考研英语阅读篇章: 吃面或吃米造成人的个性差异

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    考研英语阅读篇章：吃面或吃米造成人的个性差异
    据外媒报道，在中国，北方人吃面，南方人吃米，研究发现，这一差别造成了巨大的个性差异。以面食为主的北方人具有更多的个人主义倾向，离婚率更高。相比之下，爱吃米的南方人更多地表现出东亚文化的传统品质，离婚率更低。
    In China, as in many countries, the north-south divide runs deep. People
from the north are seen as hale and hearty(精神充沛的), while southerners are often
portrayed as cunning(狡猾的), cultured traders. Northerners are taller than
southerners. The north eats noodles, while the south eats rice -- and according
to new research, when it comes to personality, that difference has meant
everything.
    A study published Friday by a group of psychologists in the journal Science
finds that China's noodle-slurping northerners are more individualistic, show
more "analytic thought" and divorce more frequently. By contrast, the authors
write, rice-eating southerners show more hallmarks traditionally associated with
East Asian culture, including more "holistic thought" and lower divorce
rates.
    The reason? Cultivating rice, the authors say, is a lot harder. Picture a
rice paddy(稻田), its delicate seedlings tucked in a bed of water. They require
careful tending and many hours of labor -- by some estimates, twice as much as
wheat-- as well as reliance on irrigation systems that require neighborly
cooperation. As the authors write, for southerners growing rice, "strict
self-reliance might have meant starvation."
    Growing wheat, by contrast, the north's staple grain, is much simpler. One
Chinese farming guide from the 1600s quoted in the study advised aspiring
farmers that "if one is short of labor power, it is best to grow wheat."
    To produce their findings, the authors evaluated the attitudes of 1,162 Han
Chinese students in Beijing and Liaoning in the north and in Fujian, Guangdong,
Yunnan and Sichuan in the south. To control for other factors that distinguish
the north and south -- such as climate, dialect and contact with herding
cultures -- the authors also analyzed differences between various neighboring
counties in five central provinces along China's rice-wheat border.
    According to the authors, the influence of rice cultivation can help
explain East Asia's "strangely persistent interdependence." For example, they
say South Korea and Japan have remained less individualistic than Western
countries, even as they've grown more wealthy.
    The authors aren't alone in observing the influence various crops have on
shaping culture. Malcolm Gladwell in his 2008 book "Outliers" also drew
connections between a hard-working ethic (measured by a willingness to fill out
long, tedious questionnaires) to a historical tradition of rice cultivation in
places such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, given that the farming of such
crops is arguably an equally tedious chore.
    But what will happen to such differences after people move away from
tending such crops, as is now happening across China? The study cites findings
that US regions settled by Scottish and Irish herders show more violence even
long after most herders' descendants have found other lines of work as evidence
that cultural traits stubbornly resist change, even over time. (Herders,
psychologists theorize, are ready to put their lives on the line to protect
their animals against thieves or attack.)
    "In the case of China," the authors conclude, "only time will tell."

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