Research presented at the Experimental Biology annual meeting reveals that women may be more accurate than men at using a hammer in certain conditions.

    在實驗生物學年會上，一項研究報告顯示，在某些特定條件下，女人在使用錘子的時候可能比男人更準確。

    Women Better Than Men with a Hammer

    We might think women are not as adept as men at wielding heavy tools, like say, hammers, according to popular stereotypes.

    Turns out that women may have a leg up when it comes to hammering in certain situations. This was announced at the recent Experimental Biology annual meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

    Scientists measured the accuracy and force of men and women's blows to a metal plate. They also tested their hammer style in rooms that were either brightly lit or pitch dark. （Glow-in-the-dark stickers marked the targets.）

    Indeed they found that men struck twice as hard as the women. But women were 25 percent moreaccurate than men in well-lit conditions. Surprisingly both sexes were better than expected at hammering in the dark, although men had an advantage, with about 10 percent higher accuracy.

    The researchers theorize that maybe men and women inherently use different strategies, putting more emphasis on either force or accuracy, respectively. But these are preliminary results. They intend to do further studies with larger sample sizes in different conditions.

    But for now that old stereotype might need to be retooled.

    女人比男人善于用錘子

    根據流行的舊觀點，我們可能認為在使用一些較重的工具（比如說錘子）的時候，女人不如男人靈活。

    研究結果顯示，在某些特定條件下女人在使用錘子的時候比男人要用得好。在最近蘇格蘭格拉斯哥市（Glasgow, Scotland）舉行的實驗生物學年會上，研究者們宣布了這項研究結果。

    科學家們測量了男人以及女人在使用錘子擊打金屬板時候的準確度和力量。在房間的光線很亮的情況下或者漆黑一團的時候（用在黑暗中發光的貼紙來顯示捶打目標）,科學家們還測量了他們使用錘子的風格。

    科學家們確實發現男人使用錘子擊打的力量是女人的兩倍。但是在光線很好的條件下，女人擊打的準確度要比男人高25%.令人驚奇的是，在黑暗中，男人和女人使用錘子的表現比預期的都要好，盡管男人比女人的準確度高了10%.

    研究者們推斷，可能男人和女人在使用錘子的時候，生來就用不同的策略，男人更注重力量，而女人更注重準確度。但是，這只是初期研究結果。科學家們打算在不同的條件下擴大樣本大小進行深入研究。

    不過目前來看，認為男人比女人更善于使用重工具的陳舊觀點可能是時候更新了。

    Vocabulary:

    Experimental:實驗的

    Annual:年度的

    Reveal:揭示

    Accurate:準確的

    Hammer:錘子

    Adept:靈活的

    Wield: 運用；使用（武器、工具等）

    Stereotype: 刻板影響；老一套

    Pitch dark: 漆黑

    Theorize: 推理

    Inherently: 固有的；內在的

    Preliminary: 初期的；初步的

    Intend: 打算；想要

    Retool: 重新裝配（機器設備）;重新安排

    注釋：

    have a leg up on somebody 這個美國習慣用語的意思是"比別人有優勢" ,例如：She probably has a leg up on the other applicants for the job because she has more experience.與其他申請這個工作的人相比，她可能有優勢，因為她的經驗更豐富。