单选题 With only about 1,000 pandas left in the world, China is desperately trying to clone the animal and save the endangered species. That"s a move similar to what a Texas A&M University researcher has been undertaking for the past five years in a project called "Noah"s Ark."
Dr. Duane Kraemer, a professor in Texas A&M"s College of Veterinary Medicine and a pioneer in embryo (胚胎) transfer work and related procedures, says he salutes the Chinese effort and "I wish them all the best success possible. It"s a worthwhile project, certainly not an easy one, and it"s very much like what we"re attempting here at Texas A&M — to save animals from extinction."
Noah"s Ark is aimed at collecting eggs, embryos, semen (精子) and DNA of endangered animals and storing them in liquid nitrogen. If certain species should be come extinct, Kraemer says there would be enough of the basic building blocks to reintroduce the species in the future.
It is estimated that as many as 2,000 species of mammals, birds and reptiles will become extinct over the next 100 years. The panda, native only to China, is in danger of becoming extinct in the next 25 years.
This week, Chinese scientists said they grew an embryo by introducing cells from a dead female panda into the egg cells of a Japanese white rabbit. They are now trying to implant the embryo into a host animal.
The entire procedure could take from three to five years to complete.
"The nuclear transfer of one species to another is not easy, and the lack of available panda eggs could be a major problem," Kraemer believes. "They will probably have to do several hundred transfers to result in one pregnancy. It takes a long time and it"s difficult, but this could be groundbreaking science if it works. They are certainly not putting any live pandas at risk, so it is worth the effort," adds Kraemer, who is one of the leaders of the Missy plicity Project at Texas A&M, the first ever attempt at cloning a dog.
单选题 The aim of "Noah"s Ark" project is to ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。题意是：“‘诺亚方舟’这个工程的目的是什么?”文章的第三段说“Noah"s Ark is aimed at ... If certain species should be come extinct ... reintroduce the species in the future.”可见“诺亚方舟”的目的是挽救灭绝的物种。所以本题的答案选C。
单选题 How long will the Chinese panda cloning project take according to the passage?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。题意是：“根据文章，中国的克隆大熊猫项目要用多长时间?”第六段指出，整个程序需要三至五年完成。本句中的。procedure指的就是克隆大熊猫的过程。
单选题 The word "groundbreaking" (Paragraph 7) can be interpreted as ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 词义题。题意是：第七段里的groundbreaking可解释为什么意义。A“全新的”；B“开创性的”；C“进化的”；D“划时代的”。break ground原意为“破土；创建”。groundbreaking所在句子的意义为：它需要花很长时间并且很难，但如果它能成功，这就会成为一个开创性的科学。
单选题 What could be the major problem in cloning pandas according to Professor Kraemer?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。题意是：根据Kraemer教授的观点，克隆大熊猫的主要问题是什么。A“缺少可得到的熊猫卵子”；B“缺少受体动物”；C“缺少合格的科研人员”；D“缺少资金”。由第七段第一句可知，将一个物种的细胞核移植到另外一个物种是件不容易的事，缺少大熊猫的卵子可能会成为一个重要问题。
单选题 The best title for the passage may be ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 主旨题。题意是：这篇文章的最佳标题是什么。本文第一段为全文导语。从第二段起具体介绍Duane Kraemer对中国科学家克隆大熊猫的做法的评价，并与美国科学家正在从事的“诺亚方舟”计划做了对比。文章最后一段表达了他们对中国同行所做的丁作的高度评价，由此也向读者介绍了中国科学家在克隆大熊猫这个项目上所做的努力。A是“中国——大熊猫永远的出生地”；B是“中国克隆大熊猫所付出的努力”；C是“中国第一只克隆大熊猫”；D是“探索克隆大熊猫的可能性”。根据上面的分析答案选B。