eleanor Maccoby and Carol Nagy Kacklin of Stanford University on personality traits and intellectual achievement.They found that intellectual development in girls is fostered among individuals who are assertive and active,and have a sense that they can contro
22、l,by their own actions,the events that affect their lives.These factors appear to be less important in the intellectual development of boys.15.Recent studies even suggest that high levels of intellectual achievement are associated with cross-sex typing:the ability to express traits and interests ass
23、ociated with the opposite sex.Educational psychologist E.P.Torrance of the University of Georgia suggests that sexual stereotypes are a block to creativity,since creativity requires sensitivity a female trait as well as independence a trait usually associated with males.M.P.Honzik and J.W.McFarlane
24、of the University of California at Berkeley support Torrances speculation with a 20-year follow-up on subjects who demonstrated significant IQ gains.Those with the greatest gains displayed less dependence on traditional sex roles than those whose IQs remained substantially the same.16.In essence,int
25、ellectual performance is incompatible with our stereotype of femininity in girls or masculinity in boys.17.Its important to remember that were not talking about one sex being generally superior or inferior to another.In addition,the studies are statistical and dont tell us a lot about individuals.Th
26、e findings are controversial,but they can help us establish true social equity.18.One way of doing this might be to change such practices as nationwide competitive examinations.If boys,for instance,truly excel in right hemisphere tasks,scholastic aptitude tests should be substantially redesigned to
27、assure that both sexes have an equal chance.Some of the tests now are weighted with items that virtually guarantee superior male performance.19.Attitude changes are also needed in our approach to“hyperactive”or“learning disabled”children.The evidence for sex differences here is staggering.More that
28、90 percent of hyperactives are males.This is not surprising since the male brain is primarily visual,while classroom instruction demands attentive listening.The male brain learns by manipulating its environment,yet the typical student is forced to sit still for long hours in the classroom.There is l
29、ittle opportunity,other than during recess,for gross motor movements or rapid muscular responses.In essence,the classrooms in most of our nations primary grades are geared to skills that come naturally to girls but develop very slowly in boys.The result shouldnt be surprising:a“learning disabled”chi
30、ld who is also frequently“hyperactive.”20.We now have the opportunity,based on the emerging evidence of sex differences in brain functioning,to restructure elementary grades so that boys find their initial educational contacts less stressful.At more advanced levels of instruction,teaching methods co
31、uld incorporate verbal and linguistic approaches to physics,engineering,and architecture(to mention only three fields where women are conspicuously under-represented).21.The alternative is to do nothing about brain differences.There is something to be said for this approach,too.In the recent past,en
32、hanced social benefit has usually resulted from stressing the similarities between people rather than their differences.We ignore brain-sex differences,however,at the risk of confusing biology with sociology,and wishful thinking with scientific fact.22.The question is not,“Are there brain-sex differ
33、nces?”but rather,“What is going to be our response to these differneces?”Consider the following questions:1.What is the main thesis of this essay?Can you find the thesis statement?2.What is the contributing thesis(main idea)supported by Paragraphs 5-13?3.What is the overal reasoning technique used i
34、n developing this contributing argument?4.What is the main idea of Para.8?What reasoning 5.What is the main idea of Para.11?How does the author support this main idea?6.What is the contributing thesis supported in Paragraphs 14-16?What reasoning technique is used?7.What is the contributing thesis supported in Paragraphs 17-21?What is the overal reasoning technique is used to support this thesis?8.How does the author wind up his essay?