The notion of intelligence as something inane and fixed

Solution

The sentence talks about how the idea that intelligence is permanent is not popular any more; instead, people now consider intelligence as something that can change over time and is in our hands. INANE means lacking sense or silly, which is contextually inapt in the sentence. INNATE means inherent and would have been more appropriate. IMPLANTED means to place an artificial object inside something, which does not render meaning in the context. SUPPLANTED means superseded and replaced, which would be more apt here. MALLEABLE means flexible to change, and IMMUTABLE means fixed, both of which are apt in the context. Since, two words are inappropriate, (c) is the right answer.