BE MY VALENTINES: IS MONOGAMY NATURAL TO US?

By: André da Loba

Published: The Wall Street Journal, February 13, 2014

Level of Difficulty: **

Note to the student: this is an easy level ** or difficult level* so make this one of the first activities you do in this level.

WATCH AND THINK ABOUT

·         Are humans naturally monogamous? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WllG99nS7ck

The case of monogamy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTH-8g6ZrF4

QUESTIONS

1.       What does “that” refer to in the phrase “in answering that”?

2.       What interesting piece of information is provided about divorce rates?

3.       What conclusion can we draw from the paragraph beginning “Anthropology”? Be precise.

4.       Why do males and females vary so much in terms of physical structure in “tournament species”?

5.       Peacocks and primates are similar to each other in that the males of both species take part in…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

6.       How do attitudes to child care vary between polygamous male primates and pair bonding primates? What is the reason for the lack of indiscriminate mating among the latter?

7.       We understand from the text that there is a positive correlation between polygamy and……………………………………………………..in males.

8.       What conclusion can be drawn from the third paragraph from the end?

9.       What conclusion is reached in the text concerning the question posed in the title?

WRITING TASK

This reading activity lends itself beautifully to a summary activity so that is what you are required to do. Remember the best summary is brief and to the point.

BE MY VALENTINES: IS MONOGAMY NATURAL TO US? KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES

As I have often said before, it is such a relief to find serious scientific material that is not lexically demanding. Today with the ever increasing numbers of adult learners such texts are vital and here is another one. This text should lead to some lively discussion as well as providing an introduction to summary writing.

1. Humans are actually monogamous or not.
2. Our high divorce rates result disproportionately from serial divorcers.
3. Anthropology doesn’t give a clear answer to the question whether we humans are actually monogamous by nature
4. To compete for high rank in dominance hierarchies and for mating access to females
5. Costly displays that advertise good genes
6. Males in polygamous species basically put zero effort into caring for kids but pair bonding males do much of the child-care. The males will be doing a lot of the work if there is a child.
7. Sexual dimorphism
8. These profiles are consistent
9. Humans aren’t monogamous or polygamous but somewhere in between.