Scientist Says ‘No’ to Human Cloning
“I’ve never met a human worth cloning,” says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from his lab at Texas A&M University. “It’s a stupid endeavor.”
That’s an interesting choice of adjective, coming from a man who has spent millions of dollars trying to clone a 13-year-old dog named Missy. So far, he and his team have not succeeded, though they have cloned two cows and a cat.
They just might succeed in cloning Missy soon — or perhaps not for another five years.
Westhusin's experience with cloning animals leaves him upset by all this talk of human cloning. In three years of work on the Missy project, using hundreds upon hundreds of dog's eggs, the A&M team has produced only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy's DNA. None have survived the transfer to a surrogate（代孕的）mother. The wastage of eggs and the many spontaneously aborted(流产，发育不全) fetuses（胎）may be acceptable when you're dealing with cats or bulls, he argues, but not with humans. “Cloning is incredibly inefficient, and also dangerous,” he says.
Even so, dog cloning is a commercial opportunity, with a nice research payoff. Ever since Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1997, Westhusin's phone has been ringing with people calling in hopes of duplicating their cats and dogs, cattle and horses. “A lot of people want to clone pets, especially if the price is right,” says Westhusin. Cost is no obstacle for Missy's mysterious billionaire owner; he's put up $3.7 million so far to fund A&M's research.
Contrary to some media reports, Missy is not dead. The owner wants a twin to carry on Missy's fine qualities after she does die. The prototype（原型；雏形）is, by all accounts, athletic, good-natured and supersmart. Missy's master does not expect an exact copy of her. He knows her clone may not have her temperament（气质、性情）. In a statement of purpose, Missy's owner and the A&M team say they are “both looking forward to studying the ways that her clones differ from Missy.”
Besides cloning a great dog, the project may contribute insight into the old question of nature vs. nurture. It could also lead to the cloning of special rescue dogs and many endangered animals.
However, Westhusin is cautious about his work. He knows that even if he gets a dog pregnant, the offspring, should they survive, will face the problems shown at birth by other cloned animals: abnormalities like immature lungs and heart and weight problems~ “Why would you ever want to clone humans,” Westhusin asks, “when we're not even close to getting it worked out in animals yet?”By “stupid endeavor”, Westhusin means to say that ________.
| A．human cloning is a foolish undertaking |
| B．animal cloning is absolutely impractical |
| C．human cloning should be done selectively |
| D．animal cloning is not worth the effort at all |
What does the first paragraph tell us about Westhusin's dog cloning project?
| A．Its success is already in sight. |
| B．It is progressing smoothly. |
| C．It is doomed to utter failure. |
| D．Its outcome remains uncertain. |
By cloning Missy, Mark Westhusin hopes to ________.
| A．study the possibility of cloning humans |
| B．search for ways to modify its temperament |
| C．find out the differences between Missy and its clones |
| D．examine the reproductive system of the dog species |
We learn from the passage that animal clones are likely to have ________.
| A．a bad temper |
| B．defective（有缺陷的、有毛病的）organs |
| C．immune deficiency |
| D．an abnormal shape |
Owning a smartphone may not be as smart as you think. It may let you surf the Internet, listen to music and snap photos wherever you are…but it also turns you into a workaholic, it seems.
A study suggests that, by giving you access to emails at all times, the all-singing, all-dancing mobilephone adds as much as two hours to your working day. Researchers found that Britons work an additional 460 hours a year on average as they are able to respond to emails on their mobiles.
The study by technology retailer Pixmania reveals the average UK working day is between 9 and 10 hours, but a further two hours is spent responding to or sending work emails, or making work calls. More than 90 percent of office workers have email-enabled phones, with a third accessing them more than 20 times a day. Almost one in ten admits spending up to three hours outside their normal working day checking work emails. Some workers confess they are on call almost 24 hours a day, with nine out of ten saying they make work emails and calls outside their normal working hours. The average time for first checking emails is between 6 am and 7 am, with more than a third checking their first emails in this period, and a quarter checking them between 11 pm and midnight.
Ghadi Hobeika, marketing director of Pixmania, said, “The ability to access literally millions of apps, keep in contact via social networks and take photos and video as well as text and call has made smartphones invaluable for many people. However, there are drawbacks. Many companies expect their employees to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and smartphones mean that people literally cannot get away from work. The more constantly in contact we become , the more is expected of us in a work capacity(容量).” What can we conclude from the text?
| A．All that glitters is not gold |
| B．It never rains but pours |
| C．Every coins has two sides |
| D．It’s no good crying over spilt milk |
The underlined word “accessing” in the third paragraph can be replaced by “________”.
A calling B. reaching
C. getting D. using Which of the following is true according to the text?
| A．The average UK working time is between nine and twelve hours |
| B．Nine- tenths spent over three hours checking work emails |
| C．One-fourth check their first mail between 11 pm and midnight. |
| D．The average time for first checking emails is between 6 am and 8 am. |
What’s the main idea of the text?
| A．workaholics like smartphones. |
| B．Smartphones bring about extra work. |
| C．smartphones make our life easier. |
| D．Employers don’t like smartphones. |
If you were walking around a supermarket and saw a woman with a shaved head, a ring through her nose, a tattoo（纹身）design on her arm and she has a small child in her shopping trolley, what would your opinion be? Do you think this kind of body decoration is attractive or ugly? Different people have different ideas. The following are some examples of body decoration from around the world.
In many parts of Africa, it is thought that an attractive girl should have really shinny skin.
On Bali, a little island in Indonesia, they believe that a beautiful woman or handsome man must have perfectly straight, flat teeth. The Balinese believe that teeth with pointed edges make you look like an ugly wild animal. So when a girl or boy becomes a teenager, he or she is taken to a special person in their village who will file off teeth points to make them smooth and flat. There is no anesthetic（麻药）and this tooth filing is really painful. It is a kind of test. If you can stand it without screaming or crying too much, then you are thought ready to become an adult.
In Myanmar, there is a small group of people who are called the “Papaung”. They believe that a woman can only be really beautiful if she has a long neck. I mean a VERY long neck. Now you might think that you are either born with a long or short neck and that there’s nothing whatever you can do about it. But you would be wrong! At around the age of 5, a Papaung girl has heavy metal rings fitted around her neck, tightly between the chin and shoulders. Each year more rings are added and very, very slowly their weight pushes the shoulders down, in this way making the neck look longer. A Papaung woman will wear her neck rings all her life, never once taking them off.
So now I’m sure you will all agree that different people have different ideas about what is beautiful. What is mainly talked about in paragraph one?
| A．Women’s design. | B．Beautiful body decoration. |
| C．Body decoration. | D．Attractive decoration. |
What does the underlined word “trolley” mean?
| A．schoolbag | B．luggage |
| C．basket | D．shopping cart |
On Bali, it is believed that _________.
| A．a person with straight, flat teeth looks ugly |
| B．a person with sharp teeth looks ugly |
| C．a teenager’s teeth points must be filed off with anesthetic |
| D．no one will scream or cry when having his teeth points filed off |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Many people think that a woman with a ring through nose is neither attractive nor ugly. |
| B．Most African people think that a girl with shinny skin is beautiful. |
| C．It is thought that a beautiful woman should have straight, flat teeth on Bali. |
| D．Some people think it beautiful that a woman has a long neck in Myanmar. |
Running like the wind, roaring (咆哮) like thunder, tigers have long been feared and respected as a king of the animal world. But last week a report said that there are no more than 30 wild tigers left in south China.
This was the conclusion of a team of scientists from China's State Forestry Administration and the World Nature Fund.
The South China tiger, also known as the Chinese tiger, is native to southern China. In the 1950's, there were over 4000 tigers found in mountain forests in the country. But due to the destruction of their natural habitat and uncontrolled hunting, it has been pushed on to the list of the world's top ten most endangered species.
Sixtysix of the big cats can be found in the cages of a dozen zoos around China. But they are nothing like their wild cousins. They have lost their natural skills such as hunting and killing. If they were set free they could not look after themselves.
“Breeding has damaged the quality of the species”, said Pei Enle, deputy director of the Shanghai Zoo.
To reintroduce the species into the wild, the country started a programme to send five to ten young tigers to South Africa. Four of them have already arrived. Progress has been made as two elder tigers have recovered some of their instincts(本能) and can hunt wild animals by themselves at the African base.
“South Africans are very experienced in reintroducing big animals to the wild. The country has very good natural conditions for the tigers to learn in”, said Lu Jun, office director of the National Wildlife Research and Development Center. “We tried in Fujian Province, but it was not successful as there was not a complete ecochain(生物链) and there was a lack of space.”
The tigers should return to China in 2007 when the reservations in Fujian are ready.What is the main reason for the South China tiger becoming one of the world's top ten most endangered species?
| A．Because it has lost its natural instincts. |
| B．Because there is not a complete ecochain. |
| C．Because there is no space for it. |
| D．Because uncontrolled hunting has destroyed its natural living conditions. |
How is the programme of sending several tigers to South Africa getting on?
| A．Its effect still remains to be seen. |
| B．Two tigers can already compete with their wild cousins. |
| C．Some of the tigers are already on the road to recovering their natural skills. |
| D．The tigers should be able to recover their instincts completely by 2007. |
By saying “but they are nothing like their wild cousins”, the writer means that________.
| A．they are no longer feared by other wild animals |
| B．they don't know how to hunt or kill |
| C．a complete change has resulted in the species because of breeding |
| D．to reintroduce them into the wild has become an urgent task |
What is the purpose of sending young tigers to South Africa?
| A．To help the tigers recover their ability to live in the wild. |
| B．To provide them with a better environment. |
| C．To get the tigers to go on a tour. |
| D．To find a complete ecochain for them. |
My name is Clara.I still remember that chilly December day,sitting in science class.I’d finished a worksheet early and picked up a TIME for Kids magazine. A piece of news caught my eye:NASA was holding an essay contest to name its Mars rover(火星探测器).Before I even knew anything else about it,a single word flooded my 11-year-old mind,Curiosity.
I couldn’t want for the bell to ring so I could get started on my essay.That afternoon,I raced home,sat down at the computer,and typed until my fingers ached. “Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone’s mind...”
Five months later, my mon received a phone call,and immediately, a wide smile spread across her face.
On August 5,2012,at 10:31 p.m,the rover named Curiosity touched down safely on the surface of Mars,and I was honored to have a front-row seat in NASA.
Curiosity is such an important part of who I am.I have always been fascinated by the stars,the planets,the sky and the universe. I remember as a little girl,my grandmother and I would sit together in the backyard for hours.She’d tell me stories and point out the stars,Grandma lived in China,thousands of miles away from my home in Kansas,but the stars kept us together even when we were apart.They were always there, yet there was so much I didn’t know about them.That’s what I love so much about space.
People often ask me why we go to faraway places like Mares.My answer is simple because we’re curious.We human beings do not just hole up in one place.We are constantly wondering and trying to find out what’s over the hill and beyond the horizon.How did Clara get the new about the essay contest?( no more than 10 words)
Why did Clara have a front-row seat in NASA?( no more than 10 words)
What does Clara remember about the time spent with Grandma?( no more than 15 words)
What does the underlined phrase “hole up”mean?(1 word)
In your opinion,why is curiosity important?( no more than 20 words)
Here is an astonishing and significant fact: Mental work alone can’t make us tire. It sounds absurd. But a years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human brain could labor without reaching a stage of fatigue (疲劳). To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered that blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If we took a drop of blood from a day laborer, we would find it full of fatigue toxins(毒素) and fatigue products. But if we took blood from the brain of an Albert Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxins at the end of the day.
So far as the brain is concerned, it can work as well and swiftly at the end of eight or even twelve hours of effort as at the beginning. The brain is totally tireless. So what makes us tired?
Some scientists declare that most of our fatigue comes from our mental and emotional(情绪的) attitudes. One of England’s most outstanding scientists, J.A. Hadfield, says, “The greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is of mental origin. In fact, fatigue of purely physical origin is rare.” Dr. Brill, a famous American scientist, goes even further. He declares, “One hundred percent of the fatigue of sitting worker in good health is due to emotional problems.”
What kinds of emotions make sitting workers tired? Joy? Satisfaction? No! A feeling of being bored, anger, anxiety, tenseness, worry, a feeling of not being appreciated---those are the emotions that tire sitting workers. Hard work by itself seldom causes fatigue. We get tired because our emotions produce nervousness in the body.What surprised the scientists a few years ago?
| A．Fatigue toxins could hardly be found in a laborer’s blood. |
| B．Albert Einstein didn’t feel worn after a day’s work. |
| C．The brain could work for many hours without fatigue. |
| D．A mental worker’s blood was filled with fatigue toxins. |
According to the author, which of the following can make sitting workers tired?
| A．Challenging mental work. | B．Unpleasant emotions. |
| C．Endless tasks. | D．Physical labor. |
What’s the author’s attitude towards the scientists’ idea?
| A．He agrees with them. | B．He doubts them. |
| C．He argues against them. | D．He hesitates to accept them. |
We can infer from the passage that in order to stay energetic, sitting workers need to ___________.
| A．have some good food. | B．enjoy their work |
| C．exercise regularly | D．discover fatigue toxins |
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