When women sit together to watch a movie on TV, at the same time they usually talk about a lot of subjects, including children, men, careers and what’s happening in their lives. When groups of men and women watch a movie together, the men usually end up telling the women to shut up. Men can either talk or watch the screen---they can’t do both---and they don’t understand that women can. Besides(此外), women think that the point of all getting together is to have a good time and develop relationships--not just to sit there like couch potatoes staring (盯著) at the screen.
During the ad breaks, a man often asks a woman to explain the plot(
the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc.) and tell him where the relationship between the characters is going. He is unable, unlike women, to read the small body language signals that show how the characters are feeling emotionally(情緒上). Since women originally spent their days with the other women and children in the group, they developed the ability to communicate successfully because they want to keep relationships. For a woman, speech continues to have such a clear purpose: to build relationships and make friends. For men, to talk is to connect to the facts.
Men see the telephone as a communication tool for sending facts and information to other people, but a woman sees it as a way of keeping relationship. A woman can spend two weeks on vacation with her girlfriend and, when she returns home, telephone the same girlfriend and talk for another two hours.
There is no convincing(令人信服的)evidence that social conditioning, the fact that girls’ mothers talked them more, is the reason why girls talk more than boys. Psychiatrist Dr. Michael Lewis, author of
Social Behaviour and Language Acquisition, conducted experiments that found mothers talked to and looked at baby girls more often than baby boys. Scientific evidence shows parents reply to the brain differences of their children. Since a girl’s brain is better organized to send and receive speech, we talk to them more. As a result, mothers who try to talk to their sons are usually pointed to receive only short complaints in reply.
小題1:While watching TV with others, women usually talk a lot because they ___________.
| A．are afraid of silence with their families and friends |
| B．can both talk and watch the screen at the same time |
| C．think they can have a good time and develop relationships |
| D．have to explain the plot and body language to their husbands |
小題2:After a vacation with her girlfriend, a woman would talk to her again on the phone for hours so as to ___________.
| A．experience the happy time again |
| B．keep a close tie with her |
| C．recommend her a new wonderful place |
| D．remind her of something forgotten |
小題3:What does the writer want to tell us most?
| A．Women’s brains are better organized for language and communication. |
| B．Women love to talk because they are more sociable than men. |
| C．Men do not like talking because they believe more in facts. |
| D．Social conditioning is not the reason why women love talking. |
小題4:Which of the following would be the BEST title for the passage?
| A．Women Are Socially Trained to Talk |
| B．Talking Keeps Relationships |
| C．Women Love to Talk |
| D．Men Talk Differently from Women |
)of our lives in sleep. That’s about 121 days a year!
