1 在过去的几十年里，这样一个事实已经无数次地得到证实：构成男子的阳刚和女子的娇柔的各种不 同类型的行为、情感和兴趣是由遗传和文化熏陶共同塑造的。在成长过程中，每个孩子都学会了数以百 计的具体的行为举止。这些举止都带有文化的烙印，成为其性别特征的一部分。有些行为举止是直接学到 的。也就是说，是由别人教给孩子该如何恰如其分地行事, 男有男的规矩, 女有女的标准。另一些跟性别相 关的具体行为举止是无意识地或间接地学会的，因为文化为女孩和男孩提供了不同的性别形象、志向以及 成人榜样。
2 例如，最近对美国公立学校的一项研究显示，在教育中存在一种男孩比女孩更受偏爱的文化偏见。据 研究人员发现，这种偏爱是无意的、不知不觉的，但它确实存在，并且每年都在影响着数百万学生的生活。
为了研究教育中存在的性别偏见问题，戴维·赛德克博士和迈拉·赛德克博士夫妇录下了教师在课堂上上 课的情形。他们的研究显示，许多自认为无性别偏见的教师惊奇地发现，从录像带上看，他们竟是那么偏 心。从幼儿园到博士后的学习中，都可以看到教师们请男生回答问题的次数远比女生多。这对学习过程有 着巨大的影响，因为总的来说，那些课堂活动的积极参与者对学习持积极的态度，并能在今后取得更大的 成就。事实上，在20世纪60年代末期，美国东北部有许多所著名的女子学院向男生开放。教授们和女生们 都发现男生们正在“接管”课堂讨论，而女生们积极参与的程度则明显下降。近年来，在法学院和医学院 的课堂上也出现了类似的情况：女生的课堂表现不如男生。
3 赛德克夫妇的研究显示，教师有时会按照固有的性别模式给女生和男生布置不同的任务，这样便不 知不觉地使女生不能像男生一样积极地参与。例如，有位教师在给幼儿园的孩子上自然科学课时，总是 让小男孩去操作科学“实验”，而只让女孩做一些收拾实验材料的工作。既然使用课堂材料动手操作是早 期教育非常重要的一个方面，那么这些女孩就这样被剥夺了一种极其重要的学习经历，这可能会影响到 她们今后的整个人生。
4 美国教师中一个具有代表性的想法是，男孩擅长数学和自然科学，这些学科都是“难懂的”、“适合 男性的”，而女孩则在语言和阅读技能上比男孩强，这是教育中性别偏见的另一种表现。美国的男孩们确实 在阅读方面有问题，而在数学方面，女孩尽管在九岁以前一直比男孩强，但九岁以后却落在了男孩的后面，
这是预言自我应验的一个例子。然而，这些特征是由文化造成的，而非遗传的原因。例如，在德国，读书
38 Unit 3
学习都被看作是“适合男性的”，而且在阅读方面有问题的是女孩。而在日本，由于早期教育似乎没有性别 偏见，女孩和男孩在阅读上则旗鼓相当。
5 在教育过程中，对女孩和男孩的不同态度始于家庭。例如，有一项研究显示了这样一种情况，让学龄 前儿童看一张图片，图上有一座房子，当要他们说出父母允许他们走开多远时，男孩所指的范围要比女孩 大得多。女孩指出的范围很有限，而且离家很近。女孩们不像男孩们那样受到鼓励去发展求知欲和身体技 能，而这些正是与外部世界打交道时有用的；人们灌输给女孩们的是对外面世界的恐惧，企盼自己的“善 良”和循规蹈矩能得到认可。这类教诲从家庭一直延续到课堂。在课堂上常常可以看到女孩们更依赖教师，
更注重作业的形式和整洁而不是内容，更在乎她们给出的答案是否“正确”，而不在乎独立思维、分析能力 或创造能力。教育过程占据了孩子除睡眠以外的大部分时间，社会则通过这一过程加强了它固有的价值观，
并按照传统的、人们预期的模式造就了不同性别的人。
Exercises
Post-Reading
Reading Comprehension
1 1 Introduction (Para. 1)
It has been proven repeatedly that the various types of behavior, emotions, and interests that constitute being masculine and feminine are patterned by both heredity and culture.
2 There is a cultural bias in education that favors boys over girls. (Paras. 2-4) Supporting evidence:
A Teachers called on males in class far more than on female students. (Para. 2) i Its consequence: This has a tremendous impact on the learning process.
ii The reason for this: Active classroom participants develop more positive attitudes and go on to higher achievement.
iii Two examples:
a. In many of the former all-women’s colleges, the boys were “taking over” the classroom discussions and active participation by women students had diminished noticeably.
b. A similar subordination of female to male students has also been observed in law and medical school classrooms in recent years.
B Teachers assigned boys and girls different tasks according to stereotyped gender roles. (Para. 3) i Its consequence: This prevented girls from participating as actively as boys in class.
ii An example: A teacher had the little boys perform the scientific “experiment” while the girls were given the task of putting the materials away.
C Sex-biased education is also reflected in the typical American teacher’s assumption. (Para. 4) i Theassumption:Boyswilldobetterinthe “hard”, “masculine” subjects of math and
science while girls are expected to have better verbal and reading skills.
ii Three examples:
a. American boys do develop reading problems, while girls, who are superior to boys in math up to the age of nine, fall behind from then on.
39 Gender Differences
b. In Germany, all studies are considered “masculine”, and it is girls who develop reading problems.
c. In Japan, where early education appears to be non-sexist, both girls and boys do equally well in reading.
3 The educational bias begins at home. (Para. 5) A Supporting evidence:
i Boypreschoolerswere permitted to go away from home in a much wider area than girl preschoolers.
iiBoysareencouragedtodevelopintellectual curiosity and physical skills, while girls are filled with fears of the world outside the home and with the desire to be approved of for their “goodness” and obedience to rules.
B The consequence when these lessons carry over from the home to the classroom:
Girls are generally observed to be more dependent on the teacher, more concerned with the form and neatness of their work than its content, and more anxious about being “right” in their answers than in being intellectually independent, analytical, or original.
C Conclusion:
Through the educational process that occupies most of the child’s waking hours, society reinforces its established values and turns out each sex in its traditional and expected mold.
2 1 C 2 B 3 B 4 D 5 C 6 D 3 Sample
1 • Yes, I think so. As far as I know, many boy students in China tend to do better in math and science. It is fully demonstrated by the number of boy students who have won prizes in the International Science Olympiads and by the ratio of boy students to girl students in science and engineering departments in colleges and universities, though this is changing.
• I don’t think I can answer the question by a simple “yes” or “no”. With more girls receiving higher education and going to graduate schools, it won’t be difficult to find girls who are really good at math and science. As we can see in our university, there are quite a few female math professors and also female professors specialized in science and engineering. On the other hand, many boys are found to have developed excellent language and reading skills. However, it’s true that science and engineering departments have more boy students while departments of humanities have more girls. Anyway, if we compare the current numbers of boys and girls in these departments with the numbers in the past, we can find the trend is changing.
2 Chineseculturealsohasstereotypedgenderroles.Boysandgirlsaretaughtandexpectedto
behave differently both at home and at school. If they don’t fit into the traditional gender mold, girls are said to be like boys and boys like girls. The following are the ways that Chinese culture or education affects gender roles.
• Boysandgirlsareprovidedwithdifferentkindsoftoystoplaywith:dollsandprettythings
for girls while toy cars and guns for boys.
• Boysareexpectedtoplayoutdoorsandgirls,inmostcases,indoors.
• Girls are expected to be clean and neat, and well-dressed, while boys should be strong and tough, and can deal with difficulties.
40 Unit 3
• Males are expected to be better-educated than females and they should be more career-oriented to support the family, while females are expected to support their husbands. There’s an old saying “having no skills and intelligence is a virtue of women”.
• Women are expected to be quiet and shy while men are expected to be powerful and more aggressive.
• Women are expected to take good care of their children and do most of the housework while men are expected to be successful in their careers.
Vocabulary
1 1 genetic 2 assign 3 noticeably 4 approved 5 Bias
6 deprived 7 constituted 8 participation 9 unintentional 10 postgraduate 2 1 unconscious 2 discourage 3 indirectly 4 non-sexist 5 independent
6 negative 7 inferior 8 fair / unbiased 9 unlimited 10 inappropriately 3 1 C 2 D 3 A 4 E 5 B 6 C 7 F 8 B
Translation
1 Their study shows that sports skills carry over into personal life.
2 I find myself calling on the boys more often, because they tend to be the ones having trouble staying on task.
3 I used to have trouble getting all the laundry put away before it was time to do the next batch.
4 After her time in hospital, Jenny’s parents are afraid she has fallen behind academically.
5 People are wondering who’s going to take over when the old president dies.