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.
9（）
A.intelligence
B.prospect
C.society
D.race
参考答案：D
解析：
[试题考点] 上下文语意关系和名词词义辨析。
[解题思路] 本题空格所在部分为term(术语)的同位语，在条件状语从句中作主语。空格所在句意为“如果______一词还有科学意义的活，那么非洲——现代人类起源的大陆——从种族上而言是最具有多样性的”。由于前文提到了，Watson博士对“种族与智力的关系做出了愚巅的回答”，且这一回答“不仅仅具有冒犯性，且从科学上讲是不合情理的”。空格所在句承接上文，反驳Dr. Watson的观点：非洲种族多样，由此推断他们应该具有很高的智力水平，故此处仍在说明“种族”，四个选项中，只有选项[D]race符合文意。此空格填入race一词也与后文中的racially diverse前后呼应。
[干扰排除] 选项[A]intelligence意为“智力”，填入空格中，与后文中的racially diverse无法构成合理的逻辑关系。选项[B]prospect意为“前景；未来”，选项[C]society意为“社会”，这两项代入文中既与上下文谈论的主题race不符，也无法与后文中的racially diverse形成通顺的文意，故排除。