TEXT C
What's Right About Being Left-Handed
Imagine you are Alice, stepping through the looking glass. Suddenly everything is reversed. Doorknobs are on the wrong side of the door. The gearshift in your car is in the wrong place. Handles on can openers are on the wrong side and turn the wrong way.
Millions of people wake up every day in just such a predicament. They are left-handed and must face the built-in bias of a world designed for the right-handed majority. In a society of rights (from Anglo-Saxon right for "direct, upright, correct") and righteousness, the southpaw is left. (Anglo-Saxon left, for "weak") with leftovers and left-handed compliments.
Why we are left- or right-handed remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of science. We know that nearly two out of three lefties are male and that left-handedness runs in families. According to one study, almost half the offspring of two left-handed parents will be southpaws. The Scot-Irish family Kerr (from the Gaelic word for "left") produced so many left-handers that in 1470 the family built its castle's spiral stairways with a reverse twist to favor southpaw swordsmen.
On the other hand, heredity alone cannot explain lefties. At least 84 percent of them are born of two right-handed parents. And in 12 percent of genetically identical twins, one will be be right-handed, the other left.
Perhaps the greatest puzzle of all is not why some people are left-handed, but rather why so few are. In virtually every other species, from chimpanzees to chinchillas, roughly equal numbers of individuals will favor either the right or the left. However, scientists are trying to set things right, and they are beginning to gain insight into the many ways southpaws differ from "northpaws", by considering how their brains work.
Many of the circuits in the human central system operate through crossed laterality -- that is, the right hand is "wired" to the left side of the brain, and vice versa. In at least 95 percent of right-handers, the speech-language center is in the brain's left hemisphere. Yet only about 15 percent of left-handers are similarly hooked up, with speech controlled by the opposite, or right, hemisphere. According to Jerre Levy, a biopsychologist at Illinois' University of Chicago, about 70 percent of left-handers have speech controlled by the left side of the brain, while the remaining 15 percent have their language-control centers in both hemisphere.
Broadly speaking, the left side of the brain is thought by some scientists to process linear, logical information, while the right side tends more toward processing emotion and mood. This may be why lefties are at significantly higher risk of schizophrenia, phobias and manic-depression, and in one study were shown to be three times more likely to attempt suicide.
Southpaws can be more sensitive to a variety of drugs, too. Peter Irwin, a senior clinical research scientist at Sansoz Institute in East Hanover, New Jersey, found that, after taking such medications as aspirin, antidepressants, sedatives and antihistamines, lefties had greater changes in electrical activity in the brain than righties did. As if this weren't enough, southpaws, appear to be twice as prone to autoimmune diseases, including diabetes, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and myasthenia gravis.
With such liabilities, how have left-handers managed to survive at all? The good news is that there is a very high side to being a left. Camilla Benbow, associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University, surveyed students who scored in the top 100th of one percent in math on America's Scholastic Aptitude Test. She discovered that fully 20 percent of these math geniuses were left-handed-double the proportion of lefties in the population. Mensa, the high-I.Q. society, estimates that 20 percent of its members are left-handed.
Indeed, the ability to integrate what some researchers call the more "logical" left side of the brain and the more "intuitive" or "artistic" right side may have helped lefties excel.
Among history's most famous left-handed warriors were Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Joan of Arc and Napoleon (as well as his consort, Josephine). Michelangelo sculpted David holding, in his left hand, the sling used to slay Goliath. (The Bible makes note of some 700 lefties who could "sling stones at a hairbreadth and not miss.")
Though most people believe that handedness is a simple either/or proportion, this is incorrect. Chances are that you are more nearly ambidextrous than you realize. You can, for example, probably write quite well with your left hand even if you have always been right-handed.
To find our, take a large piece of paper, turned sideways, and pick up a pencil in each hand. With your right hand, slowly sign your name, and with your left hand match each movement in reverse, with both hands moving in opposite directions away from the paper's center. After a few tries, hold your left-handed reverse signature up to a mirror. You'll be surprised how much it resembles your forward right-handed writing.
For years, many lefties have felt they were targets of discrimination. But they have begun to assert their rights. In 1980, when part-time police officer Franklin W. "Woody" Winborn was fired in Riverside, Missouri, activists rallied to his cause. A southpaw, Winborn had refused to wear his gun holster on his right side. In Seattle, a postal clerk and lefty named Robert B. Green was told to follow the usual procedure of holding mail in the left hand and sorting with the right.
Winborn settled his case out of court, and Green was permitted to continue his left-handed sorting. Lefthanders International of Topeka, Kansas, took a keen interest in both protest. Its founder, Dean Campbell, asks, "Why must the left-handed live in a world designed to handicap us?" His group has issued a "Bill of Lefts", which asserts in part that "left-handers shall be entitled to offer their dominant hand in a handshake, salute or oath."
Says Campbell, smiling impishly, "If the right side of the body is controlled by the left side of the brain, and vice versa, then we left-handed people are the only ones in our right mind."
42. What is the most bewildering thing about the lefties?
A. Why are there so few left-handed people?
B. In what way do southpaws differ from northpaws?
C. Why are left-handed people smarter?
D. How have left-handers managed to survive?
正確答案是
43. Why are left-handed more likely to commit suicide?
A. They are often targets of discrimination.
B. There is a built in bias in the world designed for the right-handed majority.
C. The left-handers are more apt to process emotion and mood.
D. All of the above.
正確答案是
44. Why does Campbell say that "we left-handed people are the only ones in our right mind"?
A. He prides himself on being a left-hander because lefthanders usually have higher I.Q.
B. Because lefthanders have better control over their right side of the brain than the others.
C. Because left-handed people tend to be conceited and contemptuous.
D. Because the right side of the brain of the southpaw is acuter than the left side of the brain.
正確答案是
45. Which of the following statement can be inferred from the text?
A. The speech-language center is in the brain's left hemisphere.
B. Whether a person is right-handed or left-handed is not a clear-cut matter.
C. Lefthanders are more likely to outperform others if they can combine the "logical" and the "intuitive" side of the brain.
D. None of the above.
正確答案是
What's Right About Being Left-Handed
Imagine you are Alice, stepping through the looking glass. Suddenly everything is reversed. Doorknobs are on the wrong side of the door. The gearshift in your car is in the wrong place. Handles on can openers are on the wrong side and turn the wrong way.
Millions of people wake up every day in just such a predicament. They are left-handed and must face the built-in bias of a world designed for the right-handed majority. In a society of rights (from Anglo-Saxon right for "direct, upright, correct") and righteousness, the southpaw is left. (Anglo-Saxon left, for "weak") with leftovers and left-handed compliments.
Why we are left- or right-handed remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of science. We know that nearly two out of three lefties are male and that left-handedness runs in families. According to one study, almost half the offspring of two left-handed parents will be southpaws. The Scot-Irish family Kerr (from the Gaelic word for "left") produced so many left-handers that in 1470 the family built its castle's spiral stairways with a reverse twist to favor southpaw swordsmen.
On the other hand, heredity alone cannot explain lefties. At least 84 percent of them are born of two right-handed parents. And in 12 percent of genetically identical twins, one will be be right-handed, the other left.
Perhaps the greatest puzzle of all is not why some people are left-handed, but rather why so few are. In virtually every other species, from chimpanzees to chinchillas, roughly equal numbers of individuals will favor either the right or the left. However, scientists are trying to set things right, and they are beginning to gain insight into the many ways southpaws differ from "northpaws", by considering how their brains work.
Many of the circuits in the human central system operate through crossed laterality -- that is, the right hand is "wired" to the left side of the brain, and vice versa. In at least 95 percent of right-handers, the speech-language center is in the brain's left hemisphere. Yet only about 15 percent of left-handers are similarly hooked up, with speech controlled by the opposite, or right, hemisphere. According to Jerre Levy, a biopsychologist at Illinois' University of Chicago, about 70 percent of left-handers have speech controlled by the left side of the brain, while the remaining 15 percent have their language-control centers in both hemisphere.
Broadly speaking, the left side of the brain is thought by some scientists to process linear, logical information, while the right side tends more toward processing emotion and mood. This may be why lefties are at significantly higher risk of schizophrenia, phobias and manic-depression, and in one study were shown to be three times more likely to attempt suicide.
Southpaws can be more sensitive to a variety of drugs, too. Peter Irwin, a senior clinical research scientist at Sansoz Institute in East Hanover, New Jersey, found that, after taking such medications as aspirin, antidepressants, sedatives and antihistamines, lefties had greater changes in electrical activity in the brain than righties did. As if this weren't enough, southpaws, appear to be twice as prone to autoimmune diseases, including diabetes, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and myasthenia gravis.
With such liabilities, how have left-handers managed to survive at all? The good news is that there is a very high side to being a left. Camilla Benbow, associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University, surveyed students who scored in the top 100th of one percent in math on America's Scholastic Aptitude Test. She discovered that fully 20 percent of these math geniuses were left-handed-double the proportion of lefties in the population. Mensa, the high-I.Q. society, estimates that 20 percent of its members are left-handed.
Indeed, the ability to integrate what some researchers call the more "logical" left side of the brain and the more "intuitive" or "artistic" right side may have helped lefties excel.
Among history's most famous left-handed warriors were Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Joan of Arc and Napoleon (as well as his consort, Josephine). Michelangelo sculpted David holding, in his left hand, the sling used to slay Goliath. (The Bible makes note of some 700 lefties who could "sling stones at a hairbreadth and not miss.")
Though most people believe that handedness is a simple either/or proportion, this is incorrect. Chances are that you are more nearly ambidextrous than you realize. You can, for example, probably write quite well with your left hand even if you have always been right-handed.
To find our, take a large piece of paper, turned sideways, and pick up a pencil in each hand. With your right hand, slowly sign your name, and with your left hand match each movement in reverse, with both hands moving in opposite directions away from the paper's center. After a few tries, hold your left-handed reverse signature up to a mirror. You'll be surprised how much it resembles your forward right-handed writing.
For years, many lefties have felt they were targets of discrimination. But they have begun to assert their rights. In 1980, when part-time police officer Franklin W. "Woody" Winborn was fired in Riverside, Missouri, activists rallied to his cause. A southpaw, Winborn had refused to wear his gun holster on his right side. In Seattle, a postal clerk and lefty named Robert B. Green was told to follow the usual procedure of holding mail in the left hand and sorting with the right.
Winborn settled his case out of court, and Green was permitted to continue his left-handed sorting. Lefthanders International of Topeka, Kansas, took a keen interest in both protest. Its founder, Dean Campbell, asks, "Why must the left-handed live in a world designed to handicap us?" His group has issued a "Bill of Lefts", which asserts in part that "left-handers shall be entitled to offer their dominant hand in a handshake, salute or oath."
Says Campbell, smiling impishly, "If the right side of the body is controlled by the left side of the brain, and vice versa, then we left-handed people are the only ones in our right mind."
42. What is the most bewildering thing about the lefties?
A. Why are there so few left-handed people?
B. In what way do southpaws differ from northpaws?
C. Why are left-handed people smarter?
D. How have left-handers managed to survive?
正確答案是
43. Why are left-handed more likely to commit suicide?
A. They are often targets of discrimination.
B. There is a built in bias in the world designed for the right-handed majority.
C. The left-handers are more apt to process emotion and mood.
D. All of the above.
正確答案是
44. Why does Campbell say that "we left-handed people are the only ones in our right mind"?
A. He prides himself on being a left-hander because lefthanders usually have higher I.Q.
B. Because lefthanders have better control over their right side of the brain than the others.
C. Because left-handed people tend to be conceited and contemptuous.
D. Because the right side of the brain of the southpaw is acuter than the left side of the brain.
正確答案是
45. Which of the following statement can be inferred from the text?
A. The speech-language center is in the brain's left hemisphere.
B. Whether a person is right-handed or left-handed is not a clear-cut matter.
C. Lefthanders are more likely to outperform others if they can combine the "logical" and the "intuitive" side of the brain.
D. None of the above.
正確答案是