There are ten blanks in the following passage. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer from the four choices given for each blank.
A U.S. company says [sez] they have developed pigs with organs 1 for use in human transplant operations. They are the first pigs 2 engineered to keep their organs from being 3 by humans.
The researchers believe their work is the best hope for people 4 an organ transplant operation. More than seventy-thousand people in the United States alone need 5 an operation to replace organs that 6 work. Scientists consider (think) pigs to be the best animals to provide organs for people. This is because the organs are 7 .
The company has developed pigs of different 8 . The first four genetically engineered pigs were born in September and October last year. The pigs are smaller than normal. The five other pigs are 9 normal size. They were born in December. The company says it wants to use the pigs as part of its program (project) to 10 a cure for patients with heart disease. 1. A. detailed B. denoted (imply) C. desired D. designed (=devised) 2. A. genetically B. generally C. especially D. essentially 3. A. eliminated B. discarded C. rejected (repel) D. abandoned 4. A. serving on B. contributing to C. waiting for D. associating with 5. A. thus B. this C. so D. such 6. A. not B. no longer C. not more D. no other 7. A. similar B. familiar C. identical (=same) D. unique 8. A. shapes B. types C. sizes D. sorts (=kind/ category) 9. A. off B. of C. for D. from 10. A. see B. seem C. size D. seek
IV. Translation
Put the following parts into Chinese.
1. The technological advances of the 1990s ushered in what appeared to be a social and economic revolution that would rival the Industrial Revolution two centuries earlier, creating a new society of technologically connected citizens with a world of digitized information, commerce, and communication at its fingertips.
20 世纪90 年代的技术进步似乎带来了一场其意义堪与200 媲美的社会与经济方面的革命，它创造了一个崭新的社会年以前的工业革命相在这个社会里人们由技术相互连接，数字化的信息、商业以及通讯都在弹指一挥间。
2. New advances in science and technology seemed to promise eventual solutions to problems ranging from eliminating toxic waste to grocery shopping—genetic engineers developed microbes that would eat industrial sludge and researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Media Lab worked to devise a refrigerator that could sense when it was out of milk and use the Internet to order more.
科技的新发展似乎向人们承诺提供从消除有毒废料到食品采买一系列问题的最终解决方案― 遗传科技人员培养出了能够吞食工业残渣的微生物，麻省理工学院媒体实验室的研究人员设计出了能够觉察箱内牛奶告罄并可上网定购的电冰箱。
3. The cloning of an animal in 1997 suggested that human cloning had become viable as well, raising concerns—no longer quite theoretical—that humanity might be moving toward a \
new world\
1997 年克隆动物的成功表明了克隆人也已不成问题，人们担心人类可能会朝着一个由基因制造的人组成的“美丽新世界”方向发展（这己不再是单纯的理论问题了）。
4. While most Americans agreed that children should not be exposed to such material, attempts to regulate the content of individual Web pages and newsgroups conflicted with the idea of the Internet as an open, decentralized mass medium, where even the most absurd or repellant ideas could receive a hearing.
尽管大多数美国人赞成小孩不应接触这些内容，但试图规范个人网页和新闻组内容的努力还是同互联网应是公开、非集权的大众媒体的理念发生了冲突，在这种媒体中，即使最荒唐、最令人讨厌的东西也可以发表。
5. Still, some critics wondered if all of the money spent on space research might not be better used to fund new discoveries here on Earth, almost as if the diversion of space was no longer as necessary when there were so many new and interesting projects going on right here.
但是一些批评人士提出质疑说，把花在太空上的钱用来资助地球上的新发现是不是更好呢？似乎地球上正进行着这么多有趣的新项目，太空研究不再那么必要了。
V. Oral Practice and Discussion
1. Why was the new \2. List the threats confronting Americans' privacy.
3. What positive effects is the Human Genome Project likely to bring to the American life? 4. Describe the efforts made by NASA scientists during the 1990s in exploring the space. 5. What effect has the \
6. Has your private computer been hacked into? Or have you ever got your pin for your e-mail box or messenger stolen? Describe the situation, and what you did to solve the problem.
7. What is your view on the possibility of genetically engineered people?
VOCABULARY ITEMS
1. empowerment: (strength) investing with power, especially legal power or official authority; abuse of power/ drug; superpower [en-: enable: ~sb to do sth. ; possible->impossible]
2. demise: n. the end of existence or activity; termination/ death 3. usher: v. to precede and introduce; inaugurate
4. digitize: v. to put (data, for example) into digital form; a three-digit number] to be as clever as Chinese programmers
5. microbe: n. a minute life form; a microorganism, especially a bacterium (bacteria) that causes disease; micro-: <->macro-: four ~ skills
6. sludge: a. thick mud
7. allay: v. to cause sth. to be felt less strongly; to relieve sb/ sb.s pain/ go to sb.s relief/ to rescue sb.
8. ethics: n. the study of question about what is morally right, and wrong
9. viable: adj. capable of success or continuing effectiveness; practical/ feasible
10. genome: n. (in biology and genetics) the particular number and combination of certain chromosomes necessary to form the single nucleus of a living cell
11. (encode<->)decode: v. to convert from code into plain text/ plain water/ plain-clothed policemen
12. implant: v. to put or insert (a tissue) within the body 13. stifle: v. to stop sth. from happening or developing
14. tinker: v. to make small changes to sth. in order to repair it or make it work better 15. customize: v. to make or alter to individual or personal specifications；customer: n.
16.abhorrent: adj. disgusting and hateful, completely unacceptable (because sth. seems morally wrong) ; horror/ terror->horrible/ terrible; terrorist; aboriginal; normal->abnormal 17. overarching: adj. including or influencing every part of sth.; arc/ arch-: above; bishop->archbishop
18. proprietary: adj. exclusively owned; private
19. replicate: a to duplicate, copy->copier, reproduce, or repeat;
20. malicious: adj. having the nature of or resulting from malice; deliberately harmful; spiteful ; mal-: bad/ wrong; treat->maltreat/ ill-treat
21. outlaw: v. to declare (sth.) illegal
22. pornography: n. magazines, films, etc. that show sexual acts and images in a way that is intended to make people feel sexually excited; photography (n.); dirty / blue/ naughty film/ magazine; yellow: ~ page; green page
23. repellant: adj. distasteful or very unpleasant; disgusting
24. surveillance: n. close observation of a person or group, especially one under (suspect->)suspicion; sur- above/ from above, e.g. surpass
25. malfunction: n. / vt. a fault in the way a machine or computer operates 26. aeronautics: a. the science of designing and flying planes; aero- =air-
27. tantalizing: adj. making one feel a strong desire to have sth. that one cannot have; attractive 28. extraterrestrial: adj. originating, located, or occurring outside Earth or its atmosphere; extra pay for extra work
29. meteor: a piece of rock or metal that floats in space, and makes a bright lighting in the night sky when it falls through the Earths (atom->)atmosphere 30. Mars: (Marsian: a.) n. the planet in the solar system that is fourth in order from the sun, is nearest to the Earth, and is a red color; Mars Square
31. nanotechnology: n. the science of making or working with things that are so small that they can only be seen using a powerful microscope
32. fullerene: n. any of a class of carbon molecules in which the carbon atoms are arranged into 12 pentagonal faces and 2 or more hexagonal faces to form a hollow sphere, cylinder, or similar figure
33. usher in: to be the start of sth. new; lead
34. at one’s fingertips: at hand, ready to use conveniently; be thoroughly familiar
35. plug in to: connect a piece of electrical equipment to the main supply of electricity, or to another piece of electrical equipment; plug<-> socket
36. fool round with: to behave in a careless and irresponsible way; fool: vt.
37. hock into: to secretly find a way to get into the information on sb. else's computer system in order to use or change it; hack
38. wreak havoc: to bring about; cause a situation in which there is a lot of confusion or damage; make a mess of sth.
39. receive a hearing: to get the chance to voice one's idea or defense; get public attention or assessment (=evaluation)
40. spy on: to act as a spy on; watch secretly 41. turn of the century: beginning of a century
NOTES
1. Source code: A computer program that can be read by sb. who knows the language it is written in. Here it refers to heredity code. resource-> a resourceful person 2. Big brother: Any person, organization, or system that seems to want to control people's lives and restrict their freedom.
3. Brave (adventurous) New World: A novel written by Aldous Huxley. In the story, control of reproduction, genetic engineering, conditioning (stimuli and response/ training), and a perfect pleasure drug called \are the cornerstones of the new society. Reproduction has been removed from the womb and placed on the conveyor belt, where reproductive workers tinker with the embryos to produce various grades of human beings, ranging from the super-intelligent Alpha Pluses down to the dwarfed semi-moron Epsilons.
4. Human Genome Project: (also known as Human Genome Initiative) Controversial international effort launched in 1990 by the National Institute of Health to map and sequence all the genes on the 46 chromosomes of humans; knowledge expected to help geneticists identify (recognize) the causes of all inherited disorders and to help them eliminate as many as possible; headed (led) by molecular geneticist Francis Collins.
5. NASA: A U.S. government organization that controls space travel and the scientific study of space.
6. Hubble Telescope: Also called Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the first large orbital optical observatory and the most sophisticated optical observatory ever placed into orbit around the Earth. Built from 1978 to 1990 at a cost of $ 1.5 billion, the HST (named for astronomer E. P. Hubble) was expected to provide the clearest view yet obtained of the universe.
7. John Herschel Glenn Jr.: The first U. S. astronaut to orbit the Earth (1962)
READING SELECTION B
Should We Improve Our Genome?
by Nicolas Wade
[1] Now that we have decoded the human genome, why don't we improve it?
[2] The question is at present theoretical but could well emerge as the hardest of all bioethical issues. Biologists routinely alter the genes of mice, with methods that are not yet acceptable for making inheritable changes in people, but one day genetic engineers may figure out how to apply safe patches to the human biological software.
[3] Everyone would like to have children who are healthy, beautiful and gifted. But people vary widely in all these qualities, depending on their parents' genes, and the pure luck of the draw at conception when each child gets allotted a random selection of half the parental gene pool.
[4] Most human genes exist in several different versions in the population: some of them are great to have, some so-so and some downright deleterious.
[5] This month the Icelandic company Decode Genetics found three quite common versions of a gene called BMP-2, each of which considerably increases its owner's risk of osteoporosis and bone fracture.
[6] Suppose it were possible to delete any bad version of BMP-2, and of all other human genes, in a human embryo, and to replace them with good versions, without any risk to health. Would that be the right thing to do?
[7] Parents who made such a choice would know they had given their child the best possible start in life. However expensive the procedure, it would be cheap in the long run if it saved a lifetime of medical bills, and therefore could be made available to all. Life's most serious unfairness, the difference in genetic endowment would be erased from birth.
[8] \day, people may view sex as essentially recreational, and conception as something best done in the laboratory,\start to believe it is \
[9] Yet there are weighty arguments for not making inheritable changes to the human genome. [10] On the practical side, many genes have more than one effect and swapping out the bad version of a gene can have unpredictable complications. The new gene, for example, may interact badly with the person's other genes.
[11] But if the elimination of disease-causing variants of genes should prove successful, there might be no holding the line against parents who wanted to enhance strength or intelligence as well.
[12] Upgrading the imperfect human material is all very well, but handling the transition between the super people and the ordinary variety promises to be awkward. Social stresses may emerge, especially if the technology does not trickle down quickly and smoothly.
[13] Soup up those genes for IQ? Altering the genes that shape human behavior is not to be undertaken lightly. Human nature is a subtle blend of contrary qualities, the only survivor of evolution's many disastrous experiments. What could justify the risk of messing with such a delicate brew? Can we be happy as we are, just as nature has shaped us?
[14] \gradual and exacting evolution, are almost certainly at risk from any ill-considered attempt at improvement',\enhancing the body's natural abilities.
[15] As the products of evolution, people may seem churlish if they challenge evolution's wisdom. But of course, evolution has none. It is a blind process that depends on constant error to create occasional lucky accidents.
[16] By culling the unfortunate owners of bad genes, evolution keeps animals healthy and vigorous until the age of reproduction, and a bit beyond for species that provide parental
[17] But evolution's rigor at favoring good genes that act early in life is mirrored by a weakness in screening out bad genes that act after the age of reproduction. Because of this weakness, evolution has failed to eliminate the bone-fracturing variants of BMP-2, and the bad, late-acting versions of many other genes in the human genome. This is the very reason that we age and die.
[18] If evolution cannot help us after a certain age, why should we not help ourselves? Should not everyone have a right to the best versions of the genes in our collective genetic heritage, or at least to be born free of the worse ones?
[19] And yet, if we reduce genetic differences, we risk turning the human population into one giant clone, tedious to meet with and bereft of the variation needed to respond to changing environments. The pursuit of perfection, if carried to extremes, is a sure recipe for extinction. (769 words)