六級(jí)閱讀訓(xùn)練06

　　eople 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. The controversy 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 environment is 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 that whites 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.

　　【參考譯文】

　　[1]人們長(zhǎng)期以來一直想弄清楚，他們的性格和行為是怎樣形成的。為什么一個(gè)人聰明而另一個(gè)人卻不聰明，或者為什么一個(gè)人有協(xié)作精神而另一個(gè)人卻有競(jìng)爭(zhēng)意識(shí)，要解釋這些可不容易。

　　社會(huì)科學(xué)家當(dāng)然對(duì)這類問題特別感興趣。[1]他們希望解釋為什么我們具有某些性格并顯現(xiàn)某些行為。對(duì)此，迄今還沒有明確的答案，但已經(jīng)產(chǎn)生了兩個(gè)截然不同的思想流派。正如人們所料，兩派觀點(diǎn)存在巨大差異，[2]各自理論的支持者之間存在著巨大的爭(zhēng)議。分歧通常被稱為“天性論”對(duì)“教養(yǎng)論”。

　　[3]爭(zhēng)議雙方中支持“天性論”的那些人認(rèn)為，我們的性格和行為模式大部分取決于生物和遺傳因素。 這一理論的核心是，我們的環(huán)境跟我們的能力、性格和行為即使有什么關(guān)系的話，也是很少的。[3]說得極端一點(diǎn)，這一理論堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為，我們的行為在很大程度上由先天決定，以致我們幾乎完全是受本能控制的。

　　[2]那些支持“教養(yǎng)論”的人，即通常所謂的行為主義者聲稱，在決定我們的行為上，環(huán)境比以生理為孤本能更重要。行為主義者認(rèn)為，作為生物的人類，其行為幾乎完全由環(huán)境塑。[4]他們的觀點(diǎn)幾乎完全是機(jī)械的;他們堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為人類就像機(jī)器一樣，對(duì)環(huán)境的刺激所做出的反應(yīng)就是人類行為的基礎(chǔ)。

　　[5]這兩種理論有著深刻的社會(huì)涵義和政治涵義。例如在美國，在標(biāo)準(zhǔn)智力測(cè)試中黑人得分常常低于白人。由此導(dǎo)致一些“天性論”支持者得出結(jié)論，認(rèn)為黑人在遺傳上劣于白人。相反，行為主義者認(rèn)為成績(jī)的差異是由于黑人往往被剝奪了白人在教育和其他環(huán)境方面所享有的許多有利條件，由此產(chǎn)生的結(jié)果是，他們做出的反應(yīng)和白人不一樣。

　　[1]這兩種理論無論哪一種都仍未能充分解釋人類的行為。事實(shí)上，很可能我們行為的關(guān)鍵因素存在于這兩個(gè)極端之間。但分歧會(huì)持續(xù)很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間——這一點(diǎn)卻是肯定的。

　　【試題】

　　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 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

　　【選項(xiàng)翻譯和答案詳解】

　　1.作者主要關(guān)注于解決什么問題?

　　A) 為什么一個(gè)人的行為與其他人的行為不一樣?

　　B) 智力發(fā)展的不同階段是怎么形成的?

　　C)社會(huì)科學(xué)家是如何形成不同的理論的?

　　D) 是什么造成了“天性論，教養(yǎng)論”的爭(zhēng)議?

　　[A]原文開頭兩段指出作者要討論的問題，第2段末開始從兩個(gè)方面解釋該問題，末段是總結(jié)段，從文章的結(jié)構(gòu)可見文章要探討的是人類行為如何形成。從選項(xiàng)來看，似乎沒有一個(gè)表達(dá)此意，但首段末句和第2段第2句中的why...從句表明how(怎樣形成)和why(為什么不同)其實(shí)是對(duì)文章關(guān)注的問題的兩個(gè)不同表述，故選A。

　　2. 能替換“proponents”(支持者)一詞的是哪一個(gè)?

　　A)方法 B)倡導(dǎo)者 C)原則 D)特征

　　[D]第4段首句可以比較明顯看出proponents和該句中的they以及behaviorists所指相同。由此可見，proponents 一詞指的應(yīng)該是人;第5段第3句中的conclude也表明proponents是有行為能力的人，只有選項(xiàng)B符臺(tái)這種推測(cè)。其他選項(xiàng)都是無行為能力的“方法”、“原則”或“特征”，都不適于原文句子的內(nèi)容和搭配。

　　3.下列哪一種言論能得到“天性論”的支持?

　　A) 我們的一些性格和行為是與生俱來的

　　B) 環(huán)境與我們的性格沒有關(guān)系。

　　C) 能力和個(gè)性是可以從行為中反映出來的。

　　D)只有極端行為才是由天性決定的。

　　[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“天性論”派會(huì)認(rèn)同選項(xiàng)A的看法。第3段第2句表明選項(xiàng)B中的has nothing to do with... 不正確;原文并未提及選項(xiàng)C中提到的能力、特點(diǎn)和行為之間的關(guān)系;選項(xiàng)D只是將第3段末句的某些詞語拼合在一起，原文并未討論有關(guān)extreme behaviors的內(nèi)容。

　　4.關(guān)于行為學(xué)家我們了解到的是什么?

　　A) 他們相信人類具有機(jī)械性。

　　B) 他們將我們的行為比作機(jī)器。

　　C) 他們暗示我們對(duì)環(huán)境做出的反應(yīng)就像機(jī)器做出的反應(yīng)一樣。

　　D) 他們認(rèn)為，機(jī)械性理論也可以適用于我們。

　　[C]本題實(shí)際上考查對(duì)第4段末句的正確理解。原文該句中的like machines, humans respond...表明作者并非單純把人類比作機(jī)器，而是把人類對(duì)環(huán)境的反應(yīng)與機(jī)械對(duì)環(huán)境的反應(yīng)作對(duì)比，故選項(xiàng)C正確。

　　5.“天性論”理論者認(rèn)為，黑人的分?jǐn)?shù)很低_____________。

　　A) 因?yàn)榇嬖诮逃觿?shì)。

　　B) 顯示出黑有和智力低下。

　　C) 與他們真正的智力沒有關(guān)系。

　　D) 與除遺傳以外的其他的因素毫無關(guān)系。

　　[D]將第5段第3句與第3段結(jié)合起來，可以確定選項(xiàng)D為本題答案，只有選項(xiàng)D才符合“天性論”派對(duì)性格與行為形成的看法。選項(xiàng)A是另一派，即行為主義者的看法;原文該處雖也有intelligent一詞，但是“天性論”者關(guān)注的并非分?jǐn)?shù)與真正的智力之間的關(guān)系，他們關(guān)注的是造成黑人分?jǐn)?shù)低下的原因，事實(shí)上，原文也沒有提到分?jǐn)?shù)和智力之間是否存在某種關(guān)系，因此選項(xiàng)B和C都沒有原文依據(jù)。