Dolly on the dinner table?

　　Don’t worry about it

　　The Food and Drug Administration has declared that meat and milk from cloned animals is safe to eat, paving the way for cloned products to show up in grocery stores across the land, likely without any special labels or warnings.

　　This makes sense because there is absolutely no evidence to show that there is anything unsafe about milk or meat from cloned cows, goats or pigs. (Actually, the FDA is holding off on deciding whether cloned sheep are a safe source of chops, saying not enough information is available yet.) But many of us hear the words “meat from cloned animals” and get queasy. Dolly, fairly or not, is to blame.

　　Dolly, whose remains are on display at the Royal Museum of Scotland, spent her six years on earth as the object of scorn, fear, derision and slander. The media had a field day upon her birth telling us that Dolly was the key to resurrecting the dead, creating vicious clone armies and a world in which everyone would be trailed by a hapless clone whose internal organs would be available on demand to prolong lives threatened by disease or old age.

　　But worse was to follow. Soon wacky cults like the Raelians and nutty scientists were hollering about cloning rich people, cult leaders, and generally unsavory types to the rapt and stupefied attention of a media unable to discern the fact that dressing in a Star Trek uniform and displaying a very bad hair dye job did not prove your bona fides as the cloner most to be feared.

　　All of this nonsense took a toll. It made Americans forget that cloning is nothing more than artificially creating twins. It made us forget that every drop of wine we drink comes from cloned grapes.

　　Dolly got a bad rap. And it has stuck. But the FDA is right to follow the evidence and let products from clones enter the marketplace.

　　If people want these products labeled so they can choose not to buy them, that’s their right.

　　But, before you decide, remember the only thing you really have to fear from cloned animals is what human beings have done to ruin their reputations!

　　考研詞匯：

　　pave[peiv]

　　v.鋪砌，鋪(路)

　　[真題例句]53. What can be inferred from the passage?[2000年閱讀1]

　　[D] A long history of success may pave the way for further development.

　　[例句精譯] 53. 從本文我們可推知什么?

　　[D] 長(zhǎng)期經(jīng)濟(jì)成功的歷史可能為進(jìn)一步的發(fā)展鋪平道路。

　　scorn[skɔ:n]

　　v./n. 輕蔑，藐視

　　[真題例句]Few would dispute that the term applies to the Unabomber, whose manifesto, published in 1995, scorns(v.) science and longs for return to a pretechnological utopia.[1998年閱讀3]

　　[例句精譯] 將該詞(反科學(xué))用在仇視現(xiàn)代文明的恐怖主義者身上，也不會(huì)引起多大爭(zhēng)議，它在1995年公開發(fā)表蔑視科學(xué)、渴望回到前技術(shù)時(shí)代理想社會(huì)的聲明。

　　vicious[ˈviʃəs]

　　a.惡毒的，兇殘的，邪惡的

　　[真題例句]47. Misled people tend to think that using an animal in research is.[2003年閱讀2]

　　[C] inevitable but vicious

　　[例句精譯] 47�北徽`導(dǎo)的人們往往認(rèn)為：在研究中使用動(dòng)物。

　　[C] 不可避免但邪惡

　　prolong[prəˈlɔŋ]

　　v.拉長(zhǎng)，延長(zhǎng)

　　[真題例句]On another level, many in the medical community acknowledge that the assisted�瞫uicide debate has been fueled in part by the despair of patients for whom modern medicine has prolonged the physical agony of dying.[2002年閱讀4]

　　[例句精譯] 另一方面，許多醫(yī)療界人士承認(rèn)，致使醫(yī)助自殺這場(chǎng)爭(zhēng)論升溫的部分原因是由于病人們的絕望情緒，對(duì)這些病人來(lái)說(shuō)，現(xiàn)代醫(yī)學(xué)延長(zhǎng)了臨終前肉體的痛苦。

　　discern[diˈsə:n]

　　v.①認(rèn)出，發(fā)現(xiàn);②辨別，識(shí)別

　　[真題例句]63. Discerned (①) from the perplexing picture of population growth the 1980 census provided, America in 1970s.[1998年閱讀4]

　　[B] witnessed a southwestern shift of population

　　[例句精譯] 63�备鶕�(jù)1980年人口統(tǒng)計(jì)提供的人口增長(zhǎng)的復(fù)雜圖表可以看出，美國(guó)在20世紀(jì)70年代。

　　[B] 經(jīng)歷了人口向西南地區(qū)的遷移

　　artificial[ˌɑ:tiˈfiʃəl]

　　a.①人工的，人造的;②人為的，矯揉造作的

　　[真題例句]Indeed the quest for true artificial (①) intelligence has produced very mixed results.[2002年閱讀2]

　　[例句精譯] 實(shí)際上對(duì)真正的人工智能的追求已經(jīng)產(chǎn)生了各種各樣的效果。

　　[真題例句]The casual friendliness of many Americans should be interpreted neither as superficial nor as artificial (②), but as the result of a historically developed cultural tradition.[1997年閱讀2]

　　[例句精譯] 很多美國(guó)人不經(jīng)意表現(xiàn)的友好不應(yīng)被看做是表面或虛假的應(yīng)酬，而應(yīng)該看成是文化傳統(tǒng)歷史發(fā)展的結(jié)果。

　　背景常識(shí)介紹：

　　自從科學(xué)家研究出第一只克隆羊多利之后，10年以來(lái)，不斷地有克隆豬、牛、羊、馬等牲畜問(wèn)世，用于科學(xué)研究或飼養(yǎng)。

　　美國(guó)食品藥物管理局日前表示，該局今年年底將完成相關(guān)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)評(píng)估，明年有可能出臺(tái)批準(zhǔn)克隆牲畜的肉、奶在美國(guó)上市銷售的規(guī)定。這意味著克隆動(dòng)物的肉奶制品，最終可能堂而皇之地?cái)[上美國(guó)人的餐桌。據(jù)估計(jì)，美國(guó)現(xiàn)有克隆動(dòng)物的數(shù)量在600頭至2000頭之間，科學(xué)家也一直在研究克隆牲畜的食用價(jià)值與前景。

　　多利出現(xiàn)在餐桌上?對(duì)此不要擔(dān)心

　　食品藥品管理局已經(jīng)宣布從克隆動(dòng)物身上取得的肉和奶是可以安全食用的，從而為在可能沒(méi)有任何標(biāo)簽和警告的情況下，使克隆產(chǎn)品進(jìn)入食品店鋪平了道路。

　　這樣做很有意義，因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在還沒(méi)有足夠的根據(jù)來(lái)說(shuō)明從克隆牛、克隆羊、克隆豬身上得到的奶和肉有任何的不安全性。(實(shí)際上，食品藥品管理局說(shuō)沒(méi)有足夠可以利用的信息，從而在拖延判斷克隆羊是否是安全的食品來(lái)源。)但是我們中的很多人一聽到“從克隆動(dòng)物身上得到的肉”這樣的字眼就會(huì)作嘔。多利，不管公平與否，是有責(zé)任的。

　　多利遺留的東西現(xiàn)在都陳列在蘇格蘭的皇家博物館，作為被藐視、恐懼、嘲笑和詆毀的對(duì)象，她在地球上度過(guò)了六年的時(shí)間。媒體在一個(gè)重要的日子宣布了多利的出生，告訴我們多利是使死亡復(fù)活的關(guān)鍵，創(chuàng)造了各種克隆群體和一個(gè)世界。在這個(gè)世界里，每個(gè)人都會(huì)被一個(gè)不幸的克隆人跟隨著，他們的內(nèi)部器官可以用來(lái)延續(xù)那些受到疾病或老齡威脅的生命。

　　但是更糟的事情接著來(lái)了。不久像Raelians這樣的古怪教派和狂熱的科學(xué)家都抱怨說(shuō)，克隆富人、古怪的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人和那些使媒體專注驚訝的通常令人討厭的類型并不能辨別這樣一個(gè)事實(shí)，即穿上Star Trek的外衣以及染上非常差的頭發(fā)并不能證明你認(rèn)為克隆人令人害怕是一種好意。

　　這些不合理的話造成了一種混亂。它使得美國(guó)人忘記了克隆只不過(guò)是人為地創(chuàng)造雙胞胎而已。它使我們忘記了我們喝的每一滴酒都來(lái)自克隆的葡萄。

　　多利受到了糟糕的指責(zé)。她已經(jīng)忍受了。但是食品藥品管理局公正地依據(jù)證據(jù)使克隆產(chǎn)品進(jìn)入了市場(chǎng)。

　　如果人們想讓這些產(chǎn)品貼上標(biāo)簽，那么他們可以選擇不去買它們，這是他們的權(quán)利。

　　但是，在你決定之前，只需記住一件事，你對(duì)克隆動(dòng)物真正需要害怕的是人類怎樣毀壞了他們的聲譽(yù)!