阅读理解 New research asks whether psychopaths are born that way, or are made so by their upbringings. That, of course, is rather a crude way of putting it. After decades of debate, biologists have come to understand what was blindingly obvious to most laymen—which is that rather than being shaped by nature or nurture, most behavioural traits are the result of an interaction between the two. Nevertheless, one or the other can still be the dominant factor. And the study in question suggests that in the case of psychopathy, the genetic side is very important indeed.
Researchers have drawn their conclusion from a study of twins. The twins in question are on the books of a long-term project known as the Twins Early Development Study(TEDS), which has been following several thousand twins since their births in 1994 and 1995. Among other things, many of the twins in TEDS have been assessed both for a tendency to bad behaviour("conduct disorder", in the argot of the field)and for the display of what are referred to as callous-unemotional traits, such as a lack of feelings of guilt after doing something wrong, or not having at least one good friend. In adults, callous and unemotional traits are symptoms of psychopathy, and those who display such traits in childhood frequently keep them into adult life. The assessments were done by the children's teachers, whom years of experience have shown are more objective and accurate than a child's parents.
Based on the teachers' assessments, the researchers identified the naughtiest 10% of the individuals in their sample—in other words those with severe conduct disorder. They then subdivided these children into those with psychopathic traits and those without and asked, in each case, whether an individual's twin showed bad behaviour, psychopathy, or both. Their analysis showed that bad behaviour without psychopathy has relatively little genetic component—less than a third. By contrast, four-fifths of the difference in behaviour between the general population and children with psychopathic traits seems to lie in the genes.
Though the genes in question have yet to be identified, this result suggests they are too abundant to be there by chance—in other words they are being kept in the population by natural selection because psychopathic behaviour confers a selective advantage. If it does, such an advantage probably pertains only when psychopaths are in the minority(a state of affairs known to biologists as a balanced polymorphism). But it does mean that far from being an aberrant behaviour, psychopathy may be disturbingly normal.
单选题 11.It can be inferred from the first paragraph that previously it was thought that behavioural traits were______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】属推断题。原文首段第三句指出:几十年的争论之后,生物学家们渐渐明白了以前大部分门外汉都盲目接受的明显事实:人的大部分行为特征都是先天因素和后天因素相互作用的结果,而不是由先天因素或后天因素决定的。由此推知,以前人们的观点是行为特征是由先天因素或后天因素决定的,所以答案为C。同时否定A、B。D项接近人们现在的研究成果,但属答非所问。
单选题 12.The phrase "argot of the field"(line 5, para. 2)most probably means______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】属语义题。A项范围过大。本文陈述的是关于精神病患者的研究,所以文中的field指的应该是这一领域,因此答案为D。而twin research和TEDS只是其中的具体个案或项目。
单选题 13.Which of the following is not a callous-unemotional trait?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】属细节题。第二段第五行such as后列举了D项和B项,据此又可推知A项。所以C为正确答案。
单选题 14.It can be inferred from the third paragraph that______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】属推断题。第三段最后两句指出:他们的分析表明,非精神变态的不良行为是由相对很少的基因成分(不到三分之一)造成的。相比之下,普通孩子和有精神病特征的孩子之间的行为差异的五分之四似乎在于基因。由此推出,五分之一的不良行为(行为紊乱)是由后天因素造成的。所以答案为B。
单选题 15.The best title for this text might be______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】属主旨题。作者开门见山点出文章主旨:大部分行为特征都是先天因素和后天因素共同作用的结果,然而二者有一个是关键因素。研究表明,在精神病病症中,基因因素是非常重要的。接下来以对双胞胎的研究加以证明,进而强调基因在精神病病症中的决定作用。至此可推出“原罪”的主题。B项在文中没有根据;C项只是文中的试验对象;D项范围太大。