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  3. That boys and girls—and men and women—are programmed by evolution to behave differently from one another is now widely accepted.

That boys and girls—and men and women—are programmed by evolution to behave differently from one another is now widely accepted.

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问题     That boys and girls—and men and women—are programmed by evolution to behave differently from one another is now widely accepted.  But which of the differences between the sexes are "biological", in the sense that they have been honed by evolution, and which are "cultural" or "environmental" and might more easily be altered by changed circumstances, is still fiercely debated.
    The sensitivity of the question was shown last year by an uproar at Harvard University. Larry Summers, then Harvard’s president, caused a storm when he suggested that innate ability could be an important reason why there were so few women in the top positions in mathematics, engineering and the physical sciences.
    Even as a proposition for discussion, this is unacceptable to some. But biological explanations of human behavior are making a comeback. The success of neo-Darwinism has provided an intellectual foundation for discussion about why some differences between the sexes might be innate. And new scanning techniques have enabled researchers to examine the brain’s interior while it is working, showing that male and female brains do, at one level, operate differently. The results, however, do not always support past clichés about what the differences in question actually are.
    Another behavioral difference that has borne a huge amount of scrutiny is in mathematics, particularly since Dr Summers’comments. The problem with trying to argue that the male tendency to systemize might lead to greater mathematical ability is that, in fact, girls and boys are equally good at maths prior to teenage years. Until recently, it was believed that males outperformed females in mathematics at all ages. Today, that picture has changed, and it appears that males and females of any age are equally good at computation and at understanding mathematical concepts. However, after their mid-teens, men are better at problem solving than women are.
    The question raised by Dr Summers does not get to the heart of the matter. Over the past 50 years, women have made huge progress into academia and within it. Slowly, they have worked their way into the higher echelons of discipline after discipline. But some parts of the ivory tower have proved harder to occupy than others. The question remains, to what degree is the absence of women in science, mathematics and engineering caused by innate, immutable ability?
    Innate it may well be. That does not mean it is immutable. A variety of abilities are amenable to training in both sexes. And such training works. Biology may predispose, but it is not necessarily destiny.
What does the word "honed" (Line 3, Paragraph 1) most probably mean?
选项 A、Started.
B、Determined.
C、Created.
D、Sharpened.
答案D
解析 此题考查考生根据上下文内容对词汇语义的理解能力。联系上下文，第一段开头就提出了进化决定了男人女人行为的不同。接下来提出争论的话题，哪些方面是由生物属性决定的，哪些方面是由“文化”或“环境”决定的。根据后面alter的用法，只有sharpen才能隐含对应alter“改变”的意思。
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