发布时间 : 星期二 文章新视野大学英语视听说（第一版）第四册文本及答案(7-10)单元更新完毕开始阅读17d1697f5acfa1c7aa00cc9a
interfering with nature.
John: I know. But nature can be pretty hard-nosed too, so we often need to interfere
with her—we build dams to control flooding.
Nora: There’re many diseases that are a part of nature, and they cause people a great
deal of misery: cancer and diabetes, for example.
John: A better understanding of the genetic code that controls our body would be a great help in curing many diseases.
Nora: The project to map the human genetic code…what’s that called?
John: The genome project. As you say, it has tremendous promise to make our lives
better—just in the ability to identify and correct genetically-caused diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Nora: Some diseases like cancer are also believed to have a genetic switch.
John: That’s right, and once researchers identify the switch, perhaps they can turn off
cancer or Alzheimer’s.
Nora: People are also concerned that science will enable us to determine such
qualities as intelligence and height.
John: You know it’s going to happen—it’s just a matter of when.
Nora: Imagine if everyone was a combination of Yao Ming and Albert Einstein.
John: But what if they get it wrong, and you wind up with Yao Ming’s knowledge of
nuclear physics and Albert Einstein’s height?
Nora: All those religious groups would say that it served you right.
Now Your Turn Task 1
SAMPLE DIALOG
Jane: Some countries are suffering from crop failure and famine, but why do they
refuse genetically modified crops and foods?
Bob: And many Europeans insist that processed foods containing GM ingredients be
labeled.
Jane: Why should they be labeled?
Bob: Not everyone is sure that genetically modified foods are safe. They want to
certain that biotech foods have the same composition as traditional foods.
Jane: But there are more urgent problems in this world. Many people are dying of
famine.
Bob: But those who aren’t hungry may want all genetically modified products to be
labeled so they know exactly what they’re eating.
Jane: You know, I’ve heard of a GM fish that was ten times larger than a normal fish. Bob: That really sounds abnormal.
Jane: Some famine-stricken people are afraid GM crops will overpower and eliminate
their native crops.
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Bob: Sounds alarming.
Jane: Yeah, but GM foods can feed many people.
Bob: You’re right; they could solve the problem of starvation in the world. But I think
we have a right to know what we are eating. GM food should be labeled.
V. Let’s Talk
Script
Correspondent: In the U.S. what percentage of people support biotech crops? And do
those who support biotech crops also eat biotech foods? What percentage of food on the market has genetically modified ingredients?
Professor: U.S. consumers have been exposed to a very effective
anti-biotechnology propaganda campaign for the last few years, but according to polls, over 70% support biotechnology. For example, in a recent referendum in Oregon, voters rejected a proposal to require special labels on all products containing biotech ingredients by an overwhelming 73% to 27%. That’s probably because consumers know that we have an effective administrative system. Many may also know that 70-80% of the processed food products on supermarket shelves contain one or more ingredients from biotech crops. All Americans eat biotech foods unless they deliberately seek out products that are labeled otherwise. Evidence suggests that this is less than 5% of consumers.
Correspondent: Chinese scientists have used biotechnology to create a new type of
tomato, which contains the vaccine against hepatitis B. What’s your take on this?
Professor: It’s a great example of how this technology can be used to save lives,
ease pain and suffering and improve the human condition. How can anyone be opposed to that? My only hope is that the clinical trials of this new tomato go well, and that it is quickly delivered to health-care providers who will use it to vaccinate people against hepatitis. By the way, please note that I do think that such new pharmaceutical foods need to be handled as medicines by professionals and not as conventional foods. You will never see these tomatoes in the supermarket. In a sense, the tomato plant is just being used to manufacture a vaccine in a very safe and economical manner.
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U.S. Consumer’s attitude to Over 70% of biotechnology. Biotech Examples U.S.consumers support In a recent referendum in Oregon, voters rejected a proposal to require special labels on all products containing biotech ingredients by an overwhelming 73% to 27%. Chinese scientists have used biotechnology to create a new type of tomato, which contains the vaccine against hepatitis B. This technology can be used to save lives,ease pain and suffering and improve the human condition. I do think that such new pharmaceutical foods need to be handled as medicines by professionals and not as conventional foods. Chinese Progress in Biotech Significance of the Progress The Professor’s Advice
VI. Further Listening and Speaking
Task1: Confident enough to control your fate? Script
Some people are born with the belief that they are masters of their own lives. Others feel they are at the mercy of fate. New research shows that part of those feelings are in the genes.
Psychologists have long known that people confident in their ability to control their fates are more likely to adjust well to growing old than those who feel they drift on the currents of fate.
Two researchers who questioned hundreds of Swedish twins report that such confidence, or lack of it, is partly genetic and partly drawn from experience.
They also found that the belief in blind luck—a conviction that chance plays a big role in life—is something learned in life and has nothing to do with heredity.
The research was conducted by Nancy Pedersen, a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The results were recently published
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in the United States in the Journal of Gerontology.
People who are confident of their ability to control their lives have an “internal locus of control”, and have a better chance of being well adjusted in their old age, said Pedersen. An “external locus of control”,believing that outside forces determine the course of life, has been linked to depression in latter years, she said.
“We are trying to understand what makes people different. What makes some people age slowly and others have a more difficult time?” she said.
The study showed that while people have an inborn tendency toward independence and self-confidence, about 70 percent of this personality trait is affected by a person’s environment and lifetime experiences.
Pedersen’s studies, with various collaborators, investigate the aging process by comparing sets of twins, most of whom were separated at an early age.
The subjects were drawn from a list first compiled about 30 years ago, registering all twins born in Sweden since 1886. The complete list, which was extended in 1971, has 95,000 sets of twins.
1. Which of the following is concerned with blind luck?
2. Which of the following is related to an external locus of control?
3. According to the passage, what is true of one’s inborn tendency towards self-confidence?
4. What subjects were mostly used in Pedersen’s studies? 5. What is the main idea of the passage?
Keys: 1.A 2.B 3.C 4.C 5.D
Task 2: Is it moral to clone humans?
Script
Laura: Did you hear about that peculiar cult that claimed to have created the world’s
first human clone?
Ian: Yeah, I did! They also said that it was aliens that created life on earth over
25,000 years ago. What are they on?
Laura: I know! It was so obviously just part of an elaborate hoax to bring publicity to
their crazy movement. But I don’t think the truth can be far off. Scientists have been working on it for years.
Ian: Sure, but most scientists are working on cloning human cells or body parts
that can be used to repair or replace damaged organs. Not complete human beings! That’s just science fiction!
Laura: Well, the science may seem to be very advanced, but the idea is not a new one.
In A Journey to the West, Sun Wu-kung, the Monkey King, can clone himself from the hairs on his head. He just plucks a few hairs, chews them a bit, and when he spits them out, they change into replicas of him!
Ian: Really? Now that would be cool! You could send your clone to school while
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