The human species is unique in its ability to expand its functionality by inventing new cultural tools. Writing, arithmetic, science ― all are recent inventions. Our brains did not have enough time to evolve for them, but I reason that they were made possible because ____________________. When we learn to read, we recycle a specific region of our visual system known as the visual word-form area, enabling us to recognize strings of letters and connect them to language areas. Likewise, when we learn Arabic numerals we build a circuit to quickly convert those shapes into quantities ― a fast connection from bilateral visual areas to the parietal quantity area. Even an invention as elementary as finger-counting changes our cognitive abilities dramatically. Amazonian people who have not invented counting are unable to make exact calculations as simple as, say, 6—2. This “cultural recycling” implies that the functional architecture of the human brain results from a complex mixture of biological and cultural constraints. [3점]

* bilateral: 양측의 ** parietal: 정수리(부분)의 *** constraint: 제약