An Observation and Explanation _考试试题_职称英语

试题来源：职称英语模拟题-综合类-阅读判断
【单选题】

An Observation and Explanation

It is worth looking at one or two aspects ofthe way a mother behaves towards her baby. The usual fondling, cuddling andcleaning requite little comment, but the position in which she holds the babyagainst her body when resting is rather revealing. Careful studies have shownthe fact that 80 per cent of mothers hold their infants in their left arms,holding them against the left side of their bodies. If asked to explain thesignificance of this preference most people reply that it is obviously theresult of the predominance of right-handedness in the population. By holdingthe babies in their left arms, the mothers keep their dominant arm free formanipulations. But a detailed analysis shows that this is not the case. True,there is a slight difference between right-handed and left-handed females; butnot enough to provide an adequate explanation. It emerges that 83 per cent ofright-handed mothers hold the baby on the left side, but so do 78 per cent ofleft-handed mothers. In other words, only 22 per cent of the left-handedmothers have their dominant hands free for actions. Clearly there must be someother, less obvious explanation.

The only other clue comes from the fact thatthe heart is on the left side of the mother's body. Could it be that the soundof her heart-beat is the vital factor? And in what way? Thinking along theselines it was argued that perhaps during its existence inside the body of themother the unborn baby gets used to the sound of the heart beat. If this is so,then the re-discovery of this familiar sound after birth might have a calmingeffect on the infant, especially as it has just been born into a strange andfrighteningly new world. If this is so then the mother would, somehow, soonarrive at the discovery that her baby is more at peace if held on the leftagainst her heart, than on the right.

1. We can learn a lot by observing the positionin which a mother holds her baby against her body