题目内容
IQ-gene
In the angry debate over how much of IQ comes from the genes that children inherit from parents and how much comes from experiences, one little fact gets overlooked: no one has identified any genes (other than those that cause retardation) that affect intelligence. So researchers led by Robert Plomin of London's Institute of Psychiatry decided to look for some. They figured that if you want to find a "smart gene" you should look in smart kids. They therefore examined the DNA of students like those who are so bright that they take college entrance exams four years early — and still score at Princeton—caliber levels. The scientists found what they sought. "We have," says Plomin, "the first specific gene ever associated with general intelligence."
Plomin's colleagues drew blood from two groups of 51 children each, all 6 to 15 years old and living in six counties around Cleveland. In one group, the average IQ is 103. All the children are white. Isolating the blood cells, the researchers then examined each child's chromosome 6 of the 37
landmarks on chromosome 6 that the researchers looked for, one jumped out: a form. of gene called IGF2R occurred in twice as many children in the high-IQ group as in the average group — 32 percent versus 16 percent. The study, in the May issue of the journal Psychological Science, concludes that it is this form. of the IGF2R gene that contributes to intelligence. Some geneticists see major problems with the IQ-gene study. One is the possibility that Plomin's group fell for "chopsticks fallacy". Geneticists might think they've found a gene for chopsticks flexibility. But all they've really found is a gene more common m Asians than, say, Africans. Similarly, Plomin's IQ gene might simply be one that is more common in groups mat emphasize academic achievement." What is the gene that they've found reflects ethnicity？" asks geneticist Andrew Feinberg of Johns Hopkins University. "That alone might explain the link to intelligence, since IQ tests are known for being culturally sensitive and affected by a child's environment." And Neil Risch of Stand ford University points out that if you look for 37 genes on a chromosome, as the researchers did, and find that one is more common in smarter kids, that might reflect pure chance rather than a causal link between the gene and Intelligence. Warns Feinberg, "I would take these findings with a whole box of salt."
In the beginning of paragraph one we are told that scientists can not agree ______.
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What does the last sentence of the passage most probably mean？
According to paragraph 4, what were the subjects required to do during the experiment？
How did the museum collect the data in the Central African Republic？
Urban Rainforest
On the west side of the island of Manhattan in New York City, tree by tree, leaf by leaf, a 2,500 square foot sector of the Central African Republic's Dzanga Ndoki Rainforest has been transported to, or recreated at, the American Museum of Natural History's new hall of biodiversity. When the hall opens this May, visitors will visit one of the world's biggest and most accurate reproduction of one of nature's most threatened creations.
To bring the rainforest to New York, a team of nearly two dozen scientists — the largest collecting expedition the museum has ever organized for an exhibit — spent five weeks in the African rainforest collecting soil, plants, and leaves: recording and documenting species; studying trees; shooting videotape and still photos: and interviewing local people. "This area has been explored very little," says Hoel Cracraft who estimates that the museum will eventually collect 150 to 180 mammals, more than 300 species of birds, hundreds of butterflies, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of organisms. The exhibition may even have produced a special prize — scientists suspect they have uncovered several new species.
To give the forest a sense of realness, the back wall of the exhibit is an enormous ,video screen, sounds will come out from hidden speakers, and plans even call for forest smells. Computer controls will vary the effects so that no two walkthroughs will ever be exactly the same.
After the team returned to New York, the forest was reproduced with the help of the computer. Computer Modelling programmes plotted distances and special relationships. Artists studied photos and brought what they saw to life. Plaster trees were made. Recreated animals began to stand in the rainforest of the hall. Flying creatures will hang from the ceiling. The light in the forest — one of the exhibit's cleverest re-creations — will seem real. Long tube lights will have the correct colour and temperature to produce a natural effect. The plants and animals exhibited throughout the hall exist naturally in a perfect balance — remove one, and the whole is imperfect if not endangered. The exhibit is proof to the hope that the world's rainforests will never exist solely as a carefully preserved artifact.
What is this passage mainly about？
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