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1979年:对羊和老鼠的胚胎进行研究 2001年:中国首次克隆出双胞胎小牛 1981年:首次对老鼠进行试验性研究 2002年:首次克隆猫 1983年:首次对母牛进行试验性研究 2005年:首次克隆狗

不时地会有人提议,克隆技术将有可能使地球上已经消失的动物(如恐龙)复活。不幸的是,据我们现在所知这是不可能的,也是不合适的。其原因有很多:

◎ 首先要求你有完好的,以提供有关细胞将如何生长的信息。

◎ 如果某个动物群体没有足够的多样性以战胜疾病,那么克隆这种动物的所有努力都将是无用的。群体的多样性是指这群动物的基因要以不同的方式排列。其优点是,如果发生了某种新的疾病,这类动物中的一些可能会死去,而另外一些却能存活下来,并且把这种免疫力传给下一代。经过克隆的动物群体的最大缺点是:它们的基因排列有可能完全相同,因而它们有可能会死于同一种疾病,这样它们也可能一个也留不下来传种接代了。

◎你如果克隆出任何绝种动物,而它们必须生活在动物园里那是不公平的。它们需要适当的栖息地过正常的野生生活。

就我们现在所知,你不可能克隆那些已经绝种了一万年以上的动物。事实上恐龙在6,500万年以前就已经消失了,所以说恐龙回归地球的可能性仅仅是个梦想罢了!

Unit 3 Inventors and inventions 第三单元 发明家及其发明

Reading

THE PROBLEM OF THE SHRIKES

When I called up my mother in the countryside on the telephone she was very upset. \are some snakes in our courtyard,\from the walnut tree. Can you get rid of them please?\inventing something merciful that would catch snakes but not harm them. I knew my parents would not like me to hurt these living creatures!

The first thing I did was to see if there were any products that might help me, but there only seemed to be powders designed to kill snakes. A new approach was clearly needed. I set about researching the habits of snakes to find the easiest way to trap them. Luckily these reptiles are small and that made the solution easier.

Prepared with some research findings, I decided on three possible approaches: firstly, removing their habitat; secondly, attracting them into a trap using male or female perfume or food; and thirdly cooling them so that they would become sleepy and could be easily caught. I decided to use the last one. I bought an ice-cream maker which was made of stainless steel. Between the outside and the inside walls of the bowl there is some jelly, which freezes when cooled. I put the bowl into the fridge and waited for 24 hours. At the same time I prepared some ice-cubes.

The next morning I got up early before the sun was hot. I placed the frozen bowl over the snakes' habitat and the ice-cubes on top of the bowl to keep it cool. Finally I covered the whole thing with a large bucket. Then I waited. After two hours I removed the bucket and the bowl. The snakes were less active but they were still too fast for me. They abruptly disappeared into a convenient hole in the wall. So I had to adjust my plan.

For the second attempt I froze the bowl and the ice-cubes again but placed them over the snakes' habitat in the evening, as the temperature was starting to cool. Then as before, I covered the bowl with the bucket and left everything overnight. Early the next morning I returned to see the result. This time with great caution I bent down to examine the snakes and I found them very sleepy. But once picked up, they tried to bite me. As they were poisonous snakes, I clearly needed to improve my design again.

My third attempt repeated the second procedure. The next morning I carried in my hand a small net used for catching fish. This was in the expectation that the snakes would bite again. But monitored carefully, the snakes proved to be no trouble and all went according to plan. I collected the passive snakes and the next day we merrily released them all back into the wild.

Pressed by my friends and relations, I decided to seize the opportunity to get recognition formy successful idea by sending my invention to the patent office. Only after you have had thatrecognition can you say that you are truly an inventor. The criteria are so strict that it is difficult to get new ideas accepted unless they are truly novel. In addition, no invention will get a patent if it is:

◎a discovery

◎a scientific idea or mathematical model ◎literature or art

◎a game or a business ◎a computer programme

◎a new animal or plant variety

Nor will you receive a patent until a search has been made to find out that your product reallyis different from everyone else's. There are a large number of patent examiners, too, whose only job is to examine whether your claim is valid or not. If it passes all the tests, your application for a patent will be published 18 months from the date you apply. So I have filled in the form and filed my patent application with the Patent Office. Now it's a matter of waiting and hoping. You'll know if I succeed by the size of my bank balance! Wish me luck!

蛇的困扰

我给住在乡下的母亲打电话的时候,她感到很心烦。―我们院子里有几条蛇,‖她告诉我说,―蛇时不时地爬到屋子旁边来,似乎是在屋子附近离胡桃树不远的地方安家了。你能不能把它们赶走?‖我感到很自豪。这回我有机会来表现一下自己了。我要发明某种仁慈的东西,既可以把蛇捉住,而又不会伤害它们。我知道我的父母是不会让我伤害这些生物的。

我所做的第一件事就是看看有没有现成的任何产品能帮助我。但是,看来只有一种毒蛇的药粉。很明显,我得找一种新的方法了。于是我就着手研究蛇的习性,以便能用最容易的方法来捉住他们。好在这些爬行动物都很小,问题比较容易解决。

经过一番研究准备之后,我决定采用三种可能的方法:第一,铲除蛇的栖息地;第二,用男人或女人的香水或食物把它们引进陷阱;第三,降低它们的体温,使它们困乏,这样就很容易把它们捉住。我决定采用最后一种方法。我买了一个制冰淇淋的不锈钢碗。在碗的内壁和外壁都抹上果冻,这些果冻冷却后会冻结。我把这个碗放进冰箱,冷冻了24个小时。与此同时,我还准备了一些冰块儿。

第二天造成太阳光还不太热,我就起床了。我把冰冻的碗放在蛇窝的上方,再把小冰快放在碗上,以使碗保持冷却状态。最后再用一个大桶把碗罩住。于是我就等着。过了两个小时我才把桶和碗一起拿开。蛇肯定不像以前那样活跃了,但是对于我来说,他们行动还是太快了,突然一下子就消失在墙壁附近的洞里去了。于是我只得调整我的计划。

第二次试验我用的还是冻结的碗和冰块儿,但是这次我是在夜晚气温开始变凉的时候把它们放在蛇窝的上方,然后像以前那样用桶把碗罩住,通宵放在那儿。第二天一早我就去看结果。这一次我小心翼翼地蹲下去检查的时候,发现蛇都是睡意浓浓的。但是一把它们提起来,它们就要咬我。因为它们都是毒蛇,所以很显然我还得改进我的捕蛇方案。

第三次试验重复了上一次的程序,不过第二天早晨我的手里拿了一个捕鱼用的小网。这是因为我预料蛇还全再咬人。但是经过仔细监视,证明这些蛇是制造不了麻烦的,一切都按计划进行着。我把这些温顺的蛇收集起来,第二天就愉快地把他们全都释放到野外去了。

由于朋友和亲戚的敦促,我决定把我这次的发明运到专利局去,请他们对我这次成功的思路给予认可。只有你得到这种承认,你才可以说你是一个真正的发明者二(评定)专利标准非常严格,除非新的想法真是新颖的,否则很难被接受。此外,你的想法如果属于下列情况,那么你也不可能得到专利: ◎一种发现

◎一种科学理论或数学模式 ◎文学或艺术

◎一场游戏或一笔交易 ◎一个电脑程序

◎一种新的动植物物种

你的产品要经过仔细调查,证明它确实是与众不同的,你才能获得专利。专利局还有一大批审查人员,他们的唯一职责就是审查你的专利申请是否有效。如果通过了所有这些审查,你申请的专利就会在你提出申请的18个月之后公布出来。于是,我填了表,向专利局提交了申请书。现在就是等,待和期盼了。将来你看看我的银行结余金额就会知道我是否成功了祝我好运吧。

Using Language

Reading

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847 in Scotland, but when he was young his family moved to Boston, USA. His mother was almost entirely deaf, so Alexander became interested in helping deaf people communicate and in deaf education. This interest led him to invent the microphone. He found that by pressing his lips against his mother's forehead, he could make his mother understand what he was saying.

He believed that one should always be curious and his most famous saying was:\and dive into the woods. Every time you do you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Follow it up, explore all around it, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the result of thought.\

It was this exploring around problems and his dynamic spirit that led to his most famous invention - the telephone in 1876. Bell never set out to invent the telephone and what he was trying to design was a multiple telegraph. This original telegraph sent a message over distances using Morse code (a series of dots tapped out along a wire in a particular order). But only one message could go at a time. Bell wanted to improve it so that it could send several messages at the same time. He designed a machine that would separate different sound waves and allow different conversations to be held at the same time. But he found the problem difficult to solve. One day as he was experimenting with one end of a straw joined to a deaf man's ear drum and the other to a piece of smoked glass, Bell noticed that when he spoke into the ear, the straw drew sound waves on the glass. Suddenly he had a flash of inspiration. If sound waves could be reproduced in a moving electrical current, they could be sent along a wire. In searching to improve the telegraph,Bell had invented the first telephone!

Bell was fully aware of the importance of his invention and wrote to his father:\wires will be laid on to houses just like water or gas – and friends will talk to each other without leaving home.\

The patent was given in 1876, but it was not until five days later that Bell sent his first telephone message to his assistant Watson. The words have now become famous:\

Alexander Graham Bell was not a man to rest and he interested himself in many other areas of invention. He experimented with helicopter designs and flying machines. While searching for a kite strong enough to carry a man into the air, Bell experimented putting triangles together and discovered the tetrahedron shape. Being very stable, it has proved invaluable in the design of bridges.

Bell was an inventor all his life. He made his first invention at eleven and his last at seventy- five. Although he is most often associated with the invention of the telephone, he was indeed a continuing searcher after practical solutions to improve the quality of everybody's life.

亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔

亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔1847年出生于苏格兰。但在他还小的时候,他家就搬到了美国的波士顿。他的母亲几乎全聋了,因此他有志于帮助聋人交流,并从事聋人教育事业。这一爱好促使他发明了麦克风。他发现他把嘴唇放在母亲的额头上,并以一定的方式来移动额骨,就可以使她听懂他所说的话。

他认为一个人应该总是有好奇心理。他最有名的一句话是:―偶尔离开平路去寻求困境。每次当你这样做的时候,你一定会发现你从未见过的东西。跟踪下去,不断探索,不知不觉中,你就会发现某种值得思考的东西盘踞着你的头脑。\所有真正伟大的发现都是思考的结果。‖

正是这种对问题的探索和富有活力的精神造就了他那最著名的发明——1876年的电话。贝尔并非一开始就想要发明电话的,他本来想设计的东西是多路电报。这种原始的电报是在一段距离中用莫尔斯电码传递信息(莫尔斯电码是通过电线发出的以特定的次序敲击出的一连串点划),. 但是这样只能一次发一个信息。贝尔想改进电报通讯方式,以便同时能发出好几个信息。他设计了一种机器,以使声波分成不同的音调,从而有可能在同一时间里进行不同的通话。但是他发现这个问题很难解决。有一天做实验,他把一根干草的一端和一个聋子的耳鼓膜连接起来,另一端连接一块被烟熏过的玻璃。贝尔发现,当他对着耳朵说话的时候,这根干草就把声波画在被烟熏过的玻璃上。突然间他灵机一动,灵感来了。如果声波能够以连续运动的电波形式复制的话,那么声波就可以沿着导线传送出去了。在探求改进电报的过程中,贝尔发明了第一台电话机!

贝尔完全懂得这项发明的重要性,他写信告诉他的父亲说:―这样的一天即将到来。到那时,电报线将会铺到各家各户,就像水和煤气通到各家各户一样。朋友之间不必离开家就可以彼此通话了。‖

这项专利是1876年发布的,但是贝尔是在五天以后才跟他的助手华生通了第一次电话。他说的话现在已成为

名言了。―华生先生——到这儿来——我想见你。‖ 亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔是个闲不住的人,他对许多其他领域的发明都感兴趣。他试验直升飞机和飞行器。他寻找一种强度足以把人带上天空的风筝,与此同时,他又试着把三角形拼装在一起,因而发现了四面体。这种四面体非常稳定,被证明是在桥梁设计中的无价之宝。

贝尔的一生都在发明创造。他11岁时就有了第一项发明,而他的最后一项发明则是在他75岁高龄的时候。虽然人们常把他与电话的发明联系在一起,但是他的确是一位永不停息的探索家,不断寻求着改善人们生活质量的途径。

Unit 4 Pygmalion 第四单元 皮格马利翁

Reading

PYGMALION

MAIN CHARACTERS:

Eliza Doolittle (E): a poor flower girl who is ambitious to improve herself

Professor Higgins (H): an expert in phonetics, convinced that the quality of a person's English decides his/her position in society

Colonel Pickering (CP): an officer in the army and later a friend of Higgins' who sets him a task Act One FATEFUL MEETINGS

11 :15 pm in London, England in 1914 outside a theatre. It is pouring with rain and cab whistles are blowing in all directions. A man is hiding from the rain listening to people's language and watching their reactions. While watching, he makes notes. Nearby a flower girl wearing dark garments and a woollen scarf is also sheltering from the rain. A gentleman (G) passes and hesitates for a moment.

E: Come over’ere, cap’in, and buy me flowers off a poor girl. G: I'm sorry but I haven't any change. E: I can giv’ou change, cap’in.

G: (surprised) For a pound? I'm afraid I've got nothing less.

E: (hopefully) Oah! Oh, do buy a flower off me, Captain. Take this for three pence. (holds up some dead flowers)

G: (uncomfortably) Now don't be troublesome, there's a good girl. (looks in his wallet and sounds more friendly) But, wait, here's some small change. Will that be of any use to you? It's raining heavily now, isn't it? (leaves)

E: (disappointed at the outcome, but thinking it is better than nothing) Thank you, sir. (sees a man taking notes and feels worried) Hey! I ain’t done nothing wrong by speaking to that gentleman. I've a right to sell flowers, I have. I ain’t no thief. I'm an honest girl I am! (begins to cry)

H: (kindly) There! There! Who's hurting you, you silly girl? What do you take me for? (gives her a handkerchief) E: I thought maybe you was a policeman in disguise. H: Do I look like a policeman?

E: (still worried) Then why did 'ou take down my words for? How do I know whether 'ou took me down right? 'ou just show me what 'ou've wrote about me!

H: Here you are. (hands over the paper covered in writing)

E: What's that? That ain't proper writing. I can't read that. (pushes it back at him)

H: I can. (reads imitating Eliza) \are and you were born

in Lisson Grove if I'm not mistaken.

E: (looking confused) What if I was? What's it to you?

CP: (has been watching the girl and now speaks to Higgins) That's quite brilliant! How did you do that, may I ask?

H: Simply phonetics studied and classified from people's own speech. That's my profession and also my hobby. You can place a man by just a few remarks. I can place any spoken conversation within six miles, and even within two streets in London sometimes.

CP: Let me congratulate you! But is there an income to be made in that?

H: Yes, indeed. Quite a good one. This is the age of the newly rich. People begin their working life in a poor neighbourhood

of London with 80 pounds a year and end in a rich one with 100 thousand. But they betray themselves every time they open their mouths. Now once taught by me, she'd become an upper class lady ... CP: Is that so? Extraordinary!

H: (rudely) Look at this girl with her terrible English: the English that will condemn her to the gutter to the end of her days. But, sir, (proudly) once educated to speak properly, that girl could pass herself off in three months as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party. Perhaps I could even find her a place as a lady's maid or a shop assistant, which requires better English.

E: What's that you say? A shop assistant? Now that's sommat I want, that is! H: (ignores her) Can you believe that?

CP: Of course! I study many Indian dialects myself and ... H: Do you indeed? Do you know Colonel Pickering? CP: Indeed I do, for that is me. Who are you?

H: I'm Henry Higgins and I was going to India to meet you. CP: And I came to England to make your acquaintance! E: What about me? How'll you help me?

H: Oh, take that. (carelessly throws a handful of money into her basket) We must have a celebration, my dear man. (leave together)

E: (looking at the collected money in amazement) Well, I never. A whole pound! A fortune! That'll help me, indeed it will. Tomorrow I'll find you, Henry Higgins. Just you wait and see! All that talk of (imitates him) \own voice) I'll see whether you can get that for me ... (goes out)

皮格马利翁

主要人物: 伊菜扎·杜利特尔(伊):穷苦的卖花姑娘,立志要改善自己的生活 希金斯教授(希):语音学专家,坚信一个人的英语水平决定这个人的社会地位 皮克林上校(皮):陆军军官,后来成了希金斯教授的朋友,并给他安排了一项任务 * *

第一幕决定性的会面

1914年的某日晚上11点15分,在英国伦敦某剧场夕。正下着倾盆大雨,四处响着出租车的鸣笛声。有一位男士在躲雨,边听人们谈话边观察着人们的反应。他一边观察,一边作记录。附近一个穿着黑色衣裙围着羊毛围巾的卖花姑娘也在躲雨。这时有位先生(先)从这儿路过,他迟疑了片刻。 * * *

伊:长官,过这边来呀,买我这个苦命的孩子一束花吧! 先:对不起,我没有零钱,

伊:长官,我可以给你找零钱呀。 先:(惊奇地)一个英镑你找得开吗?没有再小的钱了。 伊:(带有希望的神色)啊!好啦,从我这买一束吧。拿这一束,只要三个便士o(举起一些已经枯萎的花) 先:(不舒服地)现在别烦我,好姑娘。(在他的口袋里找什么,这时语气好些了)等一等,这儿有几个零钱。这点钱对你有用吗?雨下大了,不是吗?(说完就走了) 伊:(对先生付的钱表现出失望的样子,但是有总比没有好)先生,谢谢了。(看到有人在记什么,感到担心)嗨,我跟那位先生讲话,又没做错什么事。我有权卖花吧,我有权嘛!我不是小偷,我是个老实姑娘,老老实实的!(开始哭起来) 希:(友善地)好啦,好啦!谁伤害你了,傻姑娘?你把我当成什么人了?(递给她一条手帕) 伊:我还以为你是一个便衣警察呢。 希:我像警察吗? 伊:(仍在担心)那你为啥要把我说的话记下来呢?我怎么知道你是不是写对了呢?那你把你写的关于我的东西给我看看。 希:你看吧!(把写满字的纸递给她)

伊:这是什么呀?不像规规矩矩的字,我看不懂。(把纸退回给他) 希:我懂。(模仿伊的声音读)长官,过这边来呀,买我这个苦命孩子一束花吧!(改用自己的声音)好了吧,你呀,