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."

　　63. We can learn from the first paragraph that__

　　[A] federal funds have been used in a project to clone humans

　　[B] the White House responded strongly to the news of cloning

　　[C] NBAC was authorized to control the misuse of cloning technique

　　[D] the White House has got the panel's recommendations on cloning

　　[答案] B

　　[解題思路]

　　本題可采用排除法。A選項對應于文章第二句話"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"( 并責成成立一個由普林斯頓大學校長哈羅德·夏皮羅為首的獨立專家小組，在90天內拿出就關克隆人的國家政策提出建議，并向白宮匯報)，可見選項與原文意思相反，因而是錯誤答案。C選項對應于同一句話，可見NBAC的作用不在于選項所說的"control the misuse of cloning technique"，而是"report back to the White House in 90 days with recommendations for a national policy on human cloning"。D選項與最后一句有出入，因為NBAC只是形成了一個near-final draft，還沒有正式向白宮提交。B選項從第二句話克林頓政府的種種舉措就可以看出來政府的強烈反對態度。

　　[題目譯文]

　　我們可以從第一段中了解到 。

　　[A] 聯邦基金已經被用到了克隆人項目上

　　[B] 白宮對于克隆新聞的反應強烈

　　[C] NBAC被授權控制克隆技術的濫用

　　[D] 白宮已經得到了專家小組關于克隆問題的建議

　　66. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that__

　　[A] some NBAC members hesitate to ban human cloning completely

　　[B] a law banning human cloning is to be passed in no time

　　[C] privately funded researchers will respond positively to NBAC's appeal

　　[D] the issue of human cloning will soon be settled

　　[答案] A

　　[解題思路]

　　最后一段第二句指出"But they were divided on whether to go further by calling for a federal law that would impose a complete ban on human cloning"(但他們在是否進一步要求聯邦立法強令徹底禁止克隆人這一問題上存在分歧)，顯然A選項符合其說法。B和D選項與文章最后"up in the air"意思相反，因為這一問題不會很快得到解決，其中B選項"in no time"是"很快"的意思。C選項無中生有，與原文無關。

　　[題目譯文]

　　可以從最后一段推斷出 。

　　[A] 一些NBAC成員在徹底禁止人類克隆問題上躊躇不決

　　[B] 禁止人類克隆的法律很快就會通過

　　[C] 私人資助的研究人員將會對NBAC的呼吁作出積極的反應

　　[D] 人類克隆問題很快就會得到解決