1.  What is the purpose of this essay?
To argue that with regard to gender, the power of nature is more forceful than that of nurture.

2.    In your own words, sum up how Blum was raised by her parents. 
Blum's educated and open-minded parents raised her in a consciously gender-blind way, giving her typical boy toys as well as girly toys to play with throughout her childhood. 


3.    How did her own parenthood help her reshape her childhood belief about the cause of gender differences?

4.    What effect do Blum’s opening personal-experience anecdotes have on the persuasiveness of her argument?


5.    What evidence does Blum offer to support her contention that males are naturally more aggressive than females?


6.    Why did Blum put the word “abnormal” in quotation marks?


7.    How does testosterone affect human behavior, according to Blum’s research?

8.    In Blum’s view, how do the cultural choices that humans make, such as engaging in sports or other competitive activities, affect hormonal balances?


9.    Who do you think is the target audience of this essay?  Why?


10.    The passage “Why men don’t iron”, and Blum’s essay deal with the same subject: the cause of gender differences. In your opinion, is the emphasis in both writings the same?



11.    Paraphrase the sentences below.
a)    My parents wasted no opportunity to bring this point home. (paragraph 1)

b)    …I had been fed a line and swallowed it like a sucker…(paragraph 2)

c)    This dawned on me… (paragraph 2)

d)    … what’s the genetic advantage in brawling? (paragraph 6)

12.    References
a)    Another (paragraph 1)     ________________________________________________
b)    This (paragraph 2)        ________________________________________________
c)    the faint signal (paragraph 3) _____________________________________________
d)    this apparently precise system (paragraph 9) _________________________________
e)    that (paragraph 15)   Response