2014年职称英语考试-阅读理解强化习题(13)_职称英语阅读理解

2014年职称英语考试-阅读理解强化习题(13)

　　The Gene Industry

　　Major companies are already inpursuit of commercial applications of the new biology. They dream of placingenzymes in the automobile to monitor exhaust and send data on pollution to amicroprocessor that will then adjust the engine. They speak of what the New YorkTimes calls metal-hungry microbes that might be used to mine valuable tracemetals from ocean water. They have already demanded and won the right to patentnew life forms.

　　Nervous critics, including many scientists, worry that thereis corporate, national, international, and inter-scientific rivalry in theentire biotechnological field. They create images not of oil spills, but ofmicrobe spills that could spread disease and destroy entire populations. Thecreation and accidental release of extremely poisonous microbes, however, isonly one cause for alarm. Completely rational and respectable scientists aretalking about possibilities that stagger the imagination.

　　Should webreed people with cow-like stomachs so they can digest grass and hay, therebyrelieving the food problem by modifying us to eat lower down on the food chain?Should we biologically alter workers to fit the job requirement, for example,creating pilots with faster reaction times or assembly-line workers designed todo our monotonous work for us? Should we attempt to eliminate inferior peopleand breed a super-race ? Should we produce soldiers to do ourfighting? Should we use genetic forecasting to pre-eliminate unfit babies?Should we grow reserve organs for ourselves, each of us having, as it were, asavings bank full of spare kidney, livers, or hands?