TEXT C 　 Whats Right About Being Left-Handed 　 Imagine you are Alice, stepping through the looking glass. Suddenly everything is reversed. Doorknobs are on the wrong side of the door. The gearshift in your car is in the wrong place. Handles on can openers are on the wrong side and turn the wrong way. 　 Millions of people wake up every day in just such a predicament. They are left-handed and must face the built-in bias of a world designed for the right-handed majority. In a society of rights (from Anglo-Saxon right for "direct, upright, correct") and righteousness, the southpaw is left. (Anglo-Saxon left, for "weak") with leftovers and left-handed compliments. 　 Why we are left- or right-handed remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of science. We know that nearly two out of three lefties are male and that left-handedness runs in families. According to one study, almost half the offspring of two left-handed parents will be southpaws. The Scot-Irish family Kerr (from the Gaelic word for "left") produced so many left-handers that in 1470 the family built its castles spiral stairways with a reverse twist to favor southpaw swordsmen. 　 On the other hand, heredity alone cannot explain lefties. At least 84 percent of them are born of two right-handed parents. And in 12 percent of genetically identical twins, one will be be right-handed, the other left. 　 Perhaps the greatest puzzle of all is not why some people are left-handed, but rather why so few are. In virtually every other species, from chimpanzees to chinchillas, roughly equal numbers of individuals will favor either the right or the left. However, scientists are trying to set things right, and they are beginning to gain insight into the many ways southpaws differ from "northpaws", by considering how their brains work. 　 Many of the circuits in the human central system operate through crossed laterality —— that is, the right hand is "wired" to the left side of the brain, and vice versa. In at least 95 percent of right-handers, the speech-language center is in the brains left hemisphere. Yet only about 15 percent of left-handers are similarly hooked up, with speech controlled by the opposite, or right, hemisphere. According to Jerre Levy, a biopsychologist at Illinois University of Chicago, about 70 percent of left-handers have speech controlled by the left side of the brain, while the remaining 15 percent have their language-control centers in both hemisphere. 　 Broadly speaking, the left side of the brain is thought by some scientists to process linear, logical information, while the right side tends more toward processing emotion and mood. This may be why lefties are at significantly higher risk of schizophrenia, phobias and manic-depression, and in one study were shown to be three times more likely to attempt suicide. 　 Southpaws can be more sensitive to a variety of drugs, too. Peter Irwin, a senior clinical research scientist at Sansoz Institute in East Hanover, New Jersey, found that, after taking such medications as aspirin, antidepressants, sedatives and antihistamines, lefties had greater changes in electrical activity in the brain than righties did. As if this werent enough, southpaws, appear to be twice as prone to autoimmune diseases, including diabetes, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and myasthenia gravis. 　 With such liabilities, how have left-handers managed to survive at all? The good news is that there is a very high side to being a left. Camilla Benbow, associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University, surveyed students who scored in the top 100th of one percent in math on Americas Scholastic Aptitude Test. She discovered that fully 20 percent of these math geniuses were left-handed-double the proportion of lefties in the population. Mensa, the high-I.Q. society, estimates that 20 percent of its members are left-handed. 　 Indeed, the ability to integrate what some researchers call the more "logical" left side of the brain and the more "intuitive" or "artistic" right side may have helped lefties excel. 　 Among historys most famous left-handed warriors were Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Joan of Arc and Napoleon (as well as his consort, Josephine). Michelangelo sculpted David holding, in his left hand, the sling used to slay Goliath. (The Bible makes note of some 700 lefties who could "sling stones at a hairbreadth and not miss.") 　 Though most people believe that handedness is a simple either/or proportion, this is incorrect. Chances are that you are more nearly ambidextrous than you realize. You can, for example, probably write quite well with your left hand even if you have always been right-handed. 　 To find our, take a large piece of paper, turned sideways, and pick up a pencil in each hand. With your right hand, slowly sign your name, and with your left hand match each movement in reverse, with both hands moving in opposite directions away from the papers center. After a few tries, hold your left-handed reverse signature up to a mirror. Youll be surprised how much it resembles your forward right-handed writing. 　 For years, many lefties have felt they were targets of discrimination. But they have begun to assert their rights. In 1980, when part-time police officer Franklin W. "Woody" Winborn was fired in Riverside, Missouri, activists rallied to his cause. A southpaw, Winborn had refused to wear his gun holster on his right side. In Seattle, a postal clerk and lefty named Robert B. Green was told to follow the usual procedure of holding mail in the left hand and sorting with the right. 　 Winborn settled his case out of court, and Green was permitted to continue his left-handed sorting. Lefthanders International of Topeka, Kansas, took a keen interest in both protest. Its founder, Dean Campbell, asks, "Why must the left-handed live in a world designed to handicap us?" His group has issued a "Bill of Lefts", which asserts in part that "left-handers shall be entitled to offer their dominant hand in a handshake, salute or oath." 　 Says Campbell, smiling impishly, "If the right side of the body is controlled by the left side of the brain, and vice versa, then we left-handed people are the only ones in our right mind."

　　42. What is the most bewildering thing about the lefties?

　　A) Why are there so few left-handed people?

　　B) In what way do southpaws differ from northpaws?

　　C) Why are left-handed people smarter?

　　D) How have left-handers managed to survive?

　　43. Why are left-handed more likely to commit suicide?

　　A) They are often targets of discrimination.

　　B) There is a built in bias in the world designed for the right-handed majority.

　　C) The left-handers are more apt to process emotion and mood.

　　D) All of the above.

　　44. Why does Campbell say that "we left-handed people are the only ones in our right mind"?

　　A) He prides himself on being a left-hander because lefthanders usually have higher I.Q.

　　B) Because lefthanders have better control over their right side of the brain than the others.

　　C) Because left-handed people tend to be conceited and contemptuous.

　　D) Because the right side of the brain of the southpaw is acuter than the left side of the brain.

　　45. Which of the following statement can be inferred from the text?

　　A) The speech-language center is in the brain's left hemisphere.

　　B) Whether a person is right-handed or left-handed is not a clear-cut matter.

　　C) Lefthanders are more likely to outperform others if they can combine the "logical" and the "intuitive" side of the brain.

　　D) None of the above.

　　TEXT D Fairy Tales and Modern Stories 　 The shortcoming of the realists stories with which many parents have replaced fairy tales is suggested by a comparison of two such stories —— "The Little Engine That Could" and "The Swiss Family Robison" —— with the fairy tale of "Rapuzel". "The Little Engine That Could" encourages the child to believe that if he tries hard and does not give up, he will finally succeed. A young adult has recalled how much impressed she was at the age of seven when her mother read her this story. She became convinced that ones attitude indeed affects ones achievements —— that if she would now approach a task with the conviction that she could conquer it, she would succeed. A few days later, this child encountered in first grade a challenging situation: she was trying to make a house out of paper, gluing various sheets together. But her house continually collapsed. Frustrated, she began to seriously doubt whether her idea of building such a paper house could realized. But then the story of "The Little Engine That Could" came to her mind; twenty years later, she recalled how at that moment she began to sing to herself the magic formula "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can …" So she continued to work on her paper house, and it continued to collapse. The project ended in complete defeat, with this little girl convinced that she had failed where anybody else could have succeeded, as the Little Engine had. Since "The Little Engine That Could" was a story set in the present, using such common directly in her daily life, without any fantasy elaboration, and had experienced a defeat that still rankled twenty years later. 　 Very different was the impact of "The Swiss Family Robison" on another little girl. The story tells how a shipwrecked family manages to live an adventurous, idyllic, constructive, and pleasurable life —— a life very different from this childs own existence. Her father had to be away from home a great deal, and her mother was mentally ill and spent protracted periods in institutions. So the girl was shuttled form her home to that of aunt, then to that of a grandmother, and back home again, as the need arose. During these years, the girl read over and over again the story of this happy family who lived on a desert island, where no member could be away from the rest of the family. Many years later, she recalled what a warm, cozy feeling she had when, propped up by a few large pillows, she forgot all about her present predicament as she read this story. As soon as she had finished it, she started to read it over again. The happy hours she spent with the Family Robison in that fantasy land permitted her not to be defeated by the difficulties that reality presented to her. She was able to counteract the impact of harsh reality by imaginary gratifications. But since the story was not a fairy tale, it merely gave her a temporary escape from her problems; it did not hold our any promise to her that her life would take a turn for the better. 　 Consider the effect that "Rapunzel" had on a third girl. This girls mother had died in a car accident. The girls father, deeply upset by what had happened to his wife (he had been driving the car), withdrew entirely into himself and handed the care of his daughter over to a nursemaid, who was little interested in the girl and gave her complete freedom to do as she liked. When the girl was seven, her father remarried, and, as she recalled it, it was around that time that "Rapunzel" became so important to her. Her stepmother was clearly the witch of the story, and she was the girl locked away in the tower. The girl recalled that she felt akin to Rapunzel because the witch had "forcibly" taken possession of her, as her stepmother had forcibly worked her way into the girls life. The girl felt imprisoned in her new home, in contrast to her life of freedom with the nursemaid. She felt as victimized as Rapunzel, who, in her tower, had so little control over her life. Rapunzels long hair was the key to the story. The girl wanted her hair to grow long, but her stepmother cut it short; long hair in itself became the symbol of freedom and happiness to her. The story convinced her that a prince (her father) would come someday and rescue her, and this conviction sustained her. If life became too difficult, all she needed was to imagine herself as Rapunzel, her hair grown long, and the prince loving and rescuing her. 　 "Rapunzel" suggests why fairy tales can offer more to the child than even such a very nice childrens story as "The Swiss Family Robison". In "The Swiss Family Robison", there is no witch against whom the child can discharge her anger in fantasy and on whom she can blame the fathers lack of interest. "The Swiss Family Robison" offers escape fantasies, and it did help the girl who read it over and to forget temporarily how difficult life was for her. But it offered no specific hope for the future. "Rapuzel", on the other hand, offered the girl a chance to see the witch of the story as so evil that by comparison even the "witch" stepmother at home was not really so bad. "Rapunzel" also promised the girl that her rescue would be effected by her own body, when her hair grew long. Most important of all, it promised that the "prince" was only temporarily blinded —— that he would regainhis sight and rescue his princess. This fantasy continued to sustain the girl, though to a less intense degree, until she fell in love and married, and then she no longer needed it. We can understand why at first glance the stepmother, if she had known the meaning of "Rapunzel" to her stepdaughter, would have felt that fairy tales are bad for children. What she would not have known was that unless the stepdaughter had been able to find that fantasy satisfaction through "Rapunzel", she would have tried to break up her fathers marriage and that without the hope for the future which the story gave her she might have gone badly astray in life. 　 It seems quite understandable that when children are asked to name their favorite fairy tales, hardly any modern tales are among their choices. Many of the new tales have sad endings, which fail to provide the escape and consolation that the fearsome events in the fairy tale require if the child is to be strengthened for meeting the vagaries of his wife. Without such encouraging conclusions, the child, after listening to the story, feels that there is indeed no hope for extricating himself from his despairs. In the traditional fairy tale, the hero is rewarded and the evil person meets his well-developed fate, thus satisfying the childs deep need for justice will be done to him, who so often feels unfairly treated? And how else can he convince himself that he must act correctly, when he is so sorely tempted to give the asocial prodding of her desires?

　　46. What is the most important similarity between the Little Engine That Could and The Swiss Family    Robinson?

　　A) They are both set in the present.

　　B) Both of them can provide a temporary escape from a child's problems.

　　C) Neither of them can offer the imaginary gratifications a child needs.

　　D) There is no promise of hope and no encouraging endings in these stories.

　　47. What is the most important differences between The Little Engine That Could and The Swiss Family Robison?

　　A) One exhibits the shortcoming of modern stories while the other is to the contrary.

　　B) The Swiss Family Robison has a beneficial effect on adults as well as children.

　　C) The impact of the two differs in that one fails to encourage the children the other enables the children to counteract the harsh reality only temporarily.

　　D) The Swiss Family Robinson is an adventurous story while The Little Engine That Could is a more realistic one.

　　48. It is quite probable that Rapunzel's long hair ____.

　　A) helps to extricate the poor girl from her misery

　　B) is the major symbol in the story

　　C) is significant in the development of the story

　　D) All of above.

　　49. According to the author, without "Rapunzel", the girl might have gone astray in life because ____.

　　A) she has to discharge her pent up anger

　　B) without the fantasy satisfaction through "Rapunzel" the girl would turn to reality to find an outlet

　　C) nothing can convince her that she has to act correctly

　　D) All of the above.

　　50. Why so fairy tales benefit readers more than modern stories?

　　A) Modern stories can't satisfy the child's need for justice and encouragement, while fairy tales can.

　　B) Modern stories usually have sad endings which often dispirit the children.

　　C) Fairy tales can brace the children to face up to the harsh reality.

　　D) Fairy tales can lead the children on the right way.