Enjoy Rendering!: Сборник текстов для перевода и реферирования. Батурина С.А. - 9 стр.

        2. Answer the following questions.                                                            Dyed in the Womb
        1) What is the article about?
        2) In what countries can one be taught modern calligraphy?                 A lesbian's sexual identity seems to be established before her
                                                                            birth. Men and women blink differently when startled . That simple and
        3) What calligraphic styles does the author of the article men-
                                                                            well-established observation has led Qazi Rahman of the University of
tion?
                                                                            East London, in England, and his colleagues to evidence supporting the
      4) Can we say that the art of calligraphy has been developing?
                                                                            idea that homosexuality is a characteristic which people are born with,
      5) What does the author tell us about the best modern calligra-       rather man one they acquire as they grow up .The team's research, just
phers?                                                                      published in Behavioral Neuroscience, shows that lesbians blink like
                                                                            heterosexual men. That, in turn, suggests that the part of their brain that
        3. Summary.                                                         controls this reflex has been masculinised in the womb.
        In this article the author describes calligraphy, an art which is          Anyone who is startled by an unexpected noise tends to blink. If,
still alive. There are traditional calligraphic forms, based on Chinese,    however, the startling noise is preceded by a quieter sound, this blink is
Roman and Arabic scripts, and modern as well. Modern calligraphic           not so vigorous as it would otherwise have been. It is this lack of vig-
masterpieces in Japan can be compared with Picasso painting (the au-        our which differs between the sexes. Men blink less vigorously than
thor describes “Nesting Crane”). The article contains basic features of     women when primed in this way.
Western and Arabic, Christian and Islamic calligraphy and considers                Given such a clear and simple distinction, testing the responses
calligraphic art in its development. The best modern calligraphers in       of homosexuals to noise seemed an obvious experiment to do. So Dr
the west are as powerfully painterly as their old brothers.                 Rahman and his colleagues did it. Their subjects, men and women, gay
                                                                            and straight, were sat down one by one in a dimly lit room. The mus-
                                                                            cles that cause blinking were wired up with recording electrodes, and
                                                                            the subjects were fitted with headphones through which the sounds
                                                                            (sometimes a single startling noise, and sometimes a combination of
                                                                            soft and loud) were fed.
                                                                                   In the latter case, as compared with the former, straight men had
                                                                            blinks that were 40 % less vigorous. In the case of straight women the
                                                                            drop was 13 %. Lesbians dropped 33 % which, statistically, made them
                                                                            more similar to straight men than straight women. Gay men were also
                                                                            intermediate, although in their case the difference was not statistically
                                                                            significant. Even in this apparently trivial matter, it seems, lesbians
                                                                            have male-like brains. So what is going on?
                                                                                   By default, people are female. Without influence of testosterone
                                                                            in the womb, a fetus will develop into a girl. The way testosterone acts
                                                                            to turn a fetus male is still poorly understood. It seems likely, though,
                                                                            that different organs respond independently to the hormone, and may
                                                                            do so at different times. Hormonal surges at critical moments could
                                                                            thus cause particular organs in an otherwise female body to become
                                                                            "male". (A lull in hormone products might have the opposite effect.) If
                                                                            the organ concerned is the brain, the result is more male-like behaviour

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