6．
阅读理解
Do you believe that only boys do well in
science? Does it seem that girls have better language skills than boys? In your
opinion, are boys better at building things? If your answer to each of those
questions is" Yes", you are right, according to an article in Current
Science. There are exceptions(例外),but here are the
facts.
Usually, boys score higher in tests about
math, while girls do better in tests about words, spelling and memory. But
these differences may not always be true. In the future, a person's abilities
may not be decided by sex. As one scientist says, "Nothing is impossible
for a person to be or do."
A recent study by Jerome Kagan, a scientist
at Harvard University is studying the watching ability of children who are 10
months old. Baby boys and baby girls are watching "show" while seated
on their mothers' laps. In Act One of the show, an orange-colored ball is
lifted from a blue box and moved slowly. Then it is returned to the box. This is
repeated six times. Act Six is almost the same, except that the orange ball is
smaller. Baby boys do not seem to notice the difference in the size of the
ball, but girls immediately become excited and begin to make noises that sound
like language.
It's also known that baby girls usually talk
at an earlier age than baby boys do. Scientists believe that the left side of
the brain develops faster in girls than in boys. As a result, by the time they
start to go to school, little girls have an advantage that boys don't have, but
what have the boys been doing in the years before starting school? They have
been developing something called aggression. An aggressive person feels
strong and independent. He is often the first one to start a fight. It is said
that aggression is caused by hormones(荷尔蒙). Scientists
believe that hormones are not the only cause. They say aggression in boys is
also caused by mothers.
