Few scientific fields are as full of risk as that of research into human intelligence. The two questions that (1) over and over again are "is it a result of nature or nurture" and "does race make a difference"
Making (2) comments about the second question can be a (3) move, as James Watson, a co-discoverer of DNA structure, recently found. He suggested that he was " (4) about the prospect of Africa" (5) "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours (white people) (6) all the testing says not really". Such (7) by Dr. Watson are not merely (8) , they are scientifically weird. If the term (9) has any useful scientific meaning, then Africa, the continent where modern humanity began, is most racially diverse. The resulting (10) among the public forced Dr. Watson to leave his laboratory.
(11) , the study of the first question (12) between intelligence and genetics— has some wiser practitioners. One of them, Terrie Moffitt, of King’s College, has just (13) a project judging the relative importance of nature and nurture. Dr. Moffitt’s team (14) the effect on intelligence of breastfeeding, but in a genetic context. Previous studies have shown that breastfed children are more intelligent, (15) about six IQ points, than those given baby formulas.
The team, however, (16) the involvement of a gene called FADS2, which comes in two varieties, known as C and G. The researchers (17) if these two varieties interacted differently with breast milk. (18) on data from two groups of people, they found that the intelligence increase associated with breastfeeding only happened to people having (19) at least one copy of the C variety. The effect did not. (20) on the social classes or IQs of the parents.
3（）
A.career-killing
B.career-facilitating
C.time-consuming
D.energy-saving
参考答案：A
解析：
[试题考点] 上下文语意关系和形容词词义辨析。
[解题思路] 本题空格与第二题空格以及下文相关联。联系第二题的分析可知，该句意为“对第二个问题做出愚蠢的评论将会是______的行为”，既然评论是愚蠢的，那么其结果肯定是不好的。且后文中的例子指出，由于James Watson对种族与智力之间的关系做出了荒谬的评论，最后他不得不离开了实验室(forced Dr. Watson to leave his laboratory)。根据文章前后呼应的关系可知，本题空格处应填入表达此种负面结果的词，选项[A]career-killing意为“终结职业的；自毁前程的”，代入文中，符合文意。
[干扰排除] 选项[B]career-facilitating意为“促进事业进步的”，与下文Dr. Watson因其言论被迫离开实验室的语意相悖，故可排除。选项[C]意为“费时的”，选项[D]意为“节约能源的”，代入文中也不符合上下文语意，故排除。