(单词翻译:单击)
讲座试题
Now listen to the following recording and answer questions 23 to 25
23
A.Brains usually contain both male and female traits.
B.All parts of the brain show sex differences.
C.Men and women rarely think in the same way.
D.Men and women have totally different brains.
24
A.The sex.
B.The social status.
C.The characteristics.
D.The income.
25
A.Men and women have different brain structures.
B.Some parts of the human brain show sex differences.
C.Men's and women's brains are distinctly different.
D.Sex has important influences on brain function.
讲座文本
Scientists have long held that there are differences between men's and women's brains. The Tel Aviv team wanted to find out if those differences are significant enough to create two distinctly different types of brain, just as there are distinctly male and female reproductive organs.
"To answer this question, we looked at over 1,400 brains from different samples," said Daphna Joel, who heads the psychobiology program at Tel Aviv University. "In each sample, we determined the regions showing the largest differences, and then we asked whether these differences can make sure the subject is on the female end or on the male end, and what we found is that this is very rare."
(23) The researchers determined that specific parts of the brain do show sex differences, but an individual brain rarely has all "male" or all "female" traits.
So what are the social reflections of the findings? (24) Joel suggests that we should try to move from the language categorizing people according to their sex toward the language treating everyone according to their specific characteristics and interests. "It means that our assumption that people come in two types, male nature and female nature, which has no scientific basis and people are very different from each other," she said.
(25) While most scientists agree that brains contain varying mixtures of male and female traits, many say that prevailing evidence proves that sex has an important influence on brain function.
Mental health experts, for example, argue that exploring biological differences between male and female brains may help answer questions such as why men are more likely than women to develop autism, while women are more likely to suffer from depression. They say more study is needed to determine in what way and to what extent one's sex influences the brain.
23. What does the Tel Aviv team find out?
24. What should be used for categorizing people according to Joel?
25. What does the prevailing evidence prove?
长期以来，科学家一直认为男性的大脑和女性的大脑是不同的。特拉维夫市的研究团队想要找出这些差异是否大到可以区分出两种完全不同的大脑，就如同男性和女性拥有完全不同的生殖器官。
“为了回答这个问题，我们研究了1400个大脑样本。”特拉维夫大学精神生物学项目的领导人，达芙娜·约珥说，“我们对每一个样本大脑的最大差异划定范围，然后根据这些差异判别大脑属于男性还是女性，但实际情况往往是无法做出判定。”
研究人员发现，大脑中的特定区域的确呈现出了性别差异，但是个体的大脑几乎不可能只具备男性或女性特征。
那么这些发现的意义是什么？约珥表示，我们不能按照性别来划分人群，而是应该根据人类特有的个性和兴趣来区分。“也就是说，我们假设人类分为男性和女性，这是没有科学依据的，人与人之间差距很大”，她说。
虽然大多数科学家都认可，大脑包是男性和女性大脑特征的多种组合可能，但很多人表示一些研究成果证明性别对大脑的功能起重要影响。
例如，心理健康专家认为探索男性和女性大脑差异或许可以帮助回答一些问题。例如，为什么男性比女性更容易患孤独症，而为什么女性比男性更容易抑郁。科学家们还需要更多研究来确定性别是如何影响大脑，影响到什么程度。
问题23 特拉维夫大学这一研究小组发现了什么？
问题24 根据约珥所说的，应该用什么来划分人群？
问题25 研究成果证明了什么？
译文属可可原创，仅供学习和交流使用，未经允许不得转载
习题答案解析
参考答案：
【小题23】A
【小题24】C
【小题24】D
习题解析：
【小题23】听力原文中提到 The researchers determined that specific parts of the brain do show sex differences, but an individual brain rarely has all male or all female traits.由此可知，Tel Aviv 团队的研究人员发现，大脑中的特定区域的确呈现出了性别差异，但是个人的大脑很少只有男性或者女性的特征，由此可知，大脑通常都既包含男性的特征，也包含女性的特征，故选 A。
【小题24】听力原文明确提到 Joel suggests that we should try to move from the language categorizing people according to their sex toward the language treating everyone according to their specific characteristics and interests.所以 Joel 的观点是应该根据人们的性格和兴趣特征来对他们进行分类，故选项 C 为答案。选项 A 在文中也有出现，但应注意选项 A 的观点是演讲者反驳的观点。
【小题25】听力原文中明确提到 many say that prevailing evidence proves that sex has an important influence on brain function，所以，大量的证据表明性别对大功成有重要影响，故选项 D 为答案。听力原文最后提到要确定性别如何影响大脑和影响到什么程度，还需要进行更多研究，由此可排除选项 B 和 C。选项 A 不符合常识，男女大脑结构是相同的。
