Are some people born clever, and othersbornstupid? Or is intelligence developed by ourenvironment and ourexperiences? Strangelyenough, the answer to both these questions is yes.Tosome extent our intelligence is given us at birth,and no amount of specialeducation can make agenius out of a child born with low intelligence. Ontheother hand, a child who lives in a boringenvironment will develop hisintelligence less than one who lives in rich and variedsurroundings. Thus thelimits of a person’s intelligence are fixed at birth, but whether or nothereaches those limits will depend on his environment. This view, now held bymost experts,can be supported in a number of ways.

It is easy to show that intelligence isto some extent something we are born with. The closer the blood relationshipbetween two people, the closer they are likely to be in intelligence. Thus ifwe take two unrelated people at random(任意的) from the population,it is likely thattheir degrees of intelligence will be completely different. If on the otherhand we take two identical (完全相同的) twins they will very likely be asintelligent as each other. Relations like brothers and sisters, parents andchildren, usually have similar intelligence, and this clearly suggests that intelligencedepends on birth.

Imagine now that we take two identicaltwins and put them in different environments. We might send one, for example,to a university and the other to a factory where the work is boring. We wouldsoon find differences in intelligence developing, and this indicates thatenvironment as well as birth plays a part. This conclusion is also suggested bythe fact that people who live in close contact with each other, but who are notrelated at all, are likely to have similar degrees of intelligence.

1. Which of these sentences bestdescribes the writer’s point in Paragraph 1?

A. To some extent, intelligence is givenat birth.

B. Intelligence is developed by theenvironment.

C. Some people are born clever andothers born stupid.

D. Intelligence is fixed at birth, butis developed by the environment.

2. It is suggested in this passagethat_______.

A. unrelated people are not likely tohave different intelligence

B. close relations usually have similarintelligence

C. the closer the blood relationshipbetween people, the more different they are likely to be in intelligence

D. people who live in close contact witheach other are not likely to have similar degrees of intelligence

3. Brothers and sisters are likely to_______.

A. have similar intelligence B. havedifferent intelligence

C. go to the same university D. go tothe same factory

4. In Paragraph 1, the word"surroundings" means_______.

A. intelligence B. life

C. environments D. housing

5. The best title for this articlewould be_______.

A. On Intelligence

B. What Intelligence Means

C. We Are Born with Intelligence

D. Environment Plays a Part inDeveloping Intelligence

参考答案： DBACA