Directions: You are expected to study this section in class. Don’t preview.

1. Word Pretest

For each italicized word or phrase , choose the best meaning below.

1. It continued to publish, albeit irregularly, two journals .
　A. and
　B. although
　C. but
2. Not many people actually understand the ramifications of these guidelines.
　A. implications
　B. reasons
　C. purposes
3. What evil lurks in the hearts of men?
　A. works
　B. exists
　C. attracts
4. We know there is corruption in the company but is hard to pin it down
　A. make
　B. handle
　C. identify
5. The lines were truncated.
　A. extended
　B. shortened
　C. replaced
6. Janet tried to whip up some interest in the idea
　A. lose
　B. take
　C. arouse
7. Do you know the deleterious effects of being exposed to radiation?
　A. mysterious
　B. injurious
　C. fatal
8. John did not enjoy his vacation because he continued to thinke about the impending exams.
　A. past
　B. final

2 Text
2.1Cultural Background

什么是基因工程？

随着 DNA的内部结构和遗传机制的秘密一点一点呈现在人们眼前，特别是当人们了解到遗传密码是由 RNA转录表达的以后，生物学家不再仅仅满足于探索、提示生物遗传的秘密，而是开始跃跃欲试，设想在分子的水平上去干预生物的遗传特性。

如果将一种生物的 DNA中的某个遗传密码片断连接到另外一种生物的DNA链上去，将DNA重新组织一下，就可以按照人类的愿望，设计出新的遗传物质并创造出新的生物类型，这与过去培育生物繁殖后代的传统做法完全不同。

这种做法就像技术科学的工程设计，按照人类的需要把这种生物的这个“基因”与那种生物的那个“基因”重新“施工”，“组装”成新的基因组合，创造出新的生物。这种完全按照人的意愿，由重新组装基因到新生物产生的生物科学技术，就称为“基因工程”，或者说是“遗传工程”。

基因工程是生物工程的一个重要分支，它和细胞工程、酶工程、蛋白质工程和微生物工程共同组成了生物工程。

所谓基因工程（genetic engineering)是在分子水平上对基因进行操作的复杂技术，是将外源基因通过体外重组后导入受体细胞内，使这个基因能在受体细胞内复制、转录、翻译表达的操作。它是用人为的方法将所需要的某一供体生物的遗传物质——DNA大分子提取出来，在离体条件下用适当的工具酶进行切割后，把它与作为载体的DNA分子连接起来，然后与载体一起导入某一更易生长、繁殖的受体细胞中，以让外源物质在其中“安家落户”，进行正常的复制和表达，从而获得新物种的一种崭新技术。

转基因技术（Transgene technology）的定义

将人工分离和修饰过的基因导入到生物体基因组中，由于导入基因的表达，引起生物体的性状的可遗传的修饰，这一技术称之为转基因技术。人们常说的"遗传工程"、"基因工程"、"遗传转化"均为转基因的同义词。经转基因技术修饰的生物体在媒体上常被称为"遗传修饰过的生物体"（Genetically modified organism，简称GMO）。

Alexander Fleming：弗莱明(1881—1955)，英国细菌学家。生于苏格兰埃尔郡洛克菲尔德。他是第一个使用抗伤寒疫苗于人类和早期使用药物治疗梅毒的医生之一。他发现溶菌霉的抗腐作用，1928年发现青霉素，为此他于1945年与他人同获诺贝尔生理学暨医学奖。1938年任伦敦大学细菌学教授。1944年被封为爵士。卒于伦敦。

D-Day：大反攻日。1944年6月6日。为盟国军队发动历史上规模最大的一次两栖作战行动攻入德国占领欧洲的日子。

Francis Crick：克里克(1916--)，英国生物及物理学家。生于北安普敦。先后就学于米尔希尔、伦敦和剑桥。自1949年起在卡文迪实验室研究分子生物学。1953年与沃森(J．D．Watson)共同建立一个复杂遗传物质DNA的分子模型，并于1958年提出是DNA决定了多链中氨基酸的顺序。1962年克里克与沃森和威尔金斯(M．Wilkim)同获诺贝尔生理学暨医学奖。

Genetic Engineering and Human Heredity

　　The early 20th century is littered with biotechnology milestones: the first use of the large-scale treatment of sewage just prior to World War I; the development of bacterial fermentation for three critical industrial chemicals (acetone, butanol , and glycerol) between 1912 and 1914; Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin in 1928;and the large-scale production of penicillin, in the build-up to D-Day, in 1944.
　　But the key event, the unlocking of the basin mystery of the gene, came with the discovery in 1953 of what Francis Crick called the “secret of life” Although it would be twenty years before the announcement of the first successful genetic-engineering experiments, the knowledge that structure of the basic stuff of life, deoxyribonucleic acid, was a double helix was to be the keystone for the genetic-engineering industry.

Tempted to play God?
　　Concern about the implications of genetic engineering has been voiced in many quarters during the last decade, beginning with the 1975 Asilomar conference on the hazards involved in recombinant DNA technology. This conference followed the publication of the Berg letter, signed by many prominent scientists, which called for a voluntary moratorium on some classes of genetic-engineering work. However, the debate took a dramatic new turn in the summer of 1980 when President Carter received a letter penned on behalf of an alliance of Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant church organizations.
　　“We are moving rapidly into a new era of fundamental danger,” it began, “triggered by genetic engineering. Albeit there may be opportunity for doing good, the very term suggests danger." Who, the letter demanded to know, should determine how human good is best served when new life-forms are being engineered? Who should control genetic experimentation, with all its untold implications for human survival? And who, it asked, would benefit --- and who bear any adverse consequences, directly or indirectly?
　　“New life-forms may have dramatic potential for improving human life,” it admitted,” whether by curing disease, correcting genetic deficiencies or swallowing oil slicks. They may also, however, have unforeseen ramifications, and at times the cure may be worse than the original problem.” This line of thinking was developed several years later by such opponents of genetic engineering as citizen-advocate Jeremy Rifkin in the attempt to stop the release of genetically engineering bacteria designed to cut frost damage to crop plants.
　　Asked which other experiments he might challenge, Rifkin replied that any work which released genetically engineered micro-organisms into the environment would be suspect. “The question, ”he suggested to Genetic Engineering News,

　　is, what is the difference between a living product and a chemical product in the environment. Here’s the 　　difference: a living product more unstable other living things. Secondly, a living product can reproduce, 　　migrate and grow. And third ,a living product cannot be recalled to the laboratory.

　　But the issue that lurked at the heart of that letter to president Carter was deeper-rooted. Those who read it carefully knew that the escape of genetically engineered micro-organisms, already a widely debated issue, was not the central concern to the three church organizations. The real problems, the writers felt, would come when beings to modify human beings. “History has shown us that there will always be those who believe it appropriate to ‘correct our mental and social structures by genetic means, so as to fit their vision of humanity,” they warned. “This becomes more dangerous when the basic tools to do so are finally at hand. Those who would play God will be tempted as never as never before.”

The Frankenstein Factor 
　　President Carter’s response to the letter was to set up a commission for the study of Ethical problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which reported in 1983. Anyone who has ever tried to pin down the ethical or social implications of an emerging area of science and technology will sympathize with the Commission’s conclusion that its main objective must be to “stimulate thoughtful, long-term discussion rather than truncating such thinking with premature conclusions.” But it did recognize in its opening pages that public concern about gene splicing seems “to reflect a deeper anxiety that work in this field might remake human beings, like Frankenstein’s monster” The media, of course, have been responsible for whipping up some of this concern. “Simply put,” wrote Susan Carson in the Winnipeg Tribune in 1979. 

　　You take a cell from some plant or animal and extract the chemical (DNA) that governs all the physical and 　　mental characteristics of the whole being. Do the same with another, totally different, plant or animal. Graft 　　the two together. Presto! Shake hands with an orange that quacks (like a duck), with a flower that can eat 　　you for breakfast.

This may be “simply put .” but did it really help people understand what was going on?
　　Yet it is worth noting that human beings have intentionally set out to induce genetic changes in animals and plants for over 10 000year, albeit often with little understanding of quite how they were achieving the desired effect. The practice of medicine, too, has already produced significant changes in our genetic make-up. The use of insulin to treat diabetes and the prescription for eye-glasses are examples of human ingenuity which have increased the prevalence in the population of genes which can have a deleterious effect in individuals. There are plenty of defective genes to “edit” out of our genetic make-up .Our species suffers at least 3 000 genetic diseases, from blood disorders to the many forms of mental retardation. The signs of impending change are all about.
　　One possible problem, as parents begin to sidestep the “natural lottery” of sexual reproduction by suing in vitro fertilization, surrogate mothers or frozen-embryo technology, is that our understanding of what a genetic “defect” is will actually begin to slip .For example, if the genetic engineer can offer a means of guaranteeing that a child has a higher IQ, then today’s “normal”(IQ) levels would certainly be considered deficient tomorrow. Our notion of what it means to be a “good” parent would certainly change.
　　Where parents choose (or are forced) to take the gene-surgery option, the Commission suggested, their sense of family and kinship may also change radically. The use of gene surgery, involving operating on the fertilized egg itself, could obviously result in inheritable changes –and could encourage people to think of their family as extending much further into the future. Alternatively, they may simply conclude that the future development of such techniques will make nonsense of traditional concepts of lineage anyway.
　　Even relatively simple products of genetic engineering such as human growth hormone, could raise tricky ethical issues. No one doubts that growth-hormone therapy is desirable for many children who do not currently receive it . “But,” asked Dr. Thomas Murray, “what if the child simply comes short parents, and inherits shortness? What about a child who is not short at all, but whose parents believe that being taller still confers distinct social advantages?”
　　But even Rifkin admits that there is no way of regulating genetic engineering out of existence. Any country that tried to do so would simply force it underground---or overseas. The Commission’s overall conclusion was that, while genetic engineering is not inherently inappropriate for human use, it is a painful irony that, in seeking to extend our control over our world, we often unwittingly lessen it.

Total Words: 1 240
Total Reading Time:          

The text is based on The Gene Factory by John Ellington. New York, Carroll Graf publishers, Inc. 1985

• Reading Comprehension

Circle the letter of the best answer.

1. Which of the following is not the examples of biotechnology milestones?

　A. The large-scale production of penicillin

　B. The development of bacterial fermentation.

　C. Fleming’s discovery of three critical industrial chemicals.

　D. The first use of microbes for the large—scale treatment of sewage.

2. The knowledge that DNA was a double helix was   
　A. discovered in 1973
　B. the basic mystery of the gene
　C. the keystone for the genetic engineering industry
　D. the fist successful genetic engineering experiments announced.
3. The Berg letter called for     some classes of genetic engineering work.
　A. a ban on
　B. a compulsory halt to
　C. a voluntary postponement of
　D. an experiment on
4. Which of the following cannot be inferred from Rifkin’s quotation?
　A. A living product is different from a chemical product in the environment.
　B. A living product interacts with other living things
　C.A petrochemical product cannot reproduce, migrate and grow.
　D.A living product can be recalled to the laboratory
5. The central concern to the three church organizations was      
　A. the escape of genetic engineering
　B. the benefit of genetic engineering
　C. the opportunity for doing good by genetic engineering.
　D. the remaking of human beings by genetic means
6. The following are the instances of human endeavors in the past to bring about genetic changes except_____.
　A. the use of insulin to treat diabetes
　B. the prescription for eye glasses
　C. the buildup of the power of defective genes
　D. the creation of an orange that quacks like a duck
7. Gene surgery could radically change the following except_____.
　A. the sense of family
　B. the sense of kinship
　C. the sense of lineage
　D. the sense of self
8. It is suggested in the last paragraph that_____.
　A. genetic engineering can be stopped without any difficulty
　B. genetic engineering is inappropriate for human use
　C. our control over genetic engineering is a success
　D. our control over genetic engineering is weakened in the very proceeding of imposing it

Key

◆ Vocabulary Building
Definition
Define the following terms in your own words.
Gene
Genome
Genetic engineering
Gene surgery
Surrogate mother

Idiom
Complete the following sentences with the appropriate idiomatic expressions which or related to the idea of KLNDNESS/ADD. Make sure it fits the blanks.
　　　　Be hard-hearted          be tight-fisted
　　　　Be warm-hearted         go to for someone
　　　　Have a heart             have a heart of gold
　　　　Have a heart of stone

1. Someone who ______ is unfeeling.
2. Someone who ______ another helps that person in time of trouble of need.
3. Someone who ______ is generous and sympathetic.
4. Someone who ______ is generous and giving.
5. Someone who ______ is pitiless and unfeeling.
6. Someone who ______ is reluctant to give or spend money.
7. Someone who ______ is loving and considerate.

General Vocabulary Exercise
Use the appropriate form of the word given in the brackets to fill in the corresponding blank.

1. If you go to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco on a Saturday afternoon, you can _____ seeing large numbers of people.(anticipation).
2. When asked about the best place to fish on the Columbia, the man gave an ______ answer, not wanting to share his secret spot.(evasion)
3. My first ______ was to be a fireman.(ambitiously)
4. They succeeded in achieving their goal through sheer ______.(determine)
5. The actress _______ to sign the contract for the new Hollywood movie only after she had read through it carefully.(agreeable)
6. He was so embarrassed by the _______ that he turned bright red and disappeared into the restaurant’s kitchen.(collide)
7. ______ foods need to be refrigerated.(perish)
8. Mary gave Helen a bouquet of flowers as an ______ of appreciation for the warm hospitality.(expressive)
9. The scientist gave a ________ explanation on how the brain functions.(theorize)
10. The _______ of his remarks took us by surprise.(profound)

Analogies
Select the lettered pair that best expresses a relationship similar to that expressed in the original pair.

1. HANDCUFFS: ROBBER:

　A. leash: dog                B. rope: tie
　C. shoes: feet                D. law: restriction
2. EMULATE: MIMIC:
　A. slander: defame            B. praise: flatter
　C. express: imply             D. complain: condemn
3. QUIBBLE: AMBIGUITY:
　A. scribble: clarity             B. nit-pick: pettiness
　C. perjure: unreliability         D. babble: prattling
4. LACONIC: WORDS:
　A. affable: friends             B. monotonous: address
　C. hesitant: action             D. tolerant: laughter
5. INAUGURATEA: BEGINNING:
　A. advise: dissension           B. forbid: sanction
　C. prevaricates: prank           D. consecrate: dedication
6. CALLOW: MATURITY:
　A. incipient: fruition            B. spoiled
　C. sorry: old                   D. eager: anxiety
7. ARCHIVE: MANUSCRIPT:
　A. jail: custodian               B. school: Principal
　C. courtyard: fountain           D. arsenal: weapon
8. GREGARIOUSNESS: SOCIABILITY:
　A. reliability: esteem            B. courageous: fearfulness
　C. affability: friendliness         D. forgetfulness: memorability

Key

◆ Cloze
Read through the following passage and then decide which of the choices given below would correctly complete the passage if inserted in the corresponding blanks.
　 　Mendel, an Augustinian monk, had some training in mathematics and the natural sciences.   1   , he was the son of a farmer, knew the soil, and had a green thumb. Plant hybridization    2   him, and he began to read the professional literature. There were many puzzling problems. Crosses    3  certain species regularly yielded many hybrids with   4  traits, for instance, but look what happened when you crossed the hybrids—all kinds of strange new combinations of traits cropped   5  . The principle of inheritance, if there was one, was elusive.
　　Mendel’s basic idea was that there might be simple mathematical   6   among the characteristic forms of plants in different generations of hybrids. He decided, therefore, to   7    some experimental plots in the monastery garden at Burn, and there raise a number of varieties of peas, hybridize them, count and classify the offspring of each generation, and see   8  any mathematical ratios were involved.
　　He began in 1854   9   seed that other growers had certified as “pure”(that is, plants grown from it, if self-fertilized,    10   duplicated the traits of the parental stock)—but just to make sure, he raised plants from it and harvested a crop. Then, by artificial pollination, he crossed varieties in different   11 . The result, for each of the seven paired traits he had chosen to study, was the same. All individuals in the first generation took   12 one parent. It was as if the other parent had had no influence whatever on the result.

1. A. Then         B. However      C. But            D. Moreover
2. A. bored        B. interested      C. repelled         D. pleased
3. A. of           B. between        C. among         D. for
4. A. identical      B. different        C. strange        D. unique
5. A. out          B. in             C. up             D. down
6. A. relation       B. relations       C. relationship     D. relationships
7. A. buy          B. discover       C. establish        D. separate
8. A. how         B. what           C. where          D. whether
9. A. with         B. of             C. without         D. by
10. A. faithfully    B. carefully        C. naturally       D. strangely
11. A. forms       B. combinations    C. kinds          D. traits
12. A. in          B. on             C. up            D. after

key