单选题 Gene therapy and gene-based drugs are two ways we could benefit from our growing mastery of genetic science. But there will be others as well. Here is one of tile remarkable therapies on the cutting edge of genetic research that could make their way into mainstream medicine in the coming years.
While it's true that just about every cell in the body has the instructions to make a complete human, most of those instructions are inactivated, and with good reason: the last thing you want for your brain cells is to start churning out stomach acid or your nose to turn into a kidney. The only time cells truly have the potential to turn into any and all body parts is very early in a pregnancy, when so called stem cells haven't begun to specialize.
Yet this untapped potential could be a terrific boon to medicine. Most diseases involve the death of healthy cells -- brain cells in Alzheimer's, cardiac cells in heart disease, pancreatic cells in diabetes, to name a few; if doctors could isolate stem cells, then direct their growth, they might be able to furnish patients with healthy replacement tissues.
It was incredibly difficult, but last fall scientists at the University of Wisconsin managed to isolate stem cells and get them to grow into neural, gut, muscle and bone cells. The process still can't be controlled, and may have unforeseen limitations; but if efforts to understand and master stem-cell development prove successful, doctors will have a therapeutic tool of incredible power.
The same applies to cloning, which is really just the other side of the coin; true cloning, as first shown with the sheep Dolly several years ago, involves taking a developed cell and reactivating the genome within, resetting its developmental instructions to a pristine state. Once that happens, the rejuvenated cell can develop into a full fledged animal, genetically identical to its parent.
For agriculture, in which purely physical characteristics like milk production in a cow or low fat in a hog have real market value, biological carbon copies could become routine within a few years. This past year scientists have done for mice and cows what Ian Wilmut did for Dolly, and other creatures are bound to join the cloned menagerie in the coming year.
Human cloning, on the other hand, may be technically feasible but legally and emotionally more difficult. Still, one day it will happen. The ability to reset body cells to a pristine, undeveloped state could give doctors exactly the same advantages they would get from stem cells: the potential to make healthy body tissues of all sorts, and thus to Cure diseases. That could prove to be a true "miracle cure".

单选题 The writer holds that the potential to make healthy body tissues will ______.
A. aggravate moral issues of human cloning
B. bring great benefits to human beings
C. help scientists decode body instructions
D. involve employing surgical instruments
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】分析推理题。文章第一段首先指出,基因疗法和基因药物是我们可以从基因科学的发展中得到好处的两种途径,然后在第三段第一句又指出Yet this untapped potential could be a terrific boon to medicine(这种未发掘的潜力对医学极为有用),后面几段则分析了这种有用性,文章最后一句又指出克隆人体器官将会是一种true "miracle cure"。由此可知[B]对。
单选题 The word "rejuvenated" (Line 3, Para. 5) most probably means ______.
A. modified B. re-collected C. classified D. reactivated
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】词义推测题。该句前面一句说,重新激发一个成熟细胞中的基因组、将其发展指令重设为初始状态;此句则指代前面经过处理的细胞说,这种______细胞可以发育成为成熟的动物。由两句之间的逻辑可知,rejuvenated应当与前一句中的reactivating意思相同,因此答案是[D]。
单选题 The aim of the research at the University of Wisconsin is ______.
A. to isolate stem cells and to get them grow into different cells
B. to show the effects of gene therapies
C. to show us the advantages of human cloning
D. to test the limitations of tissue replacements
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节题。本题答案信息对应于文章第四段第一句:... managed to isolate stem cells and get them grow into neural, gut, muscle and bone cells(试图分离出干细胞并把它们培养成神经、内脏、肌肉和骨细胞),[A]只是表达上稍有不同。
单选题 Which of the following is true according to the text?
A. The principle of gene therapy is applicable to that of cloning.
B. The isolation of stem cells is too difficult to be feasible.
C. It is reasonable for all body instructions to be activated.
D. Cloned animals will eventually take control of the world.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节题。本题是细节比对题。[A]与第五段第一句 (The same applies to cloning)的意思一致; [B]中的too difficult to与第四段第一句中的managed to意思不符;[C]中的all body instructions在文中没有体现,由常识也可知不对;[D]由常识即可知不对。
单选题 Towards the genetic research, the author's attitude can best be said to be that of ______.
A. frustration B. indifference C. amazement D. opposition
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】分析推理题。参见第51题分析。作者在说明基因技术和相关研究时,用的是benefit、remarkable、terrific boon、miracle等褒义词,不难看出他对此是持正面态度的,因此除了[C],其余三项都不对。