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  3. "The Heredity Versus Environment Debate"P1 The past cen

"The Heredity Versus Environment Debate"P1 The past cen

游客2024-01-03  46
问题                      "The Heredity Versus Environment Debate"
P1    The past century has seen heated controversy about whether intelligence, which relates strongly to school achievement, is determined primarily by heredity or by environment. A    When IQ tests were undergoing rapid development early in the twentieth century, many psychologists believed that intelligence was determined primarily by heredity.    B
P2    Environmentalist view. By the middle of the twentieth century, numerous studies had counteracted the hereditarian view, and most social scientists took the position that environment is as important as or even more important than heredity in determining intelligence. C    Social scientists who stress the environmentalist view of intelligence generally emphasize the need for continual compensatory programs beginning in infancy. Many also criticize the use of IQ tests on the grounds that these tests are culturally biased. D
P3    James Flynn, who collected similar data on other countries, found that "massive" gains in the IQ scores of the population in fourteen nations have occurred during the twentieth century. These improvements, according to Flynn’s analysis, largely stemmed not from genetic improvement in the population but from environmental changes that ied to gains in the kinds of skills assessed by IQ tests. Torsten Husen and his colleagues also have concluded, after reviewing large amounts of data, that improvements in economic and social conditions, and particularly in the availability of schooling, can produce substantial gains in average IQ from one generation to the next. In general, educators committed to improving the performance of low-achieving students find these studies encouraging.
P4    Hereditarian view. The hereditarian view of intelligence underwent a major revival in the 1970s and 1980s, based particularly on the writings of Arthur Jensen, Richard Herrnstein, and a group of researchers conducting the Minnesota Study of Twins. Summarizing previous research as well as their own studies, these researchers identified heredity as the major factor in determining intelligence—accounting for up to 80 percent of the variation in IQ scores.
P5    Jensen published a highly controversial study in the Harvard Educational Review in 1969. Pointing out that African-Americans averaged about 15 points below whites on IQ tests, Jensen attributed this gap to a genetic difference between the two races in learning abilities and patterns. Critics countered Jensen’s arguments by contending that a host of environmental factors that affect IQ, including malnutrition and prenatal care are difficult to measure and impossible to separate from hereditary factors. IQ tests are biased, they said, and do not necessarily even measure intelligence. After his 1969 article, Jensen has continued to cite data that he believed link intelligence primarily to heredity. His critics continue to respond with evidence that environmental factors, and schooling in particular, have a major influence on IQ.
P6    Synthesizers’ view. Certain social scientists have taken a middle, or "synthesizing," position in this controversy. The synthesizers’ view of intelligence holds that both heredity and environment contribute to differences in measured intelligence. For example, Christopher Jencks, after reviewing a large amount of data, concluded that heredity is responsible for 45 percent of the IQ variance, environment accounts for 35 percent, and interaction between the two ("interaction" meaning that particular abilities thrive or wither in specific environments) accounts for 20 percent. Robert Nichols reviewed all these and other data and concluded that the true value for heredity may be anywhere between 0.40 and 0.80 but that the exact value has little importance for policy. In general, Nichols and other synthesizers maintain that heredity determines the fixed limits of a range; within those limits, the interaction between environment and heredity yields the individual’s intelligence. In this view, even if interactions between heredity and environment limit our ability to specify exactly how much of a child’s intelligence reflects environmental factors, teachers (and parents) should provide each child with a productive environment in which to realize her or his maximum potential.
Glossary
IQ:    intelligence quotient; a numerical value for intelligence [br] According to paragraph 2, which of the following is true about environmentalists?
选项 A、They had only a few studies to prove their viewpoint.
B、They did not agree with the use of IQ tests to measure intelligence.
C、They did not believe that educational programs could raise IQ scores.
D、They were already less popular by the mid twentieth century.
答案 B
解析
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