1999年Passage 4 

When a Scottish research team startled the world by revealing 3 months ago that it had cloned an adult sheep, President Clinton moved swiftly. Declaring that he was opposed to using this unusual animal husbandry technique to clone humans, he ordered that federal funds not be used for such an experiment-although no one had proposed to do so--and asked an independent panel of experts chaired by Princeton President Harold Shapiro to report back to the White House in 90 days with recommendations for a national policy on human cloning. That group--the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC)-has been working feverishly to put its wisdom on paper, and at a meeting on 17 May, members agreed on a near-final draft of their recommendations.

NBAC will ask that Clinton's 90-day ban on federal funds for human cloning be extended indefinitely and possibly that it be made law. But NBAC members are planning to word the recommendation narrowly to avoid new restrictions on research that involves the cloning of human DNA or cells-routine in molecular biology. The panel has not yet reached agreement on a crucial question, however, whether to recommend legislation that would make it a crime for private funding to be used for human cloning.

In a draft preface to the recommendations, discussed at the 17 May meeting, Shapiro suggested that the panel had found a broad consensus that it would be "morally unacceptable to attempt to create a human child by adult nuclear cloning." Shapiro explained during the meeting that the moral doubt stems mainly from fears about the risk to the health of the child. The panel then informally accepted several general conclusions, although some details have not been settled.

NBAC plans to call for a continued ban on federal government funding for any attempt to clone body cell nuclei to create a child. Because current federal law already forbids the use of federal funds to create embryos ( the earliest stage of human offspring before birth) for research or to knowingly endanger an embryo' s life, NBAC will remain silent on embryo research.

NBAC members also indicated that they will appeal to privately funded researchers and clinics not to try to clone humans by body cell nuclear transfer. But they were divided on whether to go further by calling for a federal law that would impose a complete ban on human cloning. Shapiro and most members favored an appeal for such legislation, but in a phone interview, he said this issue was still "up in the air."

64. The panel agreed on all of the following except that__
[A] the ban on federal funds for human cloning should be made a law
[B] the cloning of human DNA is not to be put under more control
[C] it is criminal to use private funding for human cloning
[D] it would be against ethical values to clone a human being

[答案] C

[解題思路]

文章第二段最后一句指出"The panel has not yet reached agreement on a crucial question, however, whether to recommend legislation that would make it a crime for private funding to be used for human cloning"（但是，專家組尚未就一個關鍵問題達成一致，即是否建議立法把將私人資金用于克隆人的行為視為犯罪），因此C選項符合該句意思，是正確答案。其他三個選項都是NBAC已經達成共識的內容，其中A選項對應于文章第二段第一句話"NBAC will ask that Clinton's 90-day ban on federal funds for human cloning be extended indefinitely and possibly that it be made law"（NBAC將要求克林頓總統禁止使用聯邦資金克隆人的90天禁令無限期地延長，并且還可能要求將之立法），B選項對應于該段第二句話"But NBAC members are planning to word the recommendation narrowly to avoid new restrictions on research that involves the cloning of human DNA or cells-routine in molecular biology"（但是，NBAC成員們計劃在建議的措辭上更為嚴謹，以避免給克隆人體DNA或細胞等研究帶來更多地限制--因為這是分子生物研究中的常規課題），D選項對應于文章第三段第一句話"In a draft preface to the recommendations, discussed at the 17 May meeting, Shapiro suggested that the panel had found a broad consensus that it would be "morally unacceptable to attempt to create a human child by adult nuclear cloning"（在5月17日會議上討論的建議序言草案中，夏皮羅表示，專家組已取得廣泛的共識，認為"試圖利用成人細胞核去克隆嬰兒將是違背道德倫理的"）。

[題目譯文]

專家小組就下列說法沒有達成一致意見的選項是           。
[A] 把禁止聯邦基金用于克隆人寫進法律
[B] 人類DNA的克隆不應該受到更多的控制
[C] 用私人資助來克隆人是犯罪行為
[D] 克隆人是違反道德觀念的

65. NBAC will leave the issue of embryo research undiscussed because__
[A] embryo research is just a current development of cloning
[B] the health of the child is not the main concern of embryo research
[C] an embryo's life will not be endangered in embryo research
[D] the issue is explicitly stated and settled in the law

[答案] D

[解題思路]

關于胚胎研究的問題，文章第四段最后一句談到"Because current federal law already forbids the use of federal funds to create embryos ( the earliest stage of human offspring before birth) for research or to knowingly endanger an embryo' s life, NBAC will remain silent on embryo research"（因為現行的聯邦法律已經禁止使用聯邦基金克隆研究用的胚胎（即人類后代出生前的最早階段）或有意識地危及胚胎的生命，NBAC在胚胎研究這一問題上保持沉默），因此顯然D為正確答案。A選項與該句意思相反，而B和C選項的表述都與題意無關。

[題目譯文]

NBAC之所以不討論胚胎研究問題是因為              。
[A] 胚胎研究只不過是克隆研究的新發展
[B] 孩子的健康問題不是胚胎研究關注的重點
[C] 胚胎的生命不會再胚胎研究中受到威脅
[D] 該問題在法律上已經有了明確的規定和解決辦法