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!

　　考研词汇：

　　pave[peiv]

　　v.铺砌，铺(路)

　　[真题例句]53. What can be inferred from the passage?[2000年阅读1]

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

　　[例句精译] 53. 从本文我们可推知什么?

　　[D] 长期经济成功的历史可能为进一步的发展铺平道路。

　　scorn[sk?:n]

　　v./n. 轻蔑，藐视

　　[真题例句]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年阅读3]

　　[例句精译] 将该词(反科学)用在仇视现代文明的恐怖主义者身上，也不会引起多大争议，它在1995年公开发表蔑视科学、渴望回到前技术时代理想社会的声明。

　　vicious[?vi??s]

　　a.恶毒的，凶残的，邪恶的

　　[真题例句]47. Misled people tend to think that using an animal in research is.[2003年阅读2]

　　[C] inevitable but vicious

　　[例句精译] 47被误导的人们往往认为：在研究中使用动物。

　　[C] 不可避免但邪恶

　　prolong[pr??l??]

　　v.拉长，延长

　　[真题例句]On another level, many in the medical community acknowledge that the assistedsuicide debate has been fueled in part by the despair of patients for whom modern medicine has prolonged the physical agony of dying.[2002年阅读4]

　　[例句精译] 另一方面，许多医疗界人士承认，致使医助自杀这场争论升温的部分原因是由于病人们的绝望情绪，对这些病人来说，现代医学延长了临终前肉体的痛苦。

　　discern[di?s?:n]

　　v.①认出，发现;②辨别，识别

　　[真题例句]63. Discerned (①) from the perplexing picture of population growth the 1980 census provided, America in 1970s.[1998年阅读4]

　　[B] witnessed a southwestern shift of population

　　[例句精译] 63根据1980年人口统计提供的人口增长的复杂图表可以看出，美国在20世纪70年代。

　　[B] 经历了人口向西南地区的迁移

　　artificial[?ɑ:ti?fi??l]

　　a.①人工的，人造的;②人为的，矫揉造作的

　　[真题例句]Indeed the quest for true artificial (①) intelligence has produced very mixed results.[2002年阅读2]

　　[例句精译] 实际上对真正的人工智能的追求已经产生了各种各样的效果。

　　[真题例句]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年阅读2]

　　[例句精译] 很多美国人不经意表现的友好不应被看做是表面或虚假的应酬，而应该看成是文化传统历史发展的结果。

　　背景常识介绍：

　　自从科学家研究出第一只克隆羊多利之后，10年以来，不断地有克隆猪、牛、羊、马等牲畜问世，用于科学研究或饲养。

　　美国食品药物管理局日前表示，该局今年年底将完成相关风险评估，明年有可能出台批准克隆牲畜的肉、奶在美国上市销售的规定。这意味着克隆动物的肉奶制品，最终可能堂而皇之地摆上美国人的餐桌。据估计，美国现有克隆动物的数量在600头至2000头之间，科学家也一直在研究克隆牲畜的食用价值与前景。

　　多利出现在餐桌上?对此不要担心

　　食品药品管理局已经宣布从克隆动物身上取得的肉和奶是可以安全食用的，从而为在可能没有任何标签和警告的情况下，使克隆产品进入食品店铺平了道路。

　　这样做很有意义，因为现在还没有足够的根据来说明从克隆牛、克隆羊、克隆猪身上得到的奶和肉有任何的不安全性。(实际上，食品药品管理局说没有足够可以利用的信息，从而在拖延判断克隆羊是否是安全的食品来源。)但是我们中的很多人一听到“从克隆动物身上得到的肉”这样的字眼就会作呕。多利，不管公平与否，是有责任的。

　　多利遗留的东西现在都陈列在苏格兰的皇家博物馆，作为被藐视、恐惧、嘲笑和诋毁的对象，她在地球上度过了六年的时间。媒体在一个重要的日子宣布了多利的出生，告诉我们多利是使死亡复活的关键，创造了各种克隆群体和一个世界。在这个世界里，每个人都会被一个不幸的克隆人跟随着，他们的内部器官可以用来延续那些受到疾病或老龄威胁的生命。

　　但是更糟的事情接着来了。不久像Raelians这样的古怪教派和狂热的科学家都抱怨说，克隆富人、古怪的领导人和那些使媒体专注惊讶的通常令人讨厌的类型并不能辨别这样一个事实，即穿上Star Trek的外衣以及染上非常差的头发并不能证明你认为克隆人令人害怕是一种好意。

　　这些不合理的话造成了一种混乱。它使得美国人忘记了克隆只不过是人为地创造双胞胎而已。它使我们忘记了我们喝的每一滴酒都来自克隆的葡萄。

　　多利受到了糟糕的指责。她已经忍受了。但是食品药品管理局公正地依据证据使克隆产品进入了市场。

　　如果人们想让这些产品贴上标签，那么他们可以选择不去买它们，这是他们的权利。

　　但是，在你决定之前，只需记住一件事，你对克隆动物真正需要害怕的是人类怎样毁坏了他们的声誉!