Nature or Nurture? Paragraph A A few years ago, in one of the most fascinating and disturbing (adj. 令人不安的 ) experiments in behavioral psychology, Stanley Milgram of Yale University tested 40 subjects from all walks of life for their willingness to obey instructions given by a leader in a situation in which the subjects might feel a personal distaste for the actions they were called upon to perform. Specifically, Milgram told each volunteer teacher-subject that the experiment was in the noble cause of education, and was designed to test whether or not punishing pupils for their mistakes would have a positive effect on the pupils’ ability to learn. Paragraph B Milgram’s experimental set-up(n. 布置,设置 ) involved placing the teacher-subject before a panel(n. 面板 ) of thirty switches with labels ranging from ‘15 volts of electricity (slight shock)’ to ‘450 volts (er- severe shock)’ in steps (n. 级别 ) of 15 volts each. The teacher-subject was told that whenever the pupil gave the wrong answer to a question, a shock was to be administered(v. 执行 ), beginning at the lowest level and increasing in severity(n. 严重程度 ) with each successive(adj. 连续的 ) wrong answer. The supposed pupil was in reality an actor hired by Milgram to simulate(v. 模拟 ) receiving the shocks by emitting a spectrum(n. 范围; 系列 ) of groans(n. 呻吟 ) , screams and writhings(n. 扭动或翻滚 ) together with an assortment of statements and expletives(n. 咒骂语 ) denouncing(v. 公开指责 ) both the experiment and the experimenter. Milgram told the teacher-subject to ignore the reactions of the pupil, and to administer whatever level of shock was called for( 需要; 要求 ), as per(=according to) the rule governing the experimental situation of the moment. Paragraph C As the experiment unfolded,(v. 逐渐显露; 开展,发展 ) the pupil would deliberately give the wrong answers to questions posed by the teacher, thereby bringing on various electrical punishments, even up to the er level of 300 volts and beyond. Many of the teacher- subjects balked at( 畏缩,回避 ) administering the higher levels of punishment, and turned to Milgram with questioning looks and/or complaints about continuing the experiment. In these situations, Milgram calmly explained that the teacher-subject was to ignore the pupil's cries for mercy(n. 怜悯 ) and carry on with the experiment if the subject was still reluctant to proceed, Milgram said that it was important for the sake of the experiment that the procedure be followed through to the end. His final argument was, ‘You have no other choice. You must go on.’ What Milgram was trying to discover was the number of teacher-subjects who would be willing to administer the highest levels of shock, even in the face of strong personal and moral revulsion(n. 厌恶,强烈的反感 ) against the rules and conditions of the experiment. Paragraph D Prior to(=before) carrying out the experiment, Milgram explained his idea to a group of 39 psychiatrists(n. 精神病专家 ) and asked them to predict the average percentage of people in an ordinary population who would be willing to administer the highest shock level of 450 volts. The overwhelming consensus(n. 共识 ) was that virtually all the teacher-subjects would refuse to obey the experimenter. The psychiatrists felt that ‘most subjects would not go beyond 150 volts’ and they further anticipated that only four per cent would go up to 300 volts. Furthermore, they thought that only a lunatic fringe(n. 边缘 ) of about one in 1,000 would give the highest shock of 450 volts. Paragraph E What were the actual results? Well, over 60 per cent of the teacher-subjects continued to obey Milgram up to the 450-volt limit! In repetitions of the experiment in other countries, the percentage of obedient teacher subjects was even higher, reaching 85 per cent in one country. How can we possibly account for(=explain) this vast discrepancy (n. 差异 ) between what calm, rational, knowledgeable people predict in the comfort of their study and what pressured, flustered, but cooperative ‘teachers’ actually do in the laboratory of real life. Paragraph F One's first inclination(n. 倾向 ) might be to argue that there must be some sort of built-in(adj. 固有的 ) animal aggression instinct that was activated by the experiment, and that Milgram's teacher-subjects were just following a genetic need to discharge this pent-up(adj. 被压抑的; 被抑制的 ) primal(adj. 首位的,主要的 ) urge onto the pupil by administering the electrical shock. A modem hard-core sociobiologist might even go so far as to claim that this aggressive instinct evolved as an advantageous trait, having been of survival value to our ancestors in their struggle against the hardships of life on the plains and in the caves, ultimately finding its way into our genetic make-up as a remnant(n. 剩余部分 ) of our ancient animal ways. Paragraph G An alternative to this notion of genetic programming is to see the teacher-subjects’ actions as a result of the social environment under which the experiment was carried out. As Milgram himself pointed out, ‘Most subjects in the experiment see their behaviour in a larger context that is benevolent and useful to society-the pursuit of scientific truth. The psychological laboratory has a strong claim to legitimacy(n. 合法性 ) and evokes(v. 产生,引起 ) trust and confidence in those who perform there. An action such as shocking a victim, which in isolation appears evil, acquires a completely different meaning when placed in this setting.’ Paragraph H Thus, in this explanation the subject merges( 相融 ) his unique personality and personal and moral code( 道德准则 ) with that of larger institutional structures, surrendering(v. 放弃; 交出 ) individual properties like loyalty, self-sacrifice and discipline to the service of malevolent systems of authority. Paragraph I Here we have two radically different explanations for why so many teacher-subjects were willing to forgo(v. 放弃 ) their sense of personal responsibility for the sake of an institutional authority figure. The problem for biologists, psychologists and anthropologists is to sort out which of these two polar(adj. 完全相反的 ) explanations is more plausible. This, in essence, is the problem of modern sociobiology-to discover the degree to which hard-wired genetic programming dictates, or at least strongly biases, the interaction of animals and humans with their environment, that is, their behaviour. Put another way, sociobiology is concerned with elucidate(v. 阐明,解释 ) the biological basis of all behaviour. ( ) 1. a biological explanation of the teacher-subjects’ behavior ( ) 2. the explanation Migram gave the teacher-subjects for the experiment ( ) 3. the identity of the pupils ( ) 4. the expected statistical outcome ( ) 5. the general aim of sociobiological study ( ) 6. the way Milgram persuaded the teacher-subjects to continue