Girls were 28 more sensitive to sounds and more skillful at fine motor performance than boys.
答案：(B) both
【句型】both...and... 固定句型，這裡 both more sensitive...and more skillful 表示女孩「既……又……」（對聲音更敏感，也更擅長精細動作）；very（非常，不合這個並列結構）、still（仍然）、thus（因此）都不合。
very 大概是你最熟的加強語氣的字，very sensitive（非常敏感）幾乎是反射動作。眼睛掃到空格後面的 sensitive，手就先填了 very，沒注意到中間還卡著一個 more。答對率四成四、鑑別度只有 34，連高分群考生也大量失手，原因就在這個反射太快——對 very 加形容詞越熟的人，越容易把中間的 more 直接跳過去。
四個選項的詞性各不相同，文法上刷不掉，那就先把句子結構拉出來：Girls were ___ more sensitive to sounds and more skillful at fine motor performance than boys.——were 後面掛著兩串並列的比較級，一串是 more sensitive to sounds，另一串是 more skillful at fine motor performance，中間用 and 連起來。看到 and 把兩個對等的東西串在一起，空格就該去找那個跟 and 呼應的字，both...and...（既……又……）正是這一組，掛鉤是國中的 Both Tom and Mary are good at math.（湯姆和瑪莉數學都很好。）。填進去讀一次：女孩既對聲音更敏感，精細動作也更靈巧，兩件事並列，完全成立。
very：這是本題最容易選的一個，但它有個致命傷——very 修飾的是原級形容詞（very sensitive 非常敏感），要加強比較級得換人。劍橋 English Grammar Today 列出可以用來加強比較級的字是 much、a lot、far、even、rather（This food is much better than the food we had yesterday. 這頓飯比我們昨天吃的好太多了。），very 不在其中，所以 very more sensitive 本身就不成立。still（仍然）：語意上要有一個「照理說不該如此、卻還是如此」的前提才用得上，而前一句只是在說研究發現了性別差異，沒有任何讓步的語境。thus（因此）：表因果，可是前一句沒有任何原因能推出這個結果。
both A and B（既 A 又 B）、not only A but also B（不但 A 而且 B）、be sensitive to（對……敏感）、be skillful at（擅長於）、fine motor skills（精細動作能力）、much more ＋ 形容詞（……得多）。
Learning style means a person's natural, habitual, and preferred way(s) of learning. Research about learning styles has identified 26 differences.
For example, one study found various differences 27 boys and girls in sensory learning styles. Girls were 28 more sensitive to sounds and more skillful at fine motor performance than boys. Boys, 29, showed an early visual superiority to girls. They were, however, clumsier than girls. They performed poorly at a detailed activity 30 arranging a row of beads. But boys excelled at other activities that required total body coordination.