Research presented at the Experimental Biology annual meeting reveals that women may be more accurate than men at using a hammer in certain conditions.

在实验生物学年会上，一项研究报告显示，在某些特定条件下，女人在使用锤子的时候可能比男人更准确。

Women Better Than Men with a Hammer

We might think women are not as adept as men at wielding heavy tools, like say, hammers, according to popular stereotypes.

Turns out that women may have a leg up when it comes to hammering in certain situations. This was announced at the recent Experimental Biology annual meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

Scientists measured the accuracy and force of men and women's blows to a metal plate. They also tested their hammer style in rooms that were either brightly lit or pitch dark. （Glow-in-the-dark stickers marked the targets.）

Indeed they found that men struck twice as hard as the women. But women were 25 percent moreaccurate than men in well-lit conditions. Surprisingly both sexes were better than expected at hammering in the dark, although men had an advantage, with about 10 percent higher accuracy.

The researchers theorize that maybe men and women inherently use different strategies, putting more emphasis on either force or accuracy, respectively. But these are preliminary results. They intend to do further studies with larger sample sizes in different conditions.

But for now that old stereotype might need to be retooled.

女人比男人善于用锤子

根据流行的旧观点，我们可能认为在使用一些较重的工具（比如说锤子）的时候，女人不如男人灵活。

研究结果显示，在某些特定条件下女人在使用锤子的时候比男人要用得好。在最近苏格兰格拉斯哥市（Glasgow, Scotland）举行的实验生物学年会上，研究者们宣布了这项研究结果。

科学家们测量了男人以及女人在使用锤子击打金属板时候的准确度和力量。在房间的光线很亮的情况下或者漆黑一团的时候（用在黑暗中发光的贴纸来显示捶打目标）,科学家们还测量了他们使用锤子的风格。

科学家们确实发现男人使用锤子击打的力量是女人的两倍。但是在光线很好的条件下，女人击打的准确度要比男人高25%.令人惊奇的是，在黑暗中，男人和女人使用锤子的表现比预期的都要好，尽管男人比女人的准确度高了10%.

研究者们推断，可能男人和女人在使用锤子的时候，生来就用不同的策略，男人更注重力量，而女人更注重准确度。但是，这只是初期研究结果。科学家们打算在不同的条件下扩大样本大小进行深入研究。

不过目前来看，认为男人比女人更善于使用重工具的陈旧观点可能是时候更新了。

Vocabulary:

Experimental:实验的

Annual:年度的

Reveal:揭示

Accurate:准确的

Hammer:锤子

Adept:灵活的

Wield: 运用；使用（武器、工具等）

Stereotype: 刻板影响；老一套

Pitch dark: 漆黑

Theorize: 推理

Inherently: 固有的；内在的

Preliminary: 初期的；初步的

Intend: 打算；想要

Retool: 重新装配（机器设备）;重新安排

注释：

have a leg up on somebody 这个美国习惯用语的意思是"比别人有优势" ,例如：She probably has a leg up on the other applicants for the job because she has more experience.与其他申请这个工作的人相比，她可能有优势，因为她的经验更丰富。