While still catching-up to men in some spheres of modern life, women appear to be way ahead in at least one undesirable category. “Women are particularly susceptible to developing depression and anxiety disorders in response to stress compared to men,” according to Dr. Yehuda, chief psychiatrist at New York’s Veteran’s Administration Hospital.

Studies of both animals and humans have shown that sex hormones somehow affect the stress response, causing females under stress to produce more of the trigger chemicals than do males under the same conditions. In several of the studies, when stressed-out female rats had their ovaries (the female reproductive organs) removed, their chemical responses became equal to those of the males.

Adding to a woman’s increased dose of stress chemicals, are her increased “opportunities” for stress. “It’s not necessarily that women don’t cope as well. It’s just that they have so much more to cope with,” says Dr. Yehuda. “Their capacity for tolerating stress may even be greater than men’s,” she observes, “it’s just that they’re dealing with so many more things that they become worn out from it more visibly and sooner.”

Dr. Yehuda notes another difference between the sexes. “I think that the kinds of things that women are exposed to tend to be in more of a chronic or repeated nature. Men go to war and are exposed to combat stress. Men are exposed to more acts of random physical violence. The kinds of interpersonal violence that women are exposed to tend to be in domestic situations, by, unfortunately, parents or other family members, and they tend not to be one-shot deals. The wear-and-tear that comes from these longer relationships can be quite devastating.”

Adeline Alvarez married at 18 and gave birth to a son, but was determined to finish college. “I struggled a lot to get the college degree. I was living in so much frustration that that was my escape, to go to school, and get ahead and do better.” Later, her marriage ended and she became a single mother. “It’s the hardest thing to take care of a teenager, have a job, pay the rent, pay the car payment, and pay the debt. I lived from paycheck to paycheck.”

Not everyone experiences the kinds of severe chronic stresses Alvarez describes. But most women today are coping with a lot of obligations, with few breaks, and feeling the strain. Alvarez’s experience demonstrates the importance of finding ways to diffuse stress before it threatens your health and your ability to function.

Which of the following is true according to the first two paragraphs?

[A] Women are biologically more vulnerable to stress.

[B] Women are still suffering much stress caused by men.

[C] Women are more experienced than men in coping with stress.

[D] Men and women show different inclinations when faced with stress.

題型識別：主題題

題干定位：需找原文主題句和主體詞。文中第一句就引出了文章主題：女性更容易受到壓力的負面影響，之后各段就展開討論。主體詞在文中就是兩個：women和stress。

思路解析：對于主題題而言，通常主體詞或者主體詞的替換詞是應該出現在選項中的，并且要注意選項范圍的大小，太小流于細節，太大就會超出文章討論的范圍，此題中women和stress為主體詞，應該在正確答案中出現。

選項分析：包含有這兩個主體詞的選項為D。C只是論證過程中的細節;A沒有談及女性且沒有結論;B是一個干擾選項，范圍過大，這篇文章只在說女性沒有談及男性的具體情況，所以還談不上性別上的不同。

很多人不知道2016考研英語閱讀理解的文體到底是什么，可以明確的是，是議論文，哪怕是科普性的文章也是側重對文中觀點進行考查。在閱讀的標準化試題中，我們都可以把閱讀分為三個部分：原文、題干和選項。原文是解題的依據，題干是解題的路標，選項是解題的關鍵。