At present, schooling and testing discriminate against both sexes, ignoring differences that have been observed by parents and educators for years. Boys suffer in primary-school 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.
Typically, such differences are explained on a cultural basis. Boys are expected to be more aggressive and play rough games, while girls are presumably encouraged 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 eliminated, most of these differences would eventually disappear.
Evidence from recent brain research suggests that some behavioral differences between men and women are based on differences in brain functioning that are biologically inherent and unlikely to be changed by cultural factors alone. One clue to brain differences came from observations of infants. One study found that from shortly after birth, females are more sensitive to certain types of sounds, particular to a mother's voice. Females are generally more attentive to social contexts - faces, speech patterns, subtle voice cues.
Boys, in contrast, show an early visual superiority. They are also clumsier, performing poorly at tasks like arranging a row of beads, but excel at activities calling on total body co-ordination. Their attentional mechanisms are also different. A boy will react to an inanimate object as quickly as he will to a person. A male 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. These findings are controversial, but they could hold the key to helping us establish true social equity.
1. The author includes the second paragraph in order to
(A) propose the theory which is later developed in the passage
(B) suggest a new theory which is worthy of research
(C) propose a solution to an age-old problem
(D) introduce a prevalent theory that will later be contradicted
(E) introduce two ideas in order to dispute them later
2. The author's aim in the passage is to?
(A) illustrate the findings of recent research in the context of conventional wisdom.
(B) Suggest reasons why the mental capabilities of one sex are better than those of the other.
(C) Explain why the different sexes perform differently in various professions.
(D) Comment upon methods of rearing children that encourage sexual stereotyping.
(E) Propose a solution to a problem that has been prevalent over many Years.
3. Which of the following would form the best continuation to the passage?
(A) A report on several different methods of raising babies without projecting stereotypes
(B) A description of some of the sexual stereotypes that have been prevalent in the past few decades
(C) an outline of how schooling and testing methods should be adapted in light of the findings of recent brain research
(D) A detailed neurological discussion of the differences in brain structure between the two sexes
(E) A discussion of how inherent differences in perceptions of the two sexes may influence parenting
参考答案：DAC
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发表于 2021-10-27 23:06:42
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