科技英语读写——方法与实践 Reading your way into technical writing
Unit 7 debating a new technology: seeds of concern
Sentence Study（Translation）
Directions: Translate the following sentences into Chinese, or make sentences with the useful sentence patterns taken from the following sentences.
1. Are genetically modified crops an environmental dream come true or a disaster in the
making?
转基因作物是一个已经实现的环境（保护）梦还是一场正在酝酿的灾难?
2. This far-flung outrage took aim at genetically modified crops. But the protests backfired: all
the destroyed plants were conventionally bred. (Para.2) 这场广布的暴行是针对转基因作物的。但是这些抗议却产生了事与愿违的结果：所有被破坏的植物是通过传统方式培育的。
3. You can't tell, just by looking, whether pollen containing a foreign gene can poison butterflies
or fertilize plants miles away. (Para.3) 仅仅通过肉眼观察，你是不能区分包含外来基因的花粉是否会使蝴蝶中毒或者使千里之外的植物授粉。
4. Advocates of GM, or transgenic, crops say the plants will benefit the environment by
requiring fewer toxic pesticides than conventional crops. But critics fear the potential risks and wonder how big the benefits really are. (Para.4) 转基因作物或者基因改造作物的倡导者认为这些作物需要更少的有毒杀虫剂，与传统作物相比，将有利益于环境。但是，批判者担心那些潜在的风险，想知道好处究竟有多大。 5. As GM crops multiply in the landscape, unprecedented numbers of researchers have started
rushing into the fields to get the missing information. Some of their recent findings are reassuring; others suggest a need for vigilance. （para.5) 随着转基因作物种植面积的大量增加，空前多的研究者们开始涌入这个领域填补了空白。一些他们的近期研究发现转基因作物是能够让人放心的，其他研究则表明人们需要对转基因作物保持警惕。
6. Defining the environmental risks of GM crops seems even harder than calculating their
benefits. (para.11)
给转基因作物的环境风险性下定义似乎比计算他们的好处更难。
7. What are the odds that the genetically engineered traits will lose their ability to protect against insects and invasive weeds, leaving GM plants suddenly vulnerable? （para.12)
存在这种可能，即基因工程的特性将使得自身失去对抗昆虫和入侵杂草的能力，使得转基因植物变得易受攻击，那么这种情况出现的概率有多大？ 8. That was the straw that broke the camel‘s back . (para.14) 这就是压倒骆驼的最后一根稻草。
9. Researchers have headed into nature themselves, measuring the toxin in pollen from plots of GM corn, estimating how much of it drifts onto plants such as milkweed and, finally, determining the exposure of butterfly and moth larvae to the protein. (para.15)
研究人员亲自下田间，测量栽种基因改造作物的玉米田中花粉的毒素，估算有多少花粉将飘落到马利筋之类的植物中去。最终测定在蝴蝶和娥幼虫所接触的蛋白毒素量。
10. The EPA estimates that the insects face no observable harm when consuming milkweed leaves laden with up to 150 corn pollen grains per square centimeter of leaf surface. (para.16)
环保局预测，即使每平方厘米马利筋叶表面有150个花粉粒，昆虫进食后也不会受到显著的伤害。
11.The weight of the evidence suggests Bt corn pollen in the field does not pose a hazard to monarch larvae,\concludes EPA scientist Zigfridas Vaituzis, who heads the agency's team studying the ecological effects of Bt crops. (para.16)
环保局科学家Zigfridas Vaituzis总结到：有足够的证据表明，在田间的转基因玉米花粉不会危害君主斑蝶的幼虫。他带领研究小组探索转基因玉米的生态效应。
12. But the jury is still out. \of Concerned Scientists. (para.17)
但是事情还未尘埃落定。“证据根本就不够”环保科学家协会的简.瑞斯乐指出。
13. The EPA, he added, continues to collect Bt crop data --- but so far without evidence of \
他补充说，环保署会继续搜集数据，但是目前远没有证据显示这类农作物会对野外的昆虫造成“意想不到的恶果”。 14. But worrisome anecdotes have appeared. Canadian farmers, in particular, have described GM corn escaping from farm fields and invading wheat crops like a weed. (para.20)
然而令人担心的事情还是出现了，尤其是加拿大农人，他们说转基因玉米已经溜出农田，侵入小麦田就像野草般一样。
15. Every GM crop, Power cautions, brings its own environmental personality and its own risks. (para.22)
包尔警告说，每一种基改作物都有其独特的环境性格，独特的风险。
16. most plants can pollinate others only if the recipients and the donors have certain features in common, such as the same chromosome number, life cycle or preferred habitat. (para.23) 大多数植物要相互授粉，彼此之间必须有些共通之处，例如相同的染色体数目、相同的生命
周期或适合的栖地。
17. Indeed, scientists say, GM crops in many countries could end up growing near their ancestral plants --- and sharing more than the sunshine overhead. “
的确，科学家认为，在许多国家，基改作物最后都可能栽种在它们的原始物种附近，它们共享的可不只是头顶上的阳光。
18. Agriculture is an evolutionary arms race between plant protections and pests, (para.25) 。 农业，是农作保护与病虫害两者之间不断演进的军备竞赛。
19. Maybe the genes will alter the functioning of a plant in ways that make its food component less nutritious or more prone to carrying elevated levels of the natural poisons that many plants contain in small amounts. （para.30)
也或许植入基因会通过各种方法改变作物的生理功能如：使食物营养成分降低，或者更可能携带高剂量的天然毒素，这些毒素原本在植物中的含量较少。
20. .The manufacturers' studies typically begin by comparing the GM version under consideration with conventionally bred plants of the same variety, to see whether the addition of a foreign gene significantly alters the GM plant's chemical makeup and nutritional value.
制造商的研究通常是一开始就比较同一品种的基改作物样本和传统种植样本，以确定外来植入的基因是否会明显改变作物的化学组成与营养价值。
21. To assess the allergy-inducing potential, scientists check the chemical makeup of each novel protein produced by the genetically altered plant against those of 500 or so known allergens; having a similar chemistry would raise a red flag. (para.35)
为了评估基改作物引发过敏的可能性，研究人员检验了该基因改良植物所产生的每一种新的蛋白质物质组成，并与已知的五百多种过敏原比对；若是与其化学结构类似，就有引发过敏的可能。
22. At issue is the possibility that resistance genes might somehow jump from GM foods to bacteria in a consumer's stomach, thereby aggravating the already troubling rise of antibiotic resistance among disease-causing bacteria. (para.38)
目前尚在讨论中的是，如果万一基改食品的抗药基因以某种方式就进入消费者肠道里的细菌中，那么就会增加这些本就令人不安的细菌的抗药性——这无疑会使问题雪上加霜。 23. No doubt concerned scientists and citizens will continue watching to see that they do so. (para.40)
毫无疑问，关心此事的科学家与市民将会继续监督，直到他们做好为止。