Are you smarter than your parents and grandparents? According to James Flynn, a professor at a New Zealand university, you are! Over the course of the last century, people’s IQ test scores have gotten steadily higher --- on average, three points higher each decade. This improvement is known as the “Flynn effect”, and scientists want to know what is behind it.
IQ tests are designed to measure general intelligence rather than knowledge. Flynn believes that intelligence partly comes from our parents and partly is the result of our environment, but the improvement in test scores has been happening too quickly to be explained by heredity. So what has occurred in the 20th century to help people achieve higher scores?
Scientists have proposed several explanations for the Flynn effect. Some suggest that the improved test scores simply reflect an increased exposure to tests in general and the learning of test-taking techniques that help us perform better on any test. Others have pointed to better nutrition. Babies now are born larger, healthier, and with more brain development than in the past. Another suggested explanation is a change in educational styles, with teachers encouraging children to learn by discovering things for themselves rather than just memorizing information, which improves their problem-solving skills.
Flynn has limited the possible explanations after carefully examining test data and discovering that the improvement in scores has taken place in only certain parts of the IQ test. Test-takers are not doing better on the maths or vocabulary sections of the test; they are doing better on the sections requiring reasoning and problem solving. For example, one part of the test shows a set of shapes, and test-takers must find the patterns and connections between them.
According to Flynn, this visual intelligence improves as the amount of technology in our lives increases. Every time you play a computer game, you are exercising exactly the kind of thinking and problem solving that helps you do well on one kind of intelligence test. So are you really smarter than your parents? In one very specific way, you may be.
【小题1】What is the function of the third paragraph?| A．To list the findings of Professor Flynn’s research. |
| B．To provide possible explanations that disprove Flynn’s ideas. |
| C．To outline different theories explaining the increase in IQ scores. |
| D．To describe how research was carried out in the measuring of intelligence. |
| A．exposing children to fewer tests |
| B．giving children clearer teaching instructions |
| C．getting children to memorize lots of information |
| D．encouraging children to find out things themselves |
| A．have discouraged people from taking exercise |
| B．have made young people become less intelligent |
| C．have helped improve people’s visual intelligence |
| D．have caused young people to have poorer vocabularies |
| A．People today are taking easier tests. |
| B．People today have fewer problems to solve. |
| C．Not all aspects of intelligence have increased. |
| D．The language ability of people has improved. |
