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It was not long ago that scientists made the remarkable discovery that our brains are divided into
two halves and that each half has separate features and roles. The brain is said to be divided into
the left half and the right half. For ease of reference, they are called the left brain and the right
brain.
The left brain is said to be the logical brain. It is the left brain that we use to solve mathematical
problems and to think logically. For example, if you were asked how to make coffee, this is what
happens, Your left brain begins to work; it searches its files for information on coffee making. If it
finds the files, it begins relating what to do step by step. If it does not find any record, it says it
does not know.

The right brain is often called the creative brain. It has the function of thinking creatively. This
includes all the artistic functions, including art and music appreciation. When you want to draw a
picture or compose a piece of music or write poetry, it is the right brain that is in operation. When
you come across a new situation in your life, your right brain gives ideas on how to tackle it.

To some people, the left brain is dominant and to others, the right brain is. Of people who are
good in mathematics and language expression - that is, putting into practice what they have
learnt, we say that they are more left-brained. They are not very sensitive and believe in doing
everything only after reasoning. They are very sharp at arguments. They are the type who will not
believe in anything until they see it. Right brained people are more artistic and have a good sense
of music appreciation. They are also more sensitive and tend to be emotional. They are more
open to new ideas and are willing to accept radical positions.

Is the left brain better or the right brain? Both sides of the brain are equally important. In an ideal
situation, a person should be exactly equal in both sides of the brain. However, as in most things,
the ideal never happens. People are dominated by one or the other side of their brains.

In order to function effectively in the world, we must learn to use both sides of the brain. In many
situations that we meet in the world, there will be requirements for both sides of the brain to work
together as partners. For example, when you want to write a story, which brain do you use? The
answer is both brains. You need the right brain to think of the ideas and you need the left side to
arrange everything in a logical sequence. You cannot go through life with only one side
functioning.

One last thing: In a left handed person, the brain will be in reverse. For him or her, the right brain
will be the logical brain and the left brain will be the creative brain. Also, it has been observed that
for some unknown reason, left handed people tend to be more creative. Hence you will see that
most left handed people are artistic or at least have a keener sense of art appreciation. It is
probable that what causes left and right handedness is the position of the brain and not vice
versa.

Also, it is astounding that many of the greatest persons in History are known to be left handed.
These include Napoleon, Charlemagne, Picasso, Alexander the Great and Benjamin Franklin.
The number of great people who are left handed is out of proportion of the total number. Now, we
know that what causes left handedness or right handedness is the position of the brain in the
head. So is there any reason to believe that people whose creative brain is on the left are at an
advantage?

Questions

1. (a) Describe the functions of the left brain.

(b) Describe the functions of the right brain.
(c) How would you decide if a person has a dominant left o right brain ?

2. (a) What are the negative aspects of people who are dominated by the left
brain ?
(b) How would a person dominated by the right brain view a sunset ?

3. Give an example of the left brain and right brain co-operating to do a

task. ( Do not use the example in the passage. )

4. For each of the following words give one word or a short phrase (not
more than seven words) which has the same meaning as it has in the passage.
i. remarkable v. radical
ii. separate vi. sharp
iii. logical vii. dominated
iv. creative viii. sequence

5. Write a brief summary on the basic differences between the right brain and the
left brain. You should use only material from the passage and the summary should be about 160
words.

Answers

1. (a) The left brain is the logical brain and thinks according to reason.
(b) The right brain is for creating and for tackling new situations.
(c) If a person is creative he is probably dominated by the right brain and if
most of the time logical he is dominated by the left brain.

2. (a) People dominated by left brains are not very sensitive and will refuse to
believe in anything until they see it.
(b) He will look at the beauty and appreciate the different hues of colors and
perhaps even be inspired by a sunset.

3. To solve a problem which involves a new situation, a person has to use

his right brain to see a way out of it. Once he has found the way the left brain will use logic to
solve it.

4. i astonishing
ii different
iii reasonable
iv artistic
 v acute
vi rebellious
vii controlled
viii arrangement

5.
The left side of the brain is the side that deals with logic. It is the part which is used to solve
mathematical problems and to reason. If you have to make coffee, the left brain searches for
information and if it finds the information tells you exactly what to do. If it does not find any record
it denies knowledge of the skill.

The right side of the brain is called the creative brain. Its function is to think creatively. Creative
thinking includes all the artistic activities including art and music. The creative brain also copes
with any new situation in life.

People who are dominated by their left brains are not very sensitive and are very good at
arguments. They will not usually believe in anything until they see it. People who are dominated
by their creative brains are artistic and usually appreciate music rather well. They also tend to be
emotional and are more sensitive. ( 158 words )

Question 19 - 24
Before the early 1960’s, people interested in the differing roles of the left and right hemispheres
of the brain depended almost entirely on evidence drawn from animal research, from studies of
neurological patients with one-sided brain damage, or from patients who had had their corpus
callosum, the conduit connecting the two hemisphere, surgically severed. But it was possible to
detect which brain hemisphere was most involved in speech and other functions in normal people
by having them listen to two different words coming to the two ears at the same time. This
became known as the “dichotic listening” procedure. When several word pairs are given in a row,
people are unable to report them all, and most right-handers prefer to report, and report more
accurately, words given to their right ear. This seems to be related to the fact that signal from the
right ear, although sent to both hemispheres, are preferentially sent to the left hemisphere which
controls speech. People who have from the speech represented in the right hemisphere, a very
usual occurrence even in left-handed people, more accurately report what their left ears hear.
In contrast to the right-ear advantage for speech, there is generally a left-ear advantage for
another type of auditory signal: music. When right-handed people listen to melodic patterns they
report them better from the left ear.
19. Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the passage?
An Introduction to Speech Damage in Neurological Patients
An Investigation into the Role of the Brain’s Hemispheres
An Analyst of Left and Right-handed People
An Examination of “Dichotic Listening”
20. Early research into the right and left hemispheres of the brain was done on
neurological mental patients
experimental animals
brain damaged people
surgically injured patients
21. The “dichotic listening” procedure could be best be described as hearing
two different words in the same ear twice
the same word twice in different ears
two different words in different ears
two different words in two ears
22. According to the passage, right-handed people normally
have better hearing in their right ears
have little difficulty in reporting words given to their right ears
are unable to report word pairs given in their left ears
accurately report word pairs given in a row
23. Where do most left-handed people send speech signals?
From the right ear to both hemispheres
To the left hemisphere from the right ear
From the right ear to the right hemisphere
To the left hemisphere from the left ear.
24. According to the passage, music is best appreciated when heard by
the left ear of right-handers
people with a left-ear advantage
left-handers in their right ears
right-handed people who understand melodic patterns.
Answer Key:

7 CDABAAB

12 BADBC

18 BDCCAD

24 BCCBBA

30 DCBCCA

GRE BB Test 10.1 Reading Comprehension

What causes a helix in nature to appear with either a dextral ("right-handed," or clockwise) twist
or a sinistral "left handed," or counterclockwise) twist is one of the most intriguing puzzles in the
science of form. Most spiral-shaped snail species are predominantly dextral. But at one time,
handedness (twist direction of the shell) was equally distributed within some snail species that
have become predominantly dextral or, in a few species, predominantly sinistral. What
mechanisms control handedness and keep left-handedness rare?

It would seem unlikely that evolution should discriminate against sinistral snails if sinistral and
dextral snails are exact mirror images, for any disadvantage that a sinistral twist in itself could
confer on its possessor is almost inconceivable. But left- and right-handed snails are not actually
true mirror images of one another. Their shapes are noticeably different. Sinistral rarity might,
then, be a consequence of possible disadvantages (19) conferredby these other concomitant
structural features. In addition, perhaps left-and right-handed snails cannot mate with each other,
having incompatible twist directions. Presumably an individual of the rarer form would have
relative difficulty in finding a mate of the same thus keeping the rare form rare or creating
geographically separated right- and left-handed populations.

(27) But this evolutionary mechanism combining dissymmetry, anatomy, and chance does not
provide an adequate explanation of why right-handedness should have become predominant. It
does not explain, for example, why the infrequent unions between snails of opposing hands
produce fewer offspring of the rarer than the commoner form in species where each parent
contributes equally to handedness. Nor does it explain why, in a species where one parent
determines handedness, a brood is not exclusively right- or left-handed when the offspring would
have the same genetic predisposition. In the European pond snail Lymnaea peregra,
apredominantly dextral species whose handedness is maternally determined, a brood might be
expected to be exclusively right- or left-handed—and this often occurs. However, some broods
possess a few snails of the opposinghand, and in predominantly sinistral broods, the incidence of
dextrality is surprisingly high.

Here, the evolutionary theory must defer to a theory based on an explicit developmental
mechanism that can favor either right- or left-handedness. In the case of Lymnaea peregra,
studies indicate that a dextral gene is expressed during egg formation; i.e., before egg
fertilization, the gene produces a protein, found in the cytoplasm of the egg, that controls the
pattern of cell division and thus handedness. In experiments, an injection of cytoplasm from
dextral eggs changes the pattern of eggs, but an injection from sinistral eggs does not influence
dextral eggs. One explanation for the differing effects is that all Lymnaea peregra eggs begin left-
handed but most switch to being right-handed. Thus, the path to a solution to the puzzle of
handedness in all snails appears to be as twisted as the helix itself.

21. Which of the following would serve as an example of "concomitant structural features" (line
19) that might disadvantage a snail of the rarer form?

(A) A shell and body that are an exact mirror image of a snail of the commoner form
(B) A smaller population of the snails of the rarer form
(C) A chip or fracture in the shell caused by an object falling on it
(D) A pattern on the shell that better camouflages it
(E) A smaller shell opening that restricts mobility
and ingestion relative to that of a snail of the commoner form

23. In describing the "evolutionary mechanism" (line 27), the author mentions which of the
following?

(A) The favorable conditions for nurturing new offspring

(B) The variable environmental conditions that affect survival of adult snails
(C) The availability of potential mates for breeding
(D) The structural identity of offspring to parents of the same hand
(E) The frequency of unions between snails of different species

Please argument your answers. I will post the OA's later.

Reply With Quote 06-14-2006 05:34 AM #2
madabtGRE
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Answer to Question 21
Originally Posted by mishum2000

It would seem unlikely that evolution should discriminate against sinistral snails if sinistral and
dextral snails are exact mirror images, for any disadvantage that a sinistral twist in itself could
confer on its possessor is almost inconceivable. But left- and right-handed snails are not actually
true mirror images of one another. Their shapes are noticeably different. Sinistral rarity might,
then, be a consequence of possible disadvantages (19) conferredby these other concomitant
structural features. In addition, perhaps left-and right-handed snails cannot mate with each other,
having incompatible twist directions. Presumably an individual of the rarer form would have
relative difficulty in finding a mate of the same thus keeping the rare form rare or creating
geographically separated right- and left-handed populations.

21. Which of the following would serve as an example of "concomitant structural features" (line
19) that might disadvantage a snail of the rarer form?
(A) A shell and body that are an exact mirror image of a snail of the commoner form
(B) A smaller population of the snails of the rarer form
(C) A chip or fracture in the shell caused by an object falling on it
(D) A pattern on the shell that better camouflages it
(E) A smaller shell opening that restricts mobility
and ingestion relative to that of a snail of the commoner form

Going by the paragraph...

It is highlighted that.. They are different in shapes in the line prior to 19.
and also its mentioned in the line 19 about the concomitant (something that happens with
something else and is connected with it) structural features..

Thus eleminating Choices A, B and C.. we are left with D and E

Choice D doesn't have to do anything with different shapes.. so the better choice would be E.

Originally Posted by mishum2000

It would seem unlikely that evolution should discriminate against sinistral snails if sinistral and
dextral snails are exact mirror images, for any disadvantage that a sinistral twist in itself could
confer on its possessor is almost inconceivable. But left- and right-handed snails are not actually
true mirror images of one another. Their shapes are noticeably different. Sinistral rarity might,
then, be a consequence of possible disadvantages (19) conferredby these other concomitant
structural features. In addition, perhaps left-and right-handed snails cannot mate with each other,
having incompatible twist directions. Presumably an individual of the rarer form would have
relative difficulty in finding a mate of the same thus keeping the rare form rare or creating
geographically separated right- and left-handed populations.

(27) But this evolutionary mechanism combining dissymmetry, anatomy, and chance does not
provide an adequate explanation of why right-handedness should have become predominant. It
does not explain, for example, why the infrequent unions between snails of opposing hands
produce fewer offspring of the rarer than the commoner form in species where each parent
contributes equally to handedness. Nor does it explain why, in a species where one parent
determines handedness, a brood is not exclusively right- or left-handed when the offspring would
have the same genetic predisposition.

23. In describing the "evolutionary mechanism" (line 27), the author mentions which of the
following?

(A) The favorable conditions for nurturing new offspring

(B) The variable environmental conditions that affect survival of adult snails
(C) The availability of potential mates for breeding
(D) The structural identity of offspring to parents of the same hand
(E) The frequency of unions between snails of different species

As observed from the highlighted text in the line prior to line 27.
We can observe that author mentions the difficulty of finding mates for breeding.
He follows this up with " This evolutionary mechanism " ... This is of prime importance..
Hence the choice C.

Correct me if im wrong

Cheers!
Last edited by madabtGRE; 06-14-2006 at 05:35 AM. Reason: Automerged post
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