Unit 6 The Way We Are

Lesson 2 Left and right

Recognize the main ideas and supporting details

Speak and read

Work in pairs. Look at the pictures.

What’s the difference between them?

2. Read the text.

The Animal Blueprint

On the outside, at least, we are very much symmetrical beings, which means that one side of our body is the mirror image of the other. It’s a quality that we share with almost all other animals. Sponges are one of very few living organisms whose bodies are completely asymmetrical.

We are not perfectly symmetrical, however. Look at even the most symmetrical face, for example, and you will find small differences on each side. The picture on the right above, which was created using the mirror image of one half of the face on the left, shows just how strange perfect facial symmetry would look.

Nevertheless, studies across different cultures show that we find symmetrical faces attractive. There are two main theories for this. One suggests that symmetry is an external sign of genetic fitness, which sends us a subconscious message telling us that a person would make a good mother or father for our children. The other theory suggests that our brain simply finds symmetrical faces easier to process.

If we look our bodies, it’s a different story. There’s still a high degree of internal symmetry in our bones, muscles, and so on, but we only have one heart, for instance, which needs to be on the left-hand side of the body, and our brain, while it has two vey similar hemispheres, assigns different roles to each one. On the inside, we clearly have a left and right side.

It is perhaps surprising, then, that we start life symmetrically. It is only after six weeks of development that asymmetry becomes apparent, then our heart moves to the left and its inner structure begins to develop. What tells this early heart cells that they need to move left is something that scientists are just beginning to understand. In a minority of people, the process works in reverse, which means their heart provided that all their internal organs are on the opposite side too.

The blueprint for animal life, then, is external symmetry combined with a carefully controlled level of internal asymmetry, both of which suggest that we all share a common ancestor.

3. React Work in pairs. Answer the questions.
4. What do you think “we” in the last sentence refers to?

What’s the implication of this sentence?

2. What information in the article was new to you?
3. What fact did you find most surprising?

Write

4. Write a description of yourself from the point of view of another person.

Share

5. Share your description with classmates. Do you think your classmates wrote accurate descriptions of themselves.
6. Complete the text with the correct options.

    Changing

Some things in life you can change, and others you can’t., such as being 1) _______. What you can try to work on, though, are negative character traits you notice in your self (or that others notice in you). If you’re sometimes 2) _______ and overconfident, or you’re a little 3) _______ and forget to do things you should, you can try to do something about it. You see, I don’t think your 4) _______ has much to do with your personality. It’s not determined at or before birth. It’s more a question of 5) _______, although there is some debate about this. They say a leopard can’t change it’s spots, but I believe we have a(n) 6) _______ capacity for change. We can do just about anything we put our minds to. I used to be lazy, but now I’m very 7) _______, and I believe I’m also much more 8) ________ and prepared to consider new ideas and ways of doing things than I was.

1. long haired                    b. left-handed      
2. never-ending d. awe-inspiring

2. big-headed                    b. short-sighted    
3. far-reaching d. cutting-edge

3. cutting-edge                    b. absent-minded 
4. groundbreaking d. open-minded

4. gene therapy                    b. breakthrough    
5. genetic code d. left-handed

5. upbringing                    b. undertaking      
6. overtaking d. gene therapy

6. thick-skinned                    b. play-off            
7. awe-inspiring d. bad-tempered

7. bad-tempered b. handmade         
8. far-reaching d. hard-working

8. acoustic b. never-ending    
9. left-handed d. open-minded