有聲英文閱讀-為什么女孩不能像男孩那樣考慮問題

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Why Don't Girls Think Like Boys?

Do you believe that only boys do well in science? Does it seem to you that girls have better vocabularies 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, but here are the facts.
On the average, males score higher on tests that measure mathematical reasoning, mechanical ability, and problem-solving skills. Females show superior ability in tests measuring vocabulary, spelling, and memory. But these differences will probably not always exist. In the future, a person's abilities may not be determined by sex. As one scientist says, "Nothing is impossible for a person to be or do."
In several recent studies, young babies have been observed and tested to discover how different abilities are developed. A scientific team headed by Jerome Kagan, a psychologist at Harvard University, is studying the thinking ability of children 11 1/2 months old. The test is a simple one. The baby, while seated on its mother's lap, watches a "show" on a small theater stage.
In act 1 of the show, an orange-colored block is lifted from a blue box and moved slowly across the stage. Then it is returned to the box. This is repeated six times. Act 2 is similar, except that the orange block is smaller. Baby boys do not seem to notice the difference in the size of the block, but girls immediately become excited and begin to make noises that sound like language. They seem to be trying to talk.
It is known that bones, muscles, and nerves develop faster in baby girls. Usually, too, baby girls talk at an earlier age than boys do. Scientists think there is a physical reason for this. They believe that nerves in the left side of the brain develop faster in girls than in boys. And it is this side of the brain that strongly influences an individual's ability to use words, to spell, and to remember things.
By the time they start to school, therefore, little girls have an advantage that boys do not have. Girls are physically more ready to remember facts, to spell, and to read. These, of course, are skills that are important in elementary school.
But what have the boys been doing in the years before starting school? They have been developing something called aggression. An aggressive person has courage and energy. He feels strong and independent. He is often the first one to start a fight.
What produces aggression in little boys? It has long been assumed that aggression is caused by male hormones. Scientists today believe that male hormones are only part of the explanation, however. They say aggressiveness in boys is also caused by mothers.
A team of psychologists discovered this by placing mothers and their one-year-old babies in a room filled with toys. The room had a wall through which the scientists could observe what happened without being seen. They took notes on everything the mothers and babies did.
Here is a sample of those notes, taken during the observation of a baby boy and his mother:
"Baby leans against mother. Looks up at her. She speaks to him. She turns him around. He walks away, picks up toy cat. Goes to mother, drops cat, and leans against her. Looks up at her. She turns him around."
From such observations and from conversations with mothers, the scientists learned something about the treatment of baby boys and baby girls. While the mother keeps her daughter close to her, she trains her son to move away from her, to develop independence.
Consequently, it is easy to understand why little girls often perform school tasks better than boys, especially if the task requires sitting still, obeying commands, and accepting the teacher's ideas. A girl may pass easily through the first few grades. While boys of her age bring home low marks, the girl may easily get good grades. Girls seem to have "better brains" in school. Why, then, do so few girls become great scientists? Why is the most important thinking in adult society done by men?
According to scientists, the answer is aggression. Because boys are aggressive, they refuse to accept other people's solutions; they insist upon solving problems for themselves. Thus, while little girls are getting high marks in school for remembering what the teacher has told them, little boys are learning to think in more independent ways.
In the adult world, the aggressive person is usually the one who gets the big salary, the great responsibility, the powerful job. And since males are trained at an early age to be aggressive, males are more often chosen for key positions.
Many people believe this situation is wrong. They think women could be successful in science and industry if they were trained to be independent and problem-solving, as boys are.

您認為只有男孩才能在科學上有所建樹嗎？您覺得女孩駕馭詞匯的孩子比男孩強嗎？依您之見，是不是男孩才最擅長創(chuàng)造一些東西？按著《現(xiàn)代科學》上刊登的一篇文章的觀點，如果您對這些問題中的每個問題都回答說"是的，"那你就答對了。但是，這里舉出下列事實，足以證明也有例外的情況。
平均說來，每逢在測試數(shù)學推理、機械修理的能力，測試解決問題的技巧時，男性的總分總是高于女性。女性在測試詞匯量、拼寫能力、記憶力方面表現(xiàn)出優(yōu)越的才能。但是，很可能這些判別并不是永恒不變的。在將來，一個人各方面的才能并不是由性別來決定的。正如一位科學家所說的，"任何一個人只要你想成為一個什么樣的人，只要你想做某件事，都不是不能成功的。"
最近做了幾次調(diào)查研究，觀察并測試了很小的嬰兒，以便發(fā)現(xiàn)不同的能力是怎樣培養(yǎng)出來的。以哈佛大學的心理學家杰羅姆o卡根為首的科研組對一批11個半月大的嬰兒的思考能力進行了觀察。這種測試方法很簡單。讓嬰兒的坐在媽媽的大腿上，觀看一個小劇場的舞臺上的"表演"。
在第1幕的演出中，把一塊橙色的東西從一個藍色的箱子中拿了起來，然后慢慢地橫著從舞臺一邊移動到另一邊。然后再把它放回箱子里去。這樣重復做了六遍。這第2幕跟第1幕是相似的，除了那個橙色塊小了一點。小男嬰兒似乎沒注意到這個"塊"的大小有什么不同，可是女嬰?yún)s都立刻激動起來并發(fā)現(xiàn)了聽起來像是語言的聲音。似乎是她們要和人們說話。
眾所周知，女嬰的骨骼、肌肉和神經(jīng)都發(fā)育得比較快。大多數(shù)情況下，女嬰也比男嬰開始說話時間早。科學家們認為這是因為生理構造不同。他們認為女孩的腦的左側的神經(jīng)發(fā)育得比男孩快。正是腦的左側，才強有力地影響著一個人的用詞、拼寫和記事的能力。
因此，到了他們開始上學讀書時，小女孩就有著男孩所不具備的優(yōu)勢。女孩在生理上就更善于記事、拼寫和閱讀。當然，這一切在小學階段都是重要的技能。
但是在還沒有開始上學之前的幾年時間里，男孩子都在干些什么呢？他們都在逐漸養(yǎng)成一種被稱為"好侵犯人"的性格。一個慣于侵犯他人的人都有勇氣，有力氣。他覺得自己身強力壯，凡事自作主張，經(jīng)常是他，第一個挑起了打架。
是什么使小男孩產(chǎn)生了好侵犯人的性格？長期以來人們一直認為這種好侵犯人的性格是由于男性荷爾蒙引起的?？墒?，今天科學家們認為男性荷爾蒙只能說明一部分問題。科學家們說，男孩的侵略性也都是由母親培養(yǎng)出來的。
一組心理學家。把母親們和她們的一歲大的嬰兒都放在一個到處都擺著玩具的房間里，結果就發(fā)現(xiàn)了這一事實。這個房間保留有一面墻，通過這面墻科學家們在墻外能觀察到房間城所發(fā)生的一切情況，卻不能被房間里的人發(fā)現(xiàn)。他們對母親們和嬰兒們所做的一切都做了筆記。下面就是在觀察一個男嬰和他母親的過程中，記下的筆記中的一個片斷：
"嬰兒偎依著媽。（因為是速記，將虛詞盡量刪掉了--譯者注）。他抬頭看她。她跟他說話。她讓他轉(zhuǎn)過身去。他走開了，揀起一個玩具貓?；氐綃屇?，他把貓扔了。偎依著她。他抬頭看她。她又讓他轉(zhuǎn)過身去"。
從幾次這類的觀察中，從歷次同母親們的談話中，科學家們知道了對待男嬰和女嬰的不同方法。母親盡量讓她的女兒躲在自己懷里，可是她卻訓練她的兒子離開自己，去發(fā)展獨立自主的精神。
因而，這就很容易明白，為什么小女孩在完成學校布置的各項任務中，都比男孩做得好，特別是像要求靜靜坐在那里不動，服從命令聽指揮、接受老師的思想這樣的任務。每一個女孩上學后的頭兩三年級很容易就能通過考試關。女孩子很容易就能得到高分，而同齡的男孩拿回家的分數(shù)卻很低。在校讀書似乎是女孩的"腦子更好。"那么為什么，幾乎很少有女孩能成為偉大的科學家。為什么在成年人最重要的思想都是由男人提出來的？
根據(jù)科學家們的意見，答案就是"好侵犯他人"的性格。因為男孩都是好侵犯他人的，他們拒絕接受別人的決定。他們堅持要獨立自主地解決問題。就這樣，在小女孩因為能記住教師所講的話而得到高分的時候，而小男孩卻正在學習用更加獨立自主的方法去考慮問題。
在成年人中，凡好侵犯他人的人通常都是能得到很高的年薪，責任重大，大權在握的人。既然從小男性就被培養(yǎng)成好侵犯他人，上進心強，因而，男性也就更經(jīng)常地被選拔到關鍵的崗位上來。
許多人認為這種情況是錯誤的。他們認為假使婦女們也像男孩一樣受過要獨立要勇于解決問題這方面的訓練，那么，婦女在科學和其他行業(yè)中也會像男孩一樣取得成功的。