Chapter 6: Is the World Made Up of Nouns or Verbs?

Sooo... reading the section about categorizing objects, I was reminded of tests I had taken when I was around elementary school age and still living in the U.K. There was almost always a section on these tests that asked me to circle the odd one out, whether it was from a group of words or pictures like the cow, grass, and chicken illustration on page 141. But I have no memory of having taken such tests at my Japanese weekend school, so I guess Nisbett's suggestion that Westerners place a stronger emphasis on categorization is true. However, I also see this as contradictory of Western characteristics when I think back to the saying, "the peg that stands out is pounded down." Wouldn't it be easier for Asians to categorize objects since they are more sensitive to those that break the harmony and stick out as individuals?

I thought it was interesting how depending on the culture, speakers will exclude a different word from the same sentence, based on what they think is obvious. In Nisbett's example of drinking more tea, he described how Chinese speakers will take out "tea" while English speakers will take out "drink" when they ask somebody if they would like more tea to drink. But to me, "Would you like to drink more?" sounds all right in English too. Does that sound weird? Or maybe that's an example of fused thinking that Nisbett talks about towards the end.