男女思维大不同

郭世军

A man enters a store to buy milk. He walks out of the store with milk. That is all—milk. At the same time, a woman enters the same store also to buy milk. But, she also buys chicken and lemons to make dinner that night.

一个男人走进商店去买牛奶，出来的时候手上就拿着牛奶——仅仅只有牛奶。然而当一个女人走进同样的商店去买牛奶，她买的不仅仅是牛奶，还有晚上做饭要用的鸡蛋、柠檬。

Then she remembers to buy food for her son to eat at school. She also gets a bottle of wine for drinks with friends and a birthday card for her husbands niece1. Then she gets coffee for breakfast, ice cream for dessert2 and remembers stamps to mail the bills. And dont forget soap for the bathroom.

然后她还会想起要给儿子买带到学校吃的食物，要买瓶酒和朋友一起喝，要给丈夫的外甥女买张生日贺卡。然后还要买早餐时喝的咖啡，买冰淇淋当餐后甜点，还想起来要买寄账单用的邮票，以及洗澡用的香皂。

And that is the difference between the female and male brains simply explained in a grocery3 store.

这就是男性和女性在商店买东西时表现出的思维差异。

Generally speaking, men do one thing at a time. Women do many. Doing many things at one time is often called “multi-tasking”, a very popular word these days.

一般而言，男人一次只做一件事，而女人会同时做好几件事，这就叫做“多任务”思维。这个词最近很流行。

Now scientific research supports this theory about male and female brains. A recent study has confirmed4 what we have known all along—men and women think differently.

现在的科学研究支持关于男女思维差异的理论。一项最近的研究证实了我们一直以来的观念——男女思维方式确实不一样。

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania studied brain images of 949 people aged from 8 to 22 years old. They found that male brains have more connections5 on one side of the brain, or hemisphere6. In the female brain, they found more activity and connections between the right and left sides of the brain. The left side of the brain is known as the side of “reason”. The right hemisphere is known as the “creative” side.

宾夕法尼亚大学的科学家们研究了从8岁到22岁年龄段内的949名研究对象的大脑图像。他们发现男性的大脑在单个半球内有更多的连接。然而在女性大脑中左半球和右半球之间有更多的连接和活动。大脑的左半球被认为是“理性思维”的半球，而右半球则是“创造性思维”的半球。

Regina Verma is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She co-wrote the report. She says when women are asked to do something difficult they might use different parts of the brain. Men, she adds, generally use just one side of the brain.

里贾纳·维尔马是宾夕法尼亚大学的一名教授。她也参与了这项报告。她说当女人被要求去做一些困难的事情时，她们会用大脑的不同部分同时去思考。而男人一般只用一边的大脑思考。

As a result, men generally deal directly with a problem. There is a strong connection between the “understanding” and the “action” parts of their brains. Women, however, might include other parts of the brain, like the part connected with reason and the part connected with sensitivity7 when solving a problem. Women take a less direct path8 to find a solution.

结果就是男人一般都会直接地解决一个问题。他们大脑中的“理解”和“行动”有着很强的关联性。然而，女人在解决一个问题时，会使用大脑的其它部分，比如与“理性”有关系的部分和与“感受”有关系的部分。所以女人在寻找解决方法时并不那么直接。