郭世軍

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.

一個(gè)男人走進(jìn)商店去買牛奶，出來的時(shí)候手上就拿著牛奶——僅僅只有牛奶。然而當(dāng)一個(gè)女人走進(jìn)同樣的商店去買牛奶，她買的不僅僅是牛奶，還有晚上做飯要用的雞蛋、檸檬。

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.

然后她還會(huì)想起要給兒子買帶到學(xué)校吃的食物，要買瓶酒和朋友一起喝，要給丈夫的外甥女買張生日賀卡。然后還要買早餐時(shí)喝的咖啡，買冰淇淋當(dāng)餐后甜點(diǎn)，還想起來要買寄賬單用的郵票，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.

這就是男性和女性在商店買東西時(shí)表現(xiàn)出的思維差異。

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，而女人會(huì)同時(shí)做好幾件事，這就叫做“多任務(wù)”思維。這個(gè)詞最近很流行。

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.

現(xiàn)在的科學(xué)研究支持關(guān)于男女思維差異的理論。一項(xiàng)最近的研究證實(shí)了我們一直以來的觀念——男女思維方式確實(shí)不一樣。

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.

賓夕法尼亞大學(xué)的科學(xué)家們研究了從8歲到22歲年齡段內(nèi)的949名研究對(duì)象的大腦圖像。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)男性的大腦在單個(gè)半球內(nèi)有更多的連接。然而在女性大腦中左半球和右半球之間有更多的連接和活動(dòng)。大腦的左半球被認(rèn)為是“理性思維”的半球，而右半球則是“創(chuàng)造性思維”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.

里賈納·維爾馬是賓夕法尼亞大學(xué)的一名教授。她也參與了這項(xiàng)報(bào)告。她說當(dāng)女人被要求去做一些困難的事情時(shí)，她們會(huì)用大腦的不同部分同時(shí)去思考。而男人一般只用一邊的大腦思考。

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.

結(jié)果就是男人一般都會(huì)直接地解決一個(gè)問題。他們大腦中的“理解”和“行動(dòng)”有著很強(qiáng)的關(guān)聯(lián)性。然而，女人在解決一個(gè)問題時(shí)，會(huì)使用大腦的其它部分，比如與“理性”有關(guān)系的部分和與“感受”有關(guān)系的部分。所以女人在尋找解決方法時(shí)并不那么直接。