People have wondered for a long time how their personalities and behaviors arc formed.It's not easy to explain why one person is intelligent and another is not. or why one is cooperative and another is competitive.

Social scientists are, of course, extremely interested in these types of question. They want to explain why we possess certain characteristics and exhibits certain behaviors. There are no clear answers yet, but two distinct schools of thought on thee matter have developed. As one might expect the two approaches are very different from one another. and there is a great deal of debate between proponents of each theory. Thecontroversy is often conveniently referred to as"nature/nurture".

Those who support the "nature" side of the conflict believe that our personalities and behavior patterns are largely determined by biological and genetic factor. That our environment has little. if anything to do with our abilities. characteristics. and behavior is central to this theory. Taken to an extreme, this theory Maintains that our behavior is predetermined to such a great degree that we are almost completely governed by our instincts.

Proponents of the "nurture" theory, or, as they are often called. behaviorists. claim that our environmentis more important than our biologically based instincts in determining how we will act. Behaviorists see humans as being whose behavior is almost completely shaped by their surroundings. Their view of the human being is quite mechanistic; they maintain that like machines. humans respond to environmental stimuli as the basis of their behavior.

The social and political implications or these two theories are profound. In the United Stares, for example, blacks often score below whites on standardized intelligent test. This leads some "nature" proponents to conclude that blacks are genetically interior to whites. Behaviorists, in contrast. say that the differences in scores are due to the fact that blacks are often deprived of many of the educational and other environmental advantages that white enjoy. and that. as a result. they do not develop the same responses thatwhites do.

Neither of these theories can yet fully explain human behavior. In fact, it is quite likely that the key to our behavior lies somewhere between these two extremes. That the controversy will continue for a long time is certain.

1. The author is mainly concerned about solving the problem__________________.

A) why one's behaviors differ from others'

B) what makes different stages of intelligence

C) how social scientists form different theories

D) what causes the "nature/nurture" controversy

2. The word "proponents" can best be replaced by _____.

A) approaches

B) advocates英语六级作文常用句型

C) principles

D) characters

3. Which of the following statements may be supported by the "nature" school?

A) We are born will certain personalities and behaviors.

B) Environment has nothing to do with our personalities.

C) Abilities and characteristics are revealed by behaviors.

D) Only extreme behaviors are determined by instinct.

4. What can we learn about the behaviorists?

A) They believe human beings are mechanical.

B) They compare our behaviors to the machines.

C) They suggest that we react to the environment as the machines do.

D) They uphold that the mechanistic theory can be applied on us as well.

5. The "nature” theorists believe that the blacks' low scores____________.

A) are the result of the educational disadvantages

B) are a manifestation of the blacks' poor intelligence

C) have nothing to do with their true intelligence

D) have nothing to do will factors other than heredity

答案：

1.作者主要关注于解决什么问题?

A) 为什么一个人的行为与其他人的行为不一样?

B) 智力发展的不同阶段是怎么形成的?

C)社会科学家是如何形成不同的理论的?

D) 是什么造成了“天性论，教养论”的争议?

[A]原文开头两段指出作者要讨论的问题，第2段末开始从两个方面解释该问题，末段是总结段，从文章的结构可见文章要探讨的是人类行为如何形成。从选项来看，似乎没有一个表达此意，但首段末句和第2段第2句中的why...从句表明how(怎样形成)和why(为什么不同)其实是对文章关注的问题的两个不同表述，故选A。

2. 能替换“proponents”(支持者)一词的是哪一个?

A)方法 B)倡导者 C)原则 D)特征

[D]第4段首句可以比较明显看出proponents和该句中的they以及behaviorists所指相同。由此可见，proponents 一词指的应该是人;第5段第3句中的conclude也表明proponents是有行为能力的人，只有选项B符台这种推测。其他选项都是无行为能力的“方法”、“原则”或“特征”，都不适于原文句子的内容和搭配。

3.下列哪一种言论能得到“天性论”的支持?

A) 我们的一些性格和行为是与生俱来的

B) 环境与我们的性格没有关系。

C) 能力和个性是可以从行为中反映出来的。

D)只有极端行为才是由天性决定的。

[A]第3段首句中的determined by biological and genetic factor和未句中的governed by our instincts/表明“天性论”派会认同选项A的看法。第3段第2句表明选项B中的has nothing to do with... 不正确;原文并未提及选项C中提到的能力、特点和行为之间的关系;选项D只是将第3段末句的某些词语拼合在一起，原文并未讨论有关extreme behaviors的内容。

4.关于行为学家我们了解到的是什么?

A) 他们相信人类具有机械性。

B) 他们将我们的行为比作机器。

C) 他们暗示我们对环境做出的反应就像机器做出的反应一样。

D) 他们认为，机械性理论也可以适用于我们。

[C]本题实际上考查对第4段末句的正确理解。原文该句中的like machines, humans respond...表明作者并非单纯把人类比作机器，而是把人类对环境的反应与机械对环境的反应作对比，故选项C正确。

5.“天性论”理论者认为，黑人的分数很低_____________。

A) 因为存在教育劣势。

B) 显示出黑有和智力低下。

C) 与他们真正的智力没有关系。

D) 与除遗传以外的其他的因素毫无关系。

[D]将第5段第3句与第3段结合起来，可以确定选项D为本题答案，只有选项D才符合“天性论”派对性格与行为形成的看法。选项A是另一派，即行为主义者的看法;原文该处虽也有intelligent一词，但是“天性论”者关注的并非分数与真正的智力之间的关系，他们关注的是造成黑人分数低下的原因，事实上，原文也没有提到分数和智力之间是否存在某种关系，因此选项B和C都没有原文依据。