Boys Versus Girls

In the article, “Math and Sex: Are Girls Born with Less Ability?” by Gina Bari Kolata, Camilla Benbow and Julian Stanley, from Johns Hopkins University, claim to have evidence that mathematical talent is less prevalent in girls. This data only supports what history portrays -- the recorded number of women mathematicians could be counted on two hands.
Surprisingly, this data was just discovered. Johns Hopkins states that in the beginning it wanted to find exceptionally gifted children, and did not expect to stumble into massive gender difference in SAT math scores. It is interesting that while the math scores are so different between the sexes, the verbal SAT scores are not. Each time Johns Hopkins tested a group, the verbal score stayed similar, but math scores were very distinct.
In the collective stages, Stanley and Benbow used the math SAT, claiming that it served as an aptitude test for seventh and eighth graders who have not yet learned the basic concepts of these problems: therefore children who do well are concluded to have unnatural ability. In the first testing they found ten thousand exceptional children which included 43% of girls. In fact, almost twice as many boys than girls scored higher than five-hundred on the math SAT.
Even though this data seems so well supported with more than ten-thousand student test scores backing it, Mary Gray, a mathematician at American University says she does not see the basis from which they draw their conclusions. There is too little known about the development of mathematical reasoning in a child to jump to gender difference caused by genetics rather then socialization. Johns Hopkins is trying to resolve this controversy. Many families are being surveyed as to what toys their children played with, what goals their parents set for them, and what test taking strategies were used.
Elizabeth Fennema says, “What their study means for women at large is very problematical.” Even though that the data is not yet wholly supported, in truth, these findings will affect other women in the world. The fact that their genetic material might affect how well they achieve in math might completely wipe out women in mathematics, except for a choice few.
Link to the article: http://www.jstor.org/view/00368075/ap993206/99a00150/0?currentResult=00368075%2bap993206%2b99a00150%2b0%2c00&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FAdvancedResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26q0%3DMath%2Band%2Bsex%253A%2Bare%2Bgirls%2Bborn%2Bwith%2Bless%2Bability%26f0%3Dti%26c0%3DAND%26q1%3DGina%2BBari%2BKolata%26f1%3Dau%26c1%3DAND%26ar%3Don%26wc%3Don%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D

Word Count: 374

Cheese Consumption in the United States

Summarizing Paragraph

The two sets of data from the US Census Bureau, and USA Today mostly agree with on another. Both indicate a general trend upwards in the consumption of cheese in pounds. This general trend may be caused by the increased immigration of Hispanics into the United States of America. The general Hispanic diet included a considerable amount of cheese, causing the upward trend in the cheese consumption among Americans.