My daughter was singing as she polished the furniture. I hadn’t asked her to polish the furniture. I never do. But while her brothers are happiest with the computer or a football or a model car, her idea of delight is a can of Spring Fresh and a duster. While the boys have to be scolded, temped or tricked into doing their share of house chores, she’s up on a chair with the washing-up liquid as if her life depended on it. Where have I gone wrong?

Being a bit of tomboy myself, and not too hot on the household skills, I used to argue till I was blue in the face that the differences between men and women were all about upbringing and expectations. Nobody could have approached motherhood with a courageous determination that all children would be treated the same, not channeled along some predetermined path. Boys would be offered soft toys, while girls would play cars and trains. I would bring up the New Men and female engineers of the future.

Ten years ago, as I gazed at my first-born, I fantasized about the gentle soul he would be. No guns or violence for this little peachblossom. The fantasy continued until he was about two, when he proudly presented me with his first model--a gun. Later on, at playgroup, he and his pals daily attacked each other. And what about my daughter? She plays all the boys’ game because she has to. But her heart is not really in it. She would much rather be drawing or writing or cleaning the bathroom while waves of boys roar around her.

I finally faced the fact that boys and girls are simply born different on the day, a few years ago, when I was hanging out the washing and gave her and the next brother up a couple of clothes pegs（晒衣夹）to play with. He shot me with his. She supported it in her arms and sang it a lullaby（催眠曲）.

But I won’t give up. I’ll continue to try and treat them equally and expect the same of them. And by the time they’re all in their teens, I imagine they’ll all be equally impossible to get to do anything. But right now nature is wearing down nurture （训练）. Equality is hard work.

67. From the text we can know that the boys ________.

A. are happy to do the chores            B. like guns by nature

    C. never do housework                 D. often play with soft toys

68. How does the little girl respond to the boys’ games?

    A. She’s keen on it.                    B. She plays with them unwillingly.

    C. She cares much about it.              D. She only concentrates on her own business.

69. What can we learn about the author?

    A. She’s approval of the children’s behavior.

    B. She’s very strict with her children.

    C. She accepts the situation as an unchanged fact.

    D. She has to make a compromise.

70. What does the author want to tell us?

    A. Boys and girls can be trained to do things equally.

    B. Girls have to work hard to catch up with boys.

    C. It is impossible for boys and girls to be equal.

    D. Boys shouldn’t treat girls so violently and impolitely.

Baby girls make their way directly for dolls as soon as they can crawl, while boys will head for the toy cars, a study has shown. The findings, the first to show differences in very young babies, suggest there is a biological（生物学的） basis to their preferences（偏爱）.
Psychologists Dr. Brenda Todd from City University London carried out an experiment involving 90 infants(婴儿) aged nine months to 36 months. The babies were allowed to choose from seven toys. Some were stereotypically boys' toys - a car, a digger, a ball and a blue teddy.  The rest were girls’ toys: a pink teddy, a doll and a cooking set. They were placed a meter away from the toys, and could pick whichever toy they liked. Their choice and the amount of time they spent playing with each toy were recorded.
Of the youngest children (nine to 14 months), girls spent significantly longer playing with the doll than boys, and boys spent much more time with the car and ball than the girls did. Among the two-and three-year-olds, girls spent 50 percent of the time playing with the doll while only two boys briefly touched it. The boys spent almost 90 percent of their time playing with cars, which the girls barely touched. There was no link between the parents’ view on which toys were more appropriate for boys or girls, and the children’s choice.
Dr Brenda Todd said: “Children of this age are already exposed to much socialization(社会化). Boys may be given ‘toys that go’ while girls get toys they can care for, which may help shape their preference. But these findings agree with the former idea that children show natural interests in particular kinds of toys. There could be a biological basis for their choices. Males through evolution have been adapted to prefer moving objects, probably through hunting instincts（本能）, while girls prefer warmer colours such as pink, the colour of a newborn baby.”
【小题1】Baby boys and girls have different toy preferences probably because__________.