v SPEAKING

Task 1. Read these three quotations. Which one would be more relevant to you? Why?

Ø That is the great distinction between the sexes. Men see objects; women see the relationships between objects. (John Fowles)

Ø In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman. (Margaret Thatcher)

Ø I believe all men, all women, regardless of race, gender, socio-economic background, you deserve the same rights. (Sophia Bush)

v STUDY SKILLS

Task 2. We take a scientific look at the battle of the sexes. Are men and women as different as we think?

MEN VERSUS WOMEN QUIZ

1. On average how many words a day do men and women say?
a) Men say 7,000 words a day, whereas women say 20,000 words a day.
b) Men say 10,000 words a day, women say 15,000 words a day but when they're pregnant it can increase to 20,000 words a day.
c) Roughly the same amount, 16,000 words per day.
d) Men say 20,000 words a day, women say 7,000 words a day.

2. Research has shown women have more powerful immune systems than men because…
a) Naturally produced oestrogen boosts women's inflammatory response to pathogens.
b) Higher levels of testosterone weaken men's inflammatory response to pathogens.
c) Women's immune systems have evolved better to protect them when they are pregnant.
d) Women don't get man colds.

3. A study has found women are more sensitive to male body odours than vice versa because…

a) Women naturally smell better than men.

b) Women can detect body odour better than men when the smell is being disguised.
c) Men are less sensitive than women to any odour that is being disguised.
d) Female odours are harder to disguise than male odours so men are more used to smelling them.

Studies have shown that women feel more pain than men. What is NOT a reason for this?

a) Women have lower pain thresholds than men.

b) Women use healthcare services more, so the reporting of female pain is higher.
c) Women have fewer nerve receptors than men, causing them to feel pain more acutely.
d) Women tend to focus on the emotional aspects of the pain whereas men focus on the sensory aspects.

5. The main difference between male and female brains is…
a) The male brain is 10 to 15 per cent larger.
b) The hippocampus, involved in short-term memory and spatial navigation (e.g. map reading), is proportionally larger in women.
c) The parietal cortex, involved in spatial perception, is proportionally larger in men' body.
d) All of the above.

Research indicates men are better map readers than women, but it also shows we use vastly different techniques to navigate. What effect does sexual orientation have on gay men's navigational strategies?

a) Gay men use compass directions to navigate, like straight men.

b) Gay men use landmarks to find their way around, like straight women.

c) Gay men use distances to navigate, like straight men.

d) Gay men use a mixture of male and female navigating techniques.

7. How does your gender affect the way you respond to jokes?
a) Men find more things funny than women do.
b) Women use parts of their brain involved in language processing more than men to decipher jokes.
c) Men have lower expectations of how funny a joke will be than women.
d) Men and women use completely different parts of their brain when reacting to jokes.

8. Pick the INCORRECT answer from these research findings about heterosexual infidelity…

a) Women are more likely to believe that men have sex when they are in love.
b) Men are more likely to have cheated on their partner than women do.
c) Women are more upset by emotional infidelity, whereas men are more upset by sexual infidelity.

d) Men are better than women at detecting when their partner has been unfaithful.

9. Why are men considered to be better at maths than women?
a) They have a greater innate mathematics ability.
b) It's a cultural belief, standardised testing shows no gender differences in maths performance.
c) Greater gender equality has led to greater disparity in maths performance.
d) Men have greater variability in their maths capabilities than women, thus leading to more men with very high maths skills.

10. What is NOT a reason that men usually die younger than women?
a) They age faster.
b) As they have to compete for female attention men have evolved to be more attractive to women at the expense of longevity.
c) As a member of a predominantly monogamous species men invest more energy in relationships.
d) They are more likely.

ANSWERS

1. Answer: c) Roughly the same amount, 16,000 words per day.

It may be a popular stereotype but research doesn't support the myth that women are more talkative than men. A study published in Science found there was no statistically significant difference between the amount of words spoken by male and female university students, although there were large variations between individuals in each group. Many other studies have found men talk more than women, particularly when speaking to strangers or in formal situations.

2. Answer: a) Naturally produced oestrogen boosts women's inflammatory response to pathogens.

We all have an enzyme called caspase-12 in our bodies, which can dampen our immune system's inflammatory response and make us more prone to infection. Oestrogen can block the production of this enzyme, which means that women's inflammatory response to infection can be stronger. The authors of the study that showed this effect, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, hope the finding could herald new treatments to strengthen the human immune system. Other studies have linked oestrogen to women's ability to store fat more efficiently than men.

3. Answer: b) Women can detect body odour better than men when the smell is being disguised.

While men and women have similar abilities when it comes to getting used to non-body odours, it is highly likely a woman will be able to smell a man's natural odour through any fragrance he is using to try and hide it. Scientists believe there may be an evolutionary basis for this. Our sweat contains a lot of biological information about us that could be important to women when choosing a mate.

4. Answer: c) Women have fewer nerve receptors than men causing them to feel pain more acutely.

Actually, women have more nerve receptors than men, averaging double the amount on the face alone, which causes them to feel pain more intensely. You would think the half of the species that has to go through childbirth would have a higher pain threshold but in fact research shows the opposite to be true. Women also experience pain more frequently than men, in more areas of the body and for longer periods. Men cope with pain better: focusing on the physical aspects of the pain helps increase their pain threshold and tolerance, whereas the strategy doesn't seem to help women. While the brain pathway that dampens pain is well known in men, it's been suggested than females use a different pathway. Cracking this brain circuit could provide us with better clues for treating female pain in the future.

5. Answer: d) All of the above.

Scientists are discovering many anatomical differences between male and female brains, including some you might not expect. The hippocampus, linked to spatial navigation, is bigger in women than men, whereas men have a proportionally larger amygdala, which is linked to emotional memory. While these findings might go some way to dispel a persistent myth or two, research also suggests that men and women use their brain in different ways which could help explain gender differences in response to the same stimuli.

6. Answer: d) Gay men use a mixture of male and female navigating techniques.

This is known as a cross-sex shift where homosexual people take on aspects of the opposite sex in some of their cognitive abilities. Interestingly while a study in Behavioural Neuroscience showed a "robust cross-sex shift" for gay men when they were navigating, lesbian women in the study read maps just like straight women and showed no cross-sex effects.

7. Answer: b) Women use parts of their brain involved in language processing more than men to decipher jokes.

While men and women can often laugh over the same joke, the way their brains respond to humour can be quite different. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that men and women used similar parts of their brains when responding to humour in cartoons, but the areas involved in language processing and working memory were more strongly activated in women. Women also showed a greater response in their mesolimbic reward centre, suggesting they had lower expectations of finding the jokes funny than men and so when a cartoon tickled their fancy they were more pleasantly surprised. But the research also has a serious side: if further studies confirm that women's brains are more sensitive to emotional stimuli than men's it could help in treating conditions like depression which is twice as common in women.

8. Answer: a) Women were more likely to believe that men have sex when they are in love.

In confidential questionnaires they may be reporting more affairs but research published in the journal Human Nature shows than men are also better at picking cheaters, even if this sometimes means they suspect their partners when they have been faithful. Scientists say there are good reasons for this male caution as men can never be sure children they are supporting are biologically theirs.

9. Answer: b) It's a cultural belief, standardised testing shows no gender differences in maths performance.

In fact in countries that have the greatest gender equality, gender disparity in maths performance doesn't exist at either the average or gifted level. Other studies suggest the reason there are not more women at the top levels of traditionally male fields is not because women are worse at these subjects, but because they are still underrepresented in these areas.

10. Answer: c) As a member of a predominantly monogamous species men invest more energy in relationships.

Many studies have shown that being a man is bad for your health. It starts in the womb: male foetuses are more fragile than female foetuses. Men are susceptible to more diseases than women, and they are more likely to die from accidents. Part of the reason could be due to our polygynous origins (i.e. a man having more than one female partner at a time). A study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B found that polygynous species have greater sex differences in aging due to male members of the species evolving to be more attractive to more mates at the expense of longevity.

v READING

Task 3. Read the text about the main concepts of the sexes and their socialized differences. Write down some interesting things you remember. Discuss the outcome together.