“I’ve never met a human worth cloning,” says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from his lab at Texas A&M University. “It’s a stupid endeavor.”
That’s an interesting choice of adjective, coming from a man who has spent millions of dollars trying to clone a 13-year-old dog named Missy. So far, he and his team have not succeeded, though they have cloned two cows and a cat.
They just might succeed in cloning Missy soon — or perhaps not for another five years.
Westhusin's experience with cloning animals leaves him upset by all this talk of human cloning. In three years of work on the Missy project, using hundreds upon hundreds of dog's eggs, the A&M team has produced only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy's DNA. None have survived the transfer to a surrogate（代孕的）mother. The wastage of eggs and the many spontaneously aborted(流產(chǎn)，發(fā)育不全) fetuses（胎）may be acceptable when you're dealing with cats or bulls, he argues, but not with humans. “Cloning is incredibly inefficient, and also dangerous,” he says.
Even so, dog cloning is a commercial opportunity, with a nice research payoff. Ever since Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1996, Westhusin's phone has been ringing with people calling in hopes of duplicating their cats and dogs, cattle and horses. “A lot of people want to clone pets, especially if the price is right,” says Westhusin. Cost is no obstacle for Missy's mysterious billionaire owner; he's put up $3.7 million so far to fund A&M's research.
Contrary to some media reports, Missy is not dead. The owner wants a twin to carry on Missy's fine qualities after she does die. The prototype（原型；雛形）is, by all accounts, athletic, good-natured and super-smart. Missy's master does not expect an exact copy of her. He knows her clone may not have her temperament（氣質(zhì)、性情）. In a statement of purpose, Missy's owner and the A&M team say they are “both looking forward to studying the ways that her clones differ from Missy.”
Besides cloning a great dog, the project may contribute insight into the old question of nature vs. nurture. It could also lead to the cloning of special rescue dogs and many endangered animals.
However, Westhusin is cautious about his work. He knows that even if he gets a dog pregnant, the offspring, should they survive, will face the problems shown at birth by other cloned animals: abnormalities like immature lungs and heart and weight problems~ “Why would you ever want to clone humans,” Westhusin asks, “when we're not even close to getting it worked out in animals yet?”
【小題1】By “stupid endeavor”, Westhusin means to say that ________.

A．human cloning is a foolish undertaking
B．a(chǎn)nimal cloning is absolutely impractical
C．human cloning should be done selectively
D．a(chǎn)nimal cloning is not worth the effort at all
【小題2】What does the second paragraph tell us about Westhusin's dog cloning project?
A．Its success is already in sight.
B．It is progressing smoothly.
C．It is doomed to utter failure.
D．Its outcome remains uncertain.
【小題3】By cloning Missy, Mark Westhusin hopes to ________.
A．study the possibility of cloning humans
B．search for ways to modify its temperament
C．find out the differences between Missy and its clones
D．examine the reproductive system of the dog species
【小題4】We learn from the passage that animal clones are likely to have ________.
A．a(chǎn) bad temper
B．defective（有缺陷的、有毛病的）organs
C．immune deficiency
D．a(chǎn)n abnormal shape
【小題5】What’s the best title of the passage?
A．Cloning of Missy
B．Scientist Says ‘No’ to Human Cloning
C．Human Cloning Is Dangerous .
D．Westhusin Is Cautious about Cloning


【小題1】A
【小題2】D
【小題3】C
【小題4】B
【小題5】B

解析試題分析：文章介紹了關(guān)于克隆方面的知識(shí)，由此讓讀者認(rèn)識(shí)到克隆人類不是明智的選擇。
【小題1】猜測(cè)詞義題。根據(jù)第一句“I’ve never met a human worth cloning,可知是指克隆人是一個(gè)愚蠢的做法。所以選A。
【小題2】推理題。根據(jù)文章第二段可知這個(gè)計(jì)劃的結(jié)果還是不確定的，它提及這個(gè)，是想告訴人們克隆人會(huì)有很多的困難與問題。所以選D。
【小題3】細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章倒數(shù)第三段最后一句“both looking forward to studying the ways that her clones differ from Missy.”可知Mark Westhusin 通過克隆Missy發(fā)現(xiàn)Missy和她克隆的不同,所以選C。
【小題4】推理題。根據(jù)文章第4段內(nèi)容可知?jiǎng)游锟寺?huì)產(chǎn)生很多有缺陷的胚胎和器官，很不成功。所以選B。
【小題5】標(biāo)題確定題：根據(jù)文章內(nèi)容和第一段的句子：“I’ve never met a human worth cloning,” says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from his lab at Texas A&M University. “It’s a stupid endeavor.”可知這篇文章主要介紹科學(xué)家不同意克隆人類，所以選B。
考點(diǎn)：考查科普類短文

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A．show B．keep
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