Directions: Read through the following text, and fill in each numbered blank with ONE word that is both correct in form and appropriate to the context. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet.

People have wondered for a long time how their personalities and behaviors are formed. It is not easy to explain why one person is intelligent and another is not, or why one is【A1】_____ and another is competitive.

Social scientists are, of course, extremely interested in these types of questions. They want to explain【A2】_____ we possess certain characteristics and exhibit certain behaviors. There are no clear answers yet, but two distinct schools of thought【A3】_____ the matter have developed. 【A4】_____ one might expect, the two approaches are very different from each other. The controversy is often conveniently 【A5】_____ to as “nature versus nurture. ”

Those who support the “nature” side of the conflict believe that our personalities and behavior patterns are【A6】_____ determined by biological factors.【A7】_____ our environment has little, if anything, to do with our abilities, characteristics and behavior is central to this theory. Taken to【A8】_____ extreme, this theory maintains that our behavior is pre-determined to【A9】_____ a great degree that we are almost completely governed by our instincts.

Those who support the “nurture” theory are often called behaviorists. They【A10】_____ that our environment is more important than our biologically based instincts 【A11】_____ determining how we will act. A behaviorist, B. F. Skinner, sees humans as beings whose behavior is almost completely【A12】_____ by their surroundings. The behaviorists maintain that, like machines, humans【A13】 _____ to environmental stimuli as the basis of their behavior.

Let us examine the different explanations about one human characteristic, intelligence, offered by the two theories.【A14】_____ of the “nature” theory insist that we are born with a certain capacity for learning that is biologically determined.【A15】 _____ to say, they don’t believe that factors in the environment have much influence on【A16】_____ is basically a predetermined characteristic. On the other hand, behaviorists argue that our intelligence levels are the【A17】_____ of our experiences. Behaviorists suggest that the child who is raised in an environment where there are many stimuli which develop his or her capacity for appropriate responses will【A18】_____ greater intellectual development.

The social and political implications of these two theories are profound. In the United States, blacks often score【A19】_____ whites on standardized intelligence tests. This leads some “nature” proponents to conclude that blacks are biologically inferior to whites. Behaviorists, in contrast, say that【A20】_____ in scores are due to the fact that blacks are often deprived of many of the educational and other environmental advantages that whites enjoy.