【易伯华独家】雅思阅读全真模考题:智力的开端

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易伯华雅思名师讲堂从今天开始和大家分享一系列阅读仿真模拟题，可以说与雅思真题99%相似，是烤鸭在剑桥雅思之余的良好调剂品。烤鸭们可以先自己试着做一做，做完之后可以对下答案，再看看易伯华名师的悉心讲解。本篇阅读的标题：智力的开端。

The beginning of intelligence

A No one doubts that intelligence develops as children grow older. Yet the

concept of intelligence has proved both quite difficult to define in unambiguous

terms and unexpectedly controversial in some respects. Although, at one level,

there seem to be almost as many definitions of intelligence as people who have

tried to define it, there is broad agreement on two key features. That is,

intelligence involves the capacity not only to learn from experience but also to

adapt to one's environment. However, we cannot leave the concept there. Before

turning to what is known about the development of intelligence, it is necessary

to consider whether we are considering the growth of one or many skills. That

question has been tackled in rather different ways by psychometricians(心理测量师)and

by developmentalists.

B The former group has examined the issue by determining how children's

abilities on a wide range of tasks intercorrelate, or go together. Statistical

techniques have been used to find out whether the patterns are best explained by

one broad underlying capacity, general intelligence, or by a set of multiple,

relatively separate, special skills in domains such as verbal and visuospatial

ability. While it cannot be claimed that everyone agrees on what the results

mean, most people now accept that for practical purposes it is reasonable to

suppose that both are involved. In brief,the evidence in favour of some kind of

general intellectual capacity is that people who are superior (or inferior) on

one type of task tend also to be superior (or inferior) on others. Moreover,

general measures of intelligence tend to have considerable powers to predict a

person's performance on a wide range of tasks requiring special skills.

Nevertheless, it is plain that it is not at all uncommon for individuals to be

very good at some sorts of task and yet quite poor at some others.

C Furthermore the influences that affect verbal skills are not quite the same

as those that affect other skills. This approach to investigating intelligence

is based on the nature of the task involved, but studies of age-related changes

show that this is not the only, or necessarily the most important, approach. For

instance, some decades ago, Horn and Cattell argued for a differentiation

between what they termed 'fluid' and 'crystallised' intelligence. Fluid

abilities are best assessed by tests that require mental manipulation of

abstract symbols. Crystallised abilities, by contrast, reflect knowledge of the

environment in which we live and past experience of similar tasks; they may be

assessed by tests of comprehension and information. It seems that fluid

abilities peak in early adult life, whereas crystallised abilities increase up

to advanced old age.

D Developmental studies also show that the interconnections between different

skills vary with age. Thus in the first year of life an interest in perceptual

patterns is a major contributor to cognitive abilities, whereas verbal abilities

are more important later on. These findings seemed to suggest a substantial lack

of continuity between infancy and middle childhood. However, it is important to

realize that the apparent discontinuity will vary according to which of the

cognitive skills were assessed in infancy. It has been found that tests of

coping with novelty do predict later intelligence. These findings reinforce the

view that young children's intellectual performance needs to be assessed from

their interest in and curiosity about the environment, and the extent to which

this is applied to new situations, as well as by standardised intelligence

testing.

E These psychometric approaches have focused on children’s increase in

cognitive skills as they grow older. Piaget (著名儿童教育学家) brought about a

revolution in the approach to cognitive development through his arguments

(backed up by observations) that the focus should be on the thinking processes

involved rather than on levels of cognitive achievement. These ideas of Piaget

gave rise to an immense body of research and it would be true to say that

subsequent thinking has been heavily dependent on his genius in opening up new

ways of thinking about cognitive development. Nevertheless, most of his concepts

have had to be so radically revised, or rejected, that his theory no longer

provides an appropriate basis for thinking about cognitive development. To

appreciate why that is so, we need to focus on some rather different elements of

Piaget’s theorising.

F The first element, which has stood the test of time, is his view that the

child is an active agent of learning and of the importance of this activity in

cognitive development. Numerous studies have shown how infants actively scan

their environment; how they prefer patterned to non-patterned objects, how they

choose novel over familiar stimuli, and how they explore their environment as if

to see how it works. Children's questions and comments vividly illustrate the

ways in which they are constantly constructing schemes of what they know and

trying out their ideas of how to fit new knowledge into those schemes or

deciding that the schemes need modification. Moreover, a variety of studies have

shown that active experiences have a greater effect on learning than comparable

passive experiences. However, a second element concerns the notion that the

development proceeds through a series of separate stages that have to be gone

through step-by-step, in a set order, each of which is characterized by a

particular cognitive structure. That has turned out to be a rather misleading

way of thinking about cognitive development, although it is not wholly

wrong.

Questions 14-17

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, or D.

Write your answers in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet

14 Most researchers accept that one feature of intelligence is the ability

to

A change our behaviour according to our situation.

B react to others' behaviour patterns.

C experiment with environmental features.

D cope with unexpected setbacks.

15 What have psychometricians used statistics for?

A to find out if cooperative tasks are a useful tool in measuring certain

skills

B to explore whether several abilities are involved in the development of

intelligence

C to demonstrate that mathematical models can predict test results for

different skills

D to discover whether common sense is fundamental to developing children's

abilities

16 Why are Horn and Cattell mentioned?

A They disagreed about the interpretation of different intelligence

tests.

B Their research concerned both linguistic and mathematical abilities.

C They were the first to prove that intelligence can be measured by testing a

range of special skills.

D Their work was an example of research into how people's cognitive skills

vary with age.

17 What was innovative about Piagct's research?

A He refused to accept that children developed according to a set

pattern.

B He emphasised the way children thought more than how well they did in

tests.

C He used visually appealing materials instead of traditional intelligence

tests.

D He studied children of all ages and levels of intelligence.

Questions 18-22

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading

Passage 3?

In boxes 31-36 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement is true

NO if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

18 A surprising number of academics have come to the same conclusion about

what the term intelligence means.

19 A general test of intelligence is unlikely to indicate the level of

performance in every type of task.

20 The elderly perform less well on comprehension tests than young

adults.

21 We must take into account which skills are tested when comparing

intelligence at different ages.

22 Piaget's work influenced theoretical studies more than practical

research.

Questions 23-26

Complete the summary using the list of words, A-1, below.

Write your answers in boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet.

Researchers investigating the development of intelligence have shown that 23

skills become more significant with age. One good predictor of 24 intelligence

is the degree to which small children are 25 about their surroundings and how

much interest they show on finding themselves in an 26 setting.

A adult B practical C verbal

D spatial E inquisitive F uncertain

G academic H plentiful I unfamiliar