高二阅读理解精选精(炼15).doc

(73) In sport the sexes ( 性别) are separate. Women and men donot run or swim in the same races. Women are less strong than men. That at least is what people say. Women are called the weaker sex, or, if men want to please them, the fair sex. But boys and girls are taught together at schools and universities. There are women who are famous Prime Ministers, scientists and writers. And women live longer than men .A European woman can expect to live until the age of74, a man only until he is68. Are women's bodies really weaker? The fastest men can run a mile in under 4 minutes. The best women need 4. 5 minutes. Women's time are always slower than men's, but some facts are a surprise. Some of the fastest women swimmers today are teenage girls. One of them swam 400 metres in4 minutes seconds when she was only 16. The first ‘ Tartan ’ in film was an Olympic swimmer, Johnny Weissmuller. His fastest 400 metres was 4 minutes 49. 1 seconds, which is37. 9 seconds slower than a girl 50 years later! This does not mean that women are catching men up. Conditions are very different now and sport is much more serious. It is so serious that some women athletes are given hormone ( 荷尔蒙) injections (注射). At the Olympics a doctor has to check whether the women athletes are really women or not. It seems sad that sport has such problems. Life can be plicated (复杂的) when there are two separate sexes!