单选题 To study something scientifically, you first have to measure it, and psychologists have developed tests for many mental traits. And contrary to popular opinion, the tests work pretty well. They give a similar measurement of a person every time they are administered, and they statistically predict life outcomes like school and job performance, psychiatric diagnoses, and marital stability. Tests for intelligence might ask people to recite a string of digits backward, define a word like " predicament, " identify what an egg and a seed have in common, or assemble four triangles into a square. Personality tests ask people to agree or disagree with statements like " Often I cross the street in order not to meet someone I know, " "I often was in trouble in school, " "Before I do something I try to consider how my friends will react to it, " and " People say insulting and vulgar things about me. " People"s answers to a large set of these questions tend to vary in five major ways; openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness(as opposed to antagonism), and neuroticism. The scores can then be compared with those of relatives who vary in relatedness and family background. The most prominent finding of behavioral genetics has been summarized by the psychologist Eric Turkheimer: "The nature-nurture debate is over... All human behavioral traits are heritable. " By this he meant that a substantial fraction of the variation among individuals within a culture can be linked to variation in their genes. Whether you measure intelligence or personality, religiosity or political orientation, television watching or cigarette smoking, the outcome is the same. Behavioral geneticists like Turkheimer are quick to add that many of the differences among people cannot be attributed to their genes. First among these are the effects of culture, which cannot be measured by these studies because all the participants come from the same culture, typically middle-class European or American. The importance of culture is obvious from the study of history and anthropology. The reason most of us don"t challenge each other to duals or worship our ancestors or chug down a nice warm glass of cow urine has nothing to do with genes and everything to do with the milieu in which we grew up. But this still leaves the question of why people in the same culture differ from one another.
单选题 Many people believe to measure one"s mental traits is
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:由题干的“mental traits”定位到第一段前两句。心理学家开发了针对心理特点的测试,第二句的“contrary to popular opinion,the tests work pretty well”,说明测试进行得很顺利,这是和大多数人的观点相反的,因此可推论出大多数人们以为这些测试并不简单,故B为答案。
单选题 Eric Turkheimer believes that man"s mental behavior is determined mainly by
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:由题干中的“Eric Turkheimer”定位到第二段第一句。他认为先天遗传与后天环境的争论已经结束,所有人类的行为都由遗传决定。所以A项nature“先天遗传”是本题答案。
单选题 That the result of the test may not be accurate is because
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:由题干中的“result of the test”定位到第二段第四、五句。基因决定个体之间的差异,但是也有很多无法由基因决定的区别,比如这些研究就不能适用于不是来自同一文化的人们,因此测试不准确的原因是C项。
单选题 The sentence "The reason most of us don"t... chug down a nice warm glass of cow urine... " tries to prove that because of cultural heritage
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:这句话的意思是:人们之间的行为差异,比如决斗、崇拜祖先或是喝牛尿,都与基因无关,而与成长环境相关。因此可推断因为文化传承的原因,喝牛尿的确是某些人的行为,所以答案为C。
单选题 According to the findings reported in this article, what of the following is NOT statistically predictable?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:由题干中的“statistically predictable”定位到第一段第三句。“school and job performance,psychiatricdiagnoses,and marital stability”这些都是可以预测出的,只有C项“将来收入的多少”是没有提到的,故为答案。