Throughout the world, boys and girls prefer to play with different types of toys. Boys typically like to play with cars and trucks, while girls typically choose to play with dolls. Why is this? A traditional sociological explanation is that boys and girls are socialized and encouraged to play with different types of toys by their parents, peers, and the “society”. Growing scientific evidence suggests, however, that boys’ and girls’ toy preferences may have a biological origin.
In 2002, Gerianne M. Alexander of Texas A&M University and Melissa Hines of City University in London surprised the scientific world by showing that monkeys showed the same sex-typical toy preferences as humans. In the study, Alexander and Hines gave two masculine toys (a ball and a police car), two feminine toys (a soft doll and a cooking pot), and two neutral toys (a picture book and a stuffed dog) to 44 male and 44 female monkeys. They then assessed the monkeys’ preference for each toy by measuring how much time they spent with each. Their data showed that male monkeys showed significantly greater interest in the masculine toys, and the female monkeys showed significantly greater interest in the feminine toys. The two sexes did not differ in their preference for the neutral toys.
If children’ s toy preferences were largely formed by gender socialization, as traditional sociologists’ claim, in which their parents give “gender appropriate” toys to boys and girls, how can these male and female monkeys have the same preferences as boys and girls？They were never socialized by humans, and they had never seen these toys before in their lives.
【小题1】．Traditional sociologists believe boys’ and girls’ toy preferences ________.
A. are passed down from their parents
B. are largely formed in later life
C. have nothing to do with gender socialization
D. have a biological origin
【小题2】．The study by Alexander and Hines shows that monkeys________.
A. also have a sex typical toy preference
B. also play toys as humans do
C. have no toy preferences
D. like to play different toys at different time
【小题3】．Alexander and Hines carried out the study to ________.
A. find more evidence for traditional sociology
B. test the intelligence of monkeys
C. test whether monkeys like to play toys
D. find out why boys and girls prefer different toys
【小题4】．According to the study, if given a stuffed dog, ________.
A. only the male monkeys showed interest
B. the female monkeys showed more interest
C. the male and female monkeys showed the same interest
D. neither the male nor the female monkeys showed any interest