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.
12（）
A.similarities
B.differences
C.links
D.contradictions
参考答案：C
解析：
[试题考点] 上下文语意关系和名词词义辨析。
[解题思路] 本题空格位于两个破折号之间，该部分为the first question的同位语，空格所填词及其后置定语between intelligence and genetics(智商与基因之间的)，具体解释the first question的内容，联系上文可知，第一个问题为"is it a result of nature or nurture" (智商是后天培养的还是先天形成的)，即它探讨的是基因与智商的关系，将四个选项代入文中，只有选项[C]links(关系；联系)符合文意。
[干扰排除] 选项[A]similarities意为“相似点；类似之处”，选项[B]differences意为“差别；差异”，选项[D]contradictions意为“矛盾；相悖之处”，代入文中，均与第一个问题的内容不符。