phrases practice_Explain the Key phrases and practise Part IV Practice

Do you know that women’s brains are smaller than men’s?Normally the women’s brain weighs 10% less than men’s. Since research has shown that the bigger the brain, thecleverer the animal, men must be more intelligent(聪明的)than women. Right? Wrong. Men and women always score similarly on intelligencetests, despite the difference in brain size. Why? After years of study,researchers have concluded that it’s what’sinside that matters, not just the size of the brain. The brain is made up of “grey matter” and “whitematter”. While men have more of the white matter,the amount(数量)of “thinking” brain is almost the same in both men and women.

It has been suggested thatsmaller brain appears to work faster, perhaps because the two sides of thebrain are better connected in women. This means that little girls may learn tospeak earlier, and that women can understand sorts of different information atthe same time. When it comes to talking to the boss on the phone, cookingdinner and keeping an eye on the baby all at the same time, it’s women who come out on top every time.

There are otherimportant differences between two sexes(性别).As white matter is the key to spatial(空间的)tasks,men know better where things are in relation to other things. “A great footballer always knows where he is in relation to theother players, and he knows where to go,”says one researcher. That may explain one of life’sgreat mysteries: why men refuse to ask for directions …and women often need to!

The differencesbegin when fetuses(胎儿)are about nine weeks old, whichcan be seen in the action of children when they are very young. A boy would tryto climb a barrier before him or push it down while a girl would ask for helpfrom others. These brain differences also explain the fact that more men takeup jobs that require good spatial skills, while more women speech skills. Itmay all go back to our ancestors, among whom women needed speech skills to takecare of their babies and men needed spatial skills to hunt, according to oneresearch.

1.Which of the following is TRUE according toParagraph 1?

A. Grey matter controls thinkingin the brain.

B. Men’sbrain is 10% less than women’s.

C. Grey matter plays the samerole as white matter.

D. Men and women have the sameamount of white matter.

2.What can you infer from Paragraphs 2 and 3?

A. Men have weaker spatial abilities.

B. Women do not need to telldirections.

C. Women prefer doing many thingsat a time.

D. Women do many jobs at a timebetter than men.

3.What can you learn from Paragraph 4?

A. Our children needed morespatial skills.

B. Women may have more feelingsthan men.

C. Young boys may be strongerthan young girls.

D. More women take up jobsrequiring speech skills.

4. The passage is mainly about _______.

A. ways of being more intelligent

B. differences between men andwomen

C. studies on brains between twosexes

D.studies on white matter and grey matter