Question

New research, attempting to throw light upon how male and female brains differ, has found that timing is everything. American Vanderbilt University researchers Stephen Camarata and Richard Woodcock discovered that females have a significant advantage over males in timed tests and tasks. The study involved more than 8,000 males and females ranging in age from 2 to 90 from across the US.

“We found hardly any differences in overall intelligence. But we discovered that females performed better than men in time limited situations,” Camarata said, “It is very important for teachers to understand this difference in males and females when it comes to assigning work and tests.”

Many males can do a better job without strict time limits, added Camarata.

“Consider that many classroom activities, including testing, are directly or indirectly related to processing speed,” the researchers wrote in their report. “The higher performance in females may contribute to a classroom culture that favors females, not because of teacher bias(偏见)but because of inherent(与生俱来的)differences in gender processing speeds.”

The researchers found that males scored lower than females in all age groups in tests measuring processing speed. However, the study also found that males consistently outperformed females in some language abilities, such as identifying objects and knowing antonyms(反义词)and synonyms(同义词). The research contradicts the popular belief that girls develop all communication skills earlier than boys.

The researchers found no significant overall intelligence differences between males and females in any age groups.

“We believe there are fundamental differences in how male and female brains end up getting organized,” Camarata said, “Our next studies will give us some insight into where these processing differences are occurring.”

1.The new research referred to in the passage is intended to ________.

A. find whether age has something to do with people's intelligence

B. help teachers to assign work and arrange tests for students

C. find what's the differences between male and female brains

D. prove the differences in processing speed between males and females

2.The underlined word “outperformed” in the fifth paragraph probably means “________”.

A. to achieve better results than someone

B. to perform worse in some aspect than someone

C. to do something as well as someone

D. to be not so good at something as someone

3.People usually believe that ________.

A. there're hardly any differences between males' and females' overall intelligence

B. teachers favor girl students instead of boy students in schools

C. girls develop their language skills earlier than boys

D. females have a significant advantage over males in all subjects

4.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A. The researchers interviewed more than 8,000 males and females all over the world.

B. Generally speaking, males can do better jobs with strict time limits than females.

C. Females scored higher than males in any age groups in any situations.

D. The differences in gender processing speeds occur when people are born.

5.Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A. The researchers will continue to study how the gender differences in timing occur.

B. A female mathematician will make greater achievements than a male one.

C. School teachers have already known about these processing differences before.

D. If a girl has a higher processing speed than a boy, she must be more intelligent than him.

Answer

1.C

2.A

3.C

4.D

5.A

【解析】本文是一篇科教类说明文。主要围绕新研究试图揭示男性和女性大脑的差异，发现时机是决定一切的，两位研究人员发现，在时间测试和任务方面，女性比男性有着显著的优势，但在任何年龄段男性和女性之间没有显著的总体智力差异，这意味着男性和女性大脑的差异发生在出生前。接下来研究人员会研究差异发生的时间。

1.细节理解题。由“New research, attempting to throw light upon how male and female brains differ, has found that timing is everything. ”可知，新的研究试图揭示男性和女性大脑的不同之处。故选C。

2.词义猜测题。由倒数第三段“However, the study also found that males consistently outperformed females in some language abilities,”（然而，研究还发现男生在某些语言能力方面的表现还优于女性。），可推知outperformed意为“优于”，故选A。

3.细节理解题。由第五段“The research contradicts the popular belief that girls develop all communication skills earlier than boys.”可知，人们普遍认为女孩比男孩更早发展自己的语言技能。故选C。

4.推理判断题。由倒数第二段“The researchers found no significant overall intelligence differences between males and females in any age groups.和最后一段“We believe there are fundamental differences in how male and female brains end up getting organized,” Camarata said, “Our next studies will give us some insight into where these processing differences are occurring.”可以推测出，性别差异发生在人们出生时，故选D。

5.推理判断题。由最后一段中“Our next studies will give us some insight into where these processing differences are occurring.”可知，研究人员会继续研究性别差异发生的时间。故选A。

【名师点睛】

细节事实理解题主要考查考生对文章中某一些特定细节或文章的重要事实的理解能力。它一般包括直接理解题和语义理解题两种。直接理解题的答案与原文直接挂钩，从阅读材料中可以找到。此外，在阅读中可以使用定位法与跳读法解决细节理解题。定位法即根据题干和选项所提供的信息直接从原文中找到相应的句子(即定位)，然后进行比较和分析(尤其要注意一些同义转换)，从而找出正确答案。跳读法即根据题干和选项所提供的信息跳读原文，并找到相关的句子(有时可能是几个句子)或段落，然后进行分析和推理等，从而找出正确答案。

以本文为例，本题运用定位法：我们根据题干中“People usually believe that ...人们通常认为……”，其关键词是believe，从而直接定位到含有believe的同义词belief的句子——“The research contradicts the popular belief that girls develop all communication skills earlier than boys.”接着再看belief的内容：“that girls develop all communication skills earlier than boys.女孩比男孩更早发展自己的语言技能”，故选择C项。