Factory farming could soon enter a new era of mass production. Companies in the USare developing the technology needed to "clone" chickens on a massive scale¹. Once a chicken with desirable traits has been bred or genetically engineered², tens of thousands of eggs, which will hatch into identical copies³ , could roll off the production lines every hour. Billions of clones could be produced each year to supply chicken farms with birds that all grow at the same rate, have the same amount of meat and taste the same.

    This, at least, is the vision of theUS"s National Institute of Science and Technology, which has given Origen Therapeutics of Burlingame, California, and Embrex of North Carolina $4.7 million to help fund research4. The prospect has alarmed animal welfare groups, who fear it could increase the suffering of farm birds.

    That"s unlikely to put off5 the poultry industry, however, which wants disease-resistant birds that grow faster on less food. "Producers would like the same meat quantity but to use reduced inputs to get there," says Mike Fitzgerald of Origen. To meet this demand, Origen aims to "create an animal that is effectively a clone", he says. Normal cloning doesn"t work in birds because eggs can"t be removed and implanted. Instead, the company is trying to bulk-grow6, embryonic stem cells7 taken from fertilized eggs as soon as they"re laid. "The trick is to culture8 the cells without them starting to distinguish, so they remain pluripotent," says Fitzgerald.

    Using a long-established technique, these donor cells will then be injected into the embryo of a freshly laid, fertilized recipient egg9, forming a chick that is a "chimera". Strictly speaking a chimera isn"t a clone, because it contains cells from both donor and recipient. But Fitzgerald says it will be enough if, say, 95 percent of a chicken"s body develops from donor cells. "In the poultry world, it doesn"t matter if it"s not 100 percent," he says.

    Another challenge for Origen is to scale up10 production. To do this, it has teamed up with11 Embrex, which produces machines that can inject vaccines into up to 50,000 eggs12 an hour. Embrex is now trying to modify the machines to locate the embryo and inject the cells into precisely the right spot without killing it.

    In future, Origen imagines freezing stem cells from different strains of chicken13. If orders come in for a particular strain, millions of eggs could be produced in months or even weeks. At present, maintaining all the varieties the market might call for is too expensive for breeders, and k takes years to breed enough chickens to produce the billions of eggs that farmers need.

词汇:

Clone/ kləʊn /n. & v.克隆，无性繁殖

embryo / ˈembriəʊ /n.胚胎

implant / "ɪmplɑ:nt /v.植入；移植

chimera / kaɪˈmɪərə /n.嵌合体

embryonic / ˌembriˈɒnɪk /adj.胚胎的

fertilise / "fɜ:tɪlaɪz /v.使受精

pluripotent / plʊə"rɪpətənt /adj.多能的

vaccine / "væksi:n /n.疫苗

注释：

1. on a massive scale:大规模
2. genetically engineered：经过基因改造。genetical engineering：遗传工程
3. hatch into identical copies：孵出如出一辙的（小）鸡
4. help fund research： 资助研究。fund用作动词，research是它的宾语。
5. put off：意为 “discourage”（使……气馁）。
6. bulk-grow： 大量繁殖
7. stem cell：干细胞
8. culture：动词，意思是：培育。
9. a freshly laid, fertilized recipient egg:新产下的；已受精的；要接受细胞植入的鸡蛋
10. scale up： 提高，按比例增加。
11. team up with：与 合作。
12. up to 50,000 eggs：多达 5 万只鸡蛋。
13. different strains of chicken：不同品种的鸡。

Which statement is the best description of the new era of factory farming according to the firstparagraph?

A:Eggs are all genetically engineered B:Thousands of eggs are produced every hour C:Cloned chickens are bulk-produced with the same growth rate,weight and taste D:Identical eggs can be hatched on the production lines

I’ll Be Bach

    Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computer program that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years to develop the software. Now most people can’t tell the difference between music by the famous German composer J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the Bach-like compositions from Cope’s computer.

    It all started in 1980 in the United States, when Cope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of new melodies, so he wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first this music was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink how human beings compose music. He realized that composers，brains work like big databases. First, they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take out the music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left. According to Cope, only the great composers are able to create the database accurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it.

    Cope built a huge database of existing music. He began with hundreds of works by Bach. The software analyzed the data：it broke it down into smaller pieces and looked for patterns. It then combined the pieces into new patterns. Before long, the program could compose short Bach-like works. They weren’t good, but it was a start.

    Cope knew he had more work to do-he had a whole opera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyzemore complex music. He also added many other composers, including his own work, to the database.

    A few years later，Cope’s computer program, called “Emmy”，was ready to help him with his opera. The process required a lot ofcollaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer’s musical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took only two weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Falling, and it was a great success! Cope received some of the best reviews of his career, but no one knew exactly how he had composed the work.

    Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousands of compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn’tlike of her music, but she is doing most of the hard work of composing these days!

词汇：

original/əˈrɪdʒənəl / adj．有独创性的

collaboration/ kəˌlæbəˈreɪʃən / n．合作

review/rɪ"vju:/ n．评论

feedback/"fi:dbæk / n．反馈

注释

J.S. Bach约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫（德语：Johann Sebastian Bach，1685年3月31日一1750年7月28日），巴洛克时期的德国作曲家，杰出的管风琴、小提琴、大键琴演奏家，同作曲家亨德尔和泰勒曼齐名。巴赫被普遍认为是音乐史上最重要的作曲家之一，并被尊称为“西方‘现代音乐’之父”，也是西方文化史上最重要的人物之一。

The music composed by David cope is about ______.

A:Classical music B:pop music C:drama D:country music

I’ll Be Bach

    Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computer program that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years to develop the software. Now most people can’t tell the difference between music by the famous German composer J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the Bach-like compositions from Cope’s computer.

    It all started in 1980 in the United States, when Cope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of new melodies, so he wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first this music was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink how human beings compose music. He realized that composers，brains work like big databases. First, they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take out the music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left. According to Cope, only the great composers are able to create the database accurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it.

    Cope built a huge database of existing music. He began with hundreds of works by Bach. The software analyzed the data：it broke it down into smaller pieces and looked for patterns. It then combined the pieces into new patterns. Before long, the program could compose short Bach-like works. They weren’t good, but it was a start.

    Cope knew he had more work to do-he had a whole opera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyzemore complex music. He also added many other composers, including his own work, to the database.

    A few years later，Cope’s computer program, called “Emmy”，was ready to help him with his opera. The process required a lot ofcollaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer’s musical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took only two weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Falling, and it was a great success! Cope received some of the best reviews of his career, but no one knew exactly how he had composed the work.

    Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousands of compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn’tlike of her music, but she is doing most of the hard work of composing these days!

词汇：

original/əˈrɪdʒənəl / adj．有独创性的

collaboration/ kəˌlæbəˈreɪʃən / n．合作

review/rɪ"vju:/ n．评论

feedback/"fi:dbæk / n．反馈

注释

J.S. Bach约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫（德语：Johann Sebastian Bach，1685年3月31日一1750年7月28日），巴洛克时期的德国作曲家，杰出的管风琴、小提琴、大键琴演奏家，同作曲家亨德尔和泰勒曼齐名。巴赫被普遍认为是音乐史上最重要的作曲家之一，并被尊称为“西方‘现代音乐’之父”，也是西方文化史上最重要的人物之一。

By developing a computer software，David cope aimed ______.

A:to be like Bach B:to study Bach C:to write an opera D:to create a musical database

I’ll Be Bach

    Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computer program that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years to develop the software. Now most people can’t tell the difference between music by the famous German composer J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the Bach-like compositions from Cope’s computer.

    It all started in 1980 in the United States, when Cope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of new melodies, so he wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first this music was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink how human beings compose music. He realized that composers，brains work like big databases. First, they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take out the music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left. According to Cope, only the great composers are able to create the database accurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it.

    Cope built a huge database of existing music. He began with hundreds of works by Bach. The software analyzed the data：it broke it down into smaller pieces and looked for patterns. It then combined the pieces into new patterns. Before long, the program could compose short Bach-like works. They weren’t good, but it was a start.

    Cope knew he had more work to do-he had a whole opera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyzemore complex music. He also added many other composers, including his own work, to the database.

    A few years later，Cope’s computer program, called “Emmy”，was ready to help him with his opera. The process required a lot ofcollaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer’s musical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took only two weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Falling, and it was a great success! Cope received some of the best reviews of his career, but no one knew exactly how he had composed the work.

    Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousands of compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn’tlike of her music, but she is doing most of the hard work of composing these days!

词汇：

original/əˈrɪdʒənəl / adj．有独创性的

collaboration/ kəˌlæbəˈreɪʃən / n．合作

review/rɪ"vju:/ n．评论

feedback/"fi:dbæk / n．反馈

注释

J.S. Bach约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫（德语：Johann Sebastian Bach，1685年3月31日一1750年7月28日），巴洛克时期的德国作曲家，杰出的管风琴、小提琴、大键琴演奏家，同作曲家亨德尔和泰勒曼齐名。巴赫被普遍认为是音乐史上最重要的作曲家之一，并被尊称为“西方‘现代音乐’之父”，也是西方文化史上最重要的人物之一。

Who is Emmy?

A:a database B:a computer software C:a composer who helped David D:an opera

I’ll Be Bach

    Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computer program that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years to develop the software. Now most people can’t tell the difference between music by the famous German composer J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the Bach-like compositions from Cope’s computer.

    It all started in 1980 in the United States, when Cope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of new melodies, so he wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first this music was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink how human beings compose music. He realized that composers，brains work like big databases. First, they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take out the music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left. According to Cope, only the great composers are able to create the database accurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it.

    Cope built a huge database of existing music. He began with hundreds of works by Bach. The software analyzed the data：it broke it down into smaller pieces and looked for patterns. It then combined the pieces into new patterns. Before long, the program could compose short Bach-like works. They weren’t good, but it was a start.

    Cope knew he had more work to do-he had a whole opera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyzemore complex music. He also added many other composers, including his own work, to the database.

    A few years later，Cope’s computer program, called “Emmy”，was ready to help him with his opera. The process required a lot ofcollaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer’s musical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took only two weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Falling, and it was a great success! Cope received some of the best reviews of his career, but no one knew exactly how he had composed the work.

    Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousands of compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn’tlike of her music, but she is doing most of the hard work of composing these days!

词汇：

original/əˈrɪdʒənəl / adj．有独创性的

collaboration/ kəˌlæbəˈreɪʃən / n．合作

review/rɪ"vju:/ n．评论

feedback/"fi:dbæk / n．反馈

注释

J.S. Bach约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫（德语：Johann Sebastian Bach，1685年3月31日一1750年7月28日），巴洛克时期的德国作曲家，杰出的管风琴、小提琴、大键琴演奏家，同作曲家亨德尔和泰勒曼齐名。巴赫被普遍认为是音乐史上最重要的作曲家之一，并被尊称为“西方‘现代音乐’之父”，也是西方文化史上最重要的人物之一。

We can infer from the passage that ______.

A:David Cope is a computerprogrammer. B:David Cope loves music C:Bach’s music helped him a lot. D:Emmy did much more work than a composer

I’ll Be Bach

    Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computer program that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years to develop the software. Now most people can’t tell the difference between music by the famous German composer J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the Bach-like compositions from Cope’s computer.

    It all started in 1980 in the United States, when Cope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of new melodies, so he wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first this music was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink how human beings compose music. He realized that composers，brains work like big databases. First, they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take out the music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left. According to Cope, only the great composers are able to create the database accurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it.

    Cope built a huge database of existing music. He began with hundreds of works by Bach. The software analyzed the data：it broke it down into smaller pieces and looked for patterns. It then combined the pieces into new patterns. Before long, the program could compose short Bach-like works. They weren’t good, but it was a start.

    Cope knew he had more work to do-he had a whole opera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyzemore complex music. He also added many other composers, including his own work, to the database.

    A few years later，Cope’s computer program, called “Emmy”，was ready to help him with his opera. The process required a lot ofcollaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer’s musical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took only two weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Falling, and it was a great success! Cope received some of the best reviews of his career, but no one knew exactly how he had composed the work.

    Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousands of compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn’tlike of her music, but she is doing most of the hard work of composing these days!

词汇：

original/əˈrɪdʒənəl / adj．有独创性的

collaboration/ kəˌlæbəˈreɪʃən / n．合作

review/rɪ"vju:/ n．评论

feedback/"fi:dbæk / n．反馈

注释

J.S. Bach约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫（德语：Johann Sebastian Bach，1685年3月31日一1750年7月28日），巴洛克时期的德国作曲家，杰出的管风琴、小提琴、大键琴演奏家，同作曲家亨德尔和泰勒曼齐名。巴赫被普遍认为是音乐史上最重要的作曲家之一，并被尊称为“西方‘现代音乐’之父”，也是西方文化史上最重要的人物之一。

Who is Emmy?

A:a database B:a computer software C:a composer who helped David D:an opera

I’ll Be Bach

    Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computer program that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years to develop the software. Now most people can’t tell the difference between music by the famous German composer J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the Bach-like compositions from Cope’s computer.

    It all started in 1980 in the United States, when Cope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of new melodies, so he wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first this music was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink how human beings compose music. He realized that composers，brains work like big databases. First, they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take out the music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left. According to Cope, only the great composers are able to create the database accurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it.

    Cope built a huge database of existing music. He began with hundreds of works by Bach. The software analyzed the data：it broke it down into smaller pieces and looked for patterns. It then combined the pieces into new patterns. Before long, the program could compose short Bach-like works. They weren’t good, but it was a start.

    Cope knew he had more work to do-he had a whole opera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyzemore complex music. He also added many other composers, including his own work, to the database.

    A few years later，Cope’s computer program, called “Emmy”，was ready to help him with his opera. The process required a lot ofcollaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer’s musical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took only two weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Falling, and it was a great success! Cope received some of the best reviews of his career, but no one knew exactly how he had composed the work.

    Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousands of compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn’tlike of her music, but she is doing most of the hard work of composing these days!

词汇：

original/əˈrɪdʒənəl / adj．有独创性的

collaboration/ kəˌlæbəˈreɪʃən / n．合作

review/rɪ"vju:/ n．评论

feedback/"fi:dbæk / n．反馈

注释

J.S. Bach约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫（德语：Johann Sebastian Bach，1685年3月31日一1750年7月28日），巴洛克时期的德国作曲家，杰出的管风琴、小提琴、大键琴演奏家，同作曲家亨德尔和泰勒曼齐名。巴赫被普遍认为是音乐史上最重要的作曲家之一，并被尊称为“西方‘现代音乐’之父”，也是西方文化史上最重要的人物之一。

We can infer from the passage that ______.

A:David Cope is a computerprogrammer. B:David Cope loves music C:Bach’s music helped him a lot. D:Emmy did much more work than a composer