Are some people born clever, and others born stupid? Or is intelligence (智力) developed by our environment and our experience? Strangely enough, the answer to these questions is yes. In some degree, our intelligence is given to us at birth, and no education can make a genius (天才) out of a child born with low intelligence. On the other hand, a child who lives in a boring environment will develop his intelligence less than one who lives in rich environment. Therefore, the limits of person’s intelligence are fixed at birth, whether or not he reaches those limits will depend on his environment. This point of view, now is held by most experts.
It is easy to show that intelligence is something that we are born with. The closer the blood relationship between two people, the closer they are likely to be intelligence. If we take two strangers by chance from the population, it seems that their degree of intelligence will be completely different. If, on the other hand, we compare two twins, they will very likely be as intelligent as each other. Relations like brothers and sisters, parents and children, usually have similar intelligence, and this clearly suggests that intelligence depends on birth.
Imagine now that we take two twins and put them in different environments. We might send one, for example, to a university and the other to a factory separately where the work is boring. We would soon find differences in intelligence developing, and this shows that environment as well as birth plays an important role. This conclusion is also suggested by the fact that people who live in close contact (接觸) with each other, but who are not related at all are likely to have similar degree of intelligence.
【小題1】How is man’s intelligence given?

It is December 25th, 2050. The people in the city are all celebrating Christmas. I’m the mayor of our city. My citizens* and I are holding a big party under the sea, though you wouldn’t believe it. But please do not feel excited, you should feel sad because we have to live under the sea. Because of the pollution, the earth has been completely destroyed, from top to bottom. The atmosphere* has no oxygen* and moisture*. As a result, the plants are burned by the strong sunlight with a great number of harmful rays. Of course, none of them are still alive. Not only no green, but also the temperature reaches about 121℃ all day even in winter because there is too much CO2 circling the earth.
On the land, there is no life. Luckily, the sea is not destroyed by human. So, we have to move into the sea. At the bottom of the water, people have built many new cities. There is a lot of advanced* equipment* in each city. Computers are used to control all the machines, even the people’s life. We can also make the seawater into fresh water. There are two machines making oxygen. If they stop working for only one minute, more than 10 million people will die.
The population of our city is over 30 million and, of course, it is quite crowded. We have lots of high buildings and bridges. The roads are wide, too. Our cars are miniature* UFOs, don’t be surprised, it is true. At the bottom of the sea you can’t see anything, because there is no light all day. However, we have advanced lighting equipment so that we can see the “sun” under the sea. Of course, the advanced lighting equipment is very expensive. And if it doesn’t work, we can see nothing under the sea. What should we do then?
【小題1】Where are they holding a big Christmas party?