TWIN LIVES

TWIN LIVES

It is well known that twins are closer to each other than most brothers and sisters – after all, they probably spend more time with each other. Parents of twins often notice that they develop special ways of communicating: they invent their own words and one can often finish the other’s sentence. In exceptional circumstances, this closeness becomes more extreme: they invent a whole language of their own, as in the case of Grace and Virginia Kennedy in the USA, who communicated so successfully in their own special language that they did not speak any English at all until after they started school. In Britain there was the famous case of the ‘silent twins’, June and Jennifer Gibbons, who were perfectly capable of normal speech, but for years refused to talk to anyone but each other.

However, these special relationships are the result of lives spent almost entirely in each other’s company. What happens when twins do not grow up together, when they are separated at birth for some reason? Are they just like any other strangers, or are there still special bonds and similarities between them? Professor Tom Bouchard, of the University of Minnesota, set out to find the answer to this question. He traced sixteen pairs of twins, who were adopted by different families when they were babies, and often brought up in very different circumstances. Each twin was then interviewed about every small detail of their life.

The results of this research make surprising reading. Many of the twins were found to have the same hobbies or phobias, many have suffered the same illnesses, and some have even had the same type of accident at the same point in their lives. When they arrived in Minneapolis, many were dressed in very similar clothes. One pair of middle-aged women arrived for their first meeting in identical dresses, another pair were wearing identical jewellery. A large number of the twins have had children at almost the same times; sometimes they have even given them the same names. Terry Connolly and Margaret Richardson, British twins who didn’t meet until they were in their mid-thirties, found that they had been married on the same day of the same year at almost the same time of the day. Both women have also had four children, all of more or less the same age.

But the most incredible similarities are to be found in the case of Jim Springer and Jim Lewis from Ohio in the USA. The story of the ‘Jim Twins’ made headline news across the USA, and they even appeared on national television. Born to an immigrant woman in 1939, and adopted by different families at birth, both babies were named Jim by their new parents. This was just the first in an almost unbelievable series of coincidences:

• Both grew up with an adopted brother called Larry.

• As children both had dogs called Toy.

• At school both boys liked maths and disliked spelling.

• Since leaving school, both men have worked in the fast-food restaurants, as petrol station attendants and as deputy sheriffs.

• Both men have been married twice, first to a woman called Linda and then to a woman called Betty.

• They both named their first son James Alan.

• Both suffer from the same kind of tension headaches.

• Both have had two heart attacks.

• Their homes and gardens are remarkably similar.

• They drink the same brand of beer and chain-smoke the same brand of cigarettes.

But what can be the explanation for these remarkable similarities? Is it all pure coincidence, or is the explanation in some way genetic? Research into the lives of twins is forcing some experts to admit that our personalities may be at least partly due to ‘nature’. On the other hand, analysts are also anxious to emphasize that incredible coincidences do happen all the time, not just in the lives of twins.

Discuss the following questions:

1. What did Professor Tom Bouchard want to find out? How did he do this?

2. Give some examples of the kinds of similarities Professor Bouchard found between the Minnesota twins.

3. Why do you think the ‘Jim Twins’ became famous in the USA?

4. How do scientists explain the similarities between the sets of twins separated at birth?

5. Which of the coincidences described in the text do you find most surprising?

6. Do you agree that personality is partly genetic? Can you see any similarities between the personalities of the people in your family? Are there any important differences?

DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR TWO OF A KIND

Read an article about twins. Choose from the list A – H the most suitable summary sentence for each part (1 – 6) of the article. There is one extra summary sentence that you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning (0).

0 __H__

For years the problem of parents like Desmond and Karen Monk has been largely unrecognised in Britain. The Monks have twins: Colleen and Emily, aged five, who are the public image of twins. See them, and you see why no mother can walk with twins along the street without attracting admiring sounds from everybody. But the popular view does not recognize that beginning life as a twin, often under severe conditions, can mean special problems for parents, teachers and doctors – not to mention twins themselves.

1 _____

The Monks pride themselves on the way they have managed, but Karen admits: “Things were really tough when they were aged between one and a half and three. They were just very demanding, both of them wanting your attention at the same time. If you had one on your lap, the other wanted to be there. You can’t develop the same kind of one-to-one relationship with twins as you have with one child.”

2 _____

Twins often find great strength and support in one another. But this strong connection, endearing though it can be, can push individuality aside. The characters of individual children can be buried within one another.

3 _____

Despite all the similarities there are always differences. In the case of the Monks, one twin tends to be more outgoing than the other. “When they were little, this tended to flow from one to the other. For six months one would be outgoing and the other would be the opposite, very dependent. Then they would change roles. I can’t explain why.

4 ______

All twin parents face a problem as to how far play up or down twinship. Should twins have twin-like names, as has always been common practice? Should they be dressed the same to emphasize their relationship, or differently, to make it less obvious? Should they be encouraged to play together or apart? Should they go to the same school?

5 _____

Twins are now attracting increasing interest from scientists. Some extremely interesting research in the USA shows that even if identical twins are separated early in life and grow up in different places, they tend to develop surprising similarities.

6 _____

The so-called ‘Jim Twins’ are one example. In January 1979 James Lewis, a security guard in Lima, Ohio, found his twin brother, whom he had not seen since they were both adopted into different families at the age of five. A meeting was arranged 39 years after the twins had last seen each other. It turned out that both were called James. Both had married women called Linda, divorced and remarried, both marrying women called Betty. Both had owned dogs as boys, and called them Toy. The brothers have the same sleeping problems and share the same smoking habits. They also share ‘tension headaches’ that begin in the afternoon and develop into migraines.

1. You will usually find that twins are not exactly alike.

2. It has been discovered that twins who have grown up apart sometimes have amazingly similar life histories.

3. It is not clear to what degree parents should bring out the similarities between twins.

4. Studies into life histories of twins show that being a twin can lead to a very difficult life.

5. The lives of one pair of twins show extraordinary similarities.

6. Being twins has both advantages and disadvantages.

7. Managing with twins can be extremely difficult.

8. The ideas that most of us have about twins may be wrong.