Are some people born clever, and others born stupid? Or is intelligence developed by our environment and our experience? Strangely enough, the answer to these questions is yes. To some degree our intelligence is given to us at birth, and no amount of education can make a genius out of a child born with low intelligence. On the other hand, a child who lives in a boring environment will develop his intelligence less than one who lives in rich and different surroundings. Thus the limits of persons’ intelligence are fixed at birth, and whether or not he reaches those limits will depend on his environment. This idea, now held by most experts, can be supported in a number of ways.
It is easy to show that intelligence is to some degree something we are born with. The closer the blood relationship between two people, the closer they are likely to be intelligent. Thus if we take two unrelated people at random from population, it is likely that their degree of intelligence will be completely different. If, on the other hand, we take two twins, they are very likely to be as intelligent as each other. Relations like brothers and sisters, parents and children, usually have similar intelligence, and this clearly suggests that intelligence depends on birth.
Imagine now that we take two identical twins 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 would soon find differences in intelligence developing, and this shows that environment as well as birth plays a part. This conclusion is also suggested by the fact that people who live in touch with each other, but who are not related at all are likely to have similar degree of intelligence.
小题1:If a child is born with low intelligence, he can ______.
A．become a genius
B．not reach his intelligence in his life
C．reach his intelligence limits in rich surroundings
D．still become a genius if he should be given special education小题2:In Paragraph 2, the underlined sentence “if we take two unrelated people at random from population” means “______.”
A．if we pick any two persons
B．if we take out two different persons
C．if we choose two persons who have relations
D．if we choose two persons with different intelligence小题3:The example of the twins going to a university and to a factory separately shows ______.
A．the part that birth plays
B．the importance of their relations
C．the importance of their intelligence
D．the role of environment on intelligence小题4:The best title of the passage can be “______”.
A．Surroundings
B．Intelligence
C．Dependence on Environment
D．Effect of Education
