There are two factors which determine an individual’s intelligence. The first is the sort of brain he is born with. Human brains differ 41 , some being more capable than others. But no matter how good a brain he has to begin with, a (an) 42 will have a low intelligence unless he has opportunities to learn. So the second factor in what happens to the individual is the sort of environment in which he is 43 . If an individual is handicapped environmentally, it is likely that his brain will fail to develop. And he will never 44 the level of intelligence of which he is capable.
The importance of environment in determining an individual’s intelligence can be 45 by the case history of the identical twins, Peter and Mark. Being identical, the twins had identical brain at birth, and their growth processes were the same. When the twins were three months old, their parents died, and they were placed in 46 foster homes. Peter was reared by parents of low intelligence in an isolated community with poor 47 opportunities. Mark was reared in the home of well-to-do parents who had been to college. He was read to as a child, sent to good schools, and given every opportunity to be 48 intellectually. This environmental difference continued until the twins were in their late teens, when they were given tests to 49 their intelligence. Mark’s I.Q. was 125, twenty-five points higher than the 50 , and fully forty points higher than his identical brother. Given equal opportunities, the twins, having identical brains, would have scored at roughly the same level.
A. experiment I. inspired B. individual J. particularly C. attain K. educational D. considerably L. reared E. identity M. stimulated F. average N. measure G. intellectual O. demonstrated H. separate |
Passage 3
Taking charge of yourself involves putting to rest some very prevalent myths. At the top of the list is the notion that intelligence is measured by your ability to solve complex problems; to read, write and compute at certain levels; and to resolve abstract equations quickly. This vision of intelligence asserts formal education and bookish excellence as the true measures of self fulfillment. It encourages a kind of intellectual prejudice that has brought with it some discouraging results. We have come to believe that someone who has more educational merit badges, who is very good at some form of school discipline is “intelligent.” Yet mental hospitals are filled with patients who have all of the properly lettered certificates. A truer indicator of intelligence is an effective, happy life lived each day and each present moment of every day.
If you are happy, if you live each moment for everything it’s worth, then you are an intelligent person. Problem solving is a useful help to your happiness, but if you know that given your inability to resolve a particular concern you can still choose happiness for yourself, or at a minimum refuse to choose unhappiness, then you are intelligent. You are intelligent because you have the ultimate weapon against the big N.B.D.—Nervous Break Down.
“Intelligent people do not have N.B.D.’s because they are in charge of themselves. They know how to choose happiness over depression, because they know how to deal with the problems of their lives.
You can begin to think of yourself as truly intelligent on the basis of how you choose to feel in the face of trying circumstances. The life struggles are pretty much the same for each of us. Every one who is involved with other human beings in any social context has similar difficulties. Disagreements, conflicts and compromises are a part of what it means to be human. Similarly, money, growing old, sickness, deaths, natural disasters and accidents are all events which present problems to virtually all human beings. But some people are able to make it, to avoid immobilizing depression and unhappiness despite such occurrences, while others collapse or have an N.B.D. Those who recognize problems as a human condition and don’t measure happiness by an absence of problems are the most intelligent kind of humans we know; also, the most rare.
