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。

In the third paragraph,by saying "Producers would like the same meat quantity but to usereduced inputs to get there".  Mike Fitzgerald means that he wishes____

A:chickens" quality could be maintained but with less investment B:chickens" taste could be improved but at less costs C:chickens" growth rate could be quickened but with less inputs D:chickens could grow to the same weight but with less feed

Life as a Movie Extra

    Ordinary people have always been attracted to the world of movies and movie stars. One way to get closer to this world is to become a movie extra. Although you have seen movie extras, you may not have paid attention to them. Extras are the people seated at tables in a restaurant while the two main actors are in conversation. They are the guests at the wedding of the main characters. They are the people crossing the street while "the bad guy" is being chased by the police. Extras don"t normally speak any lines, but they help make the scenes look real. ¹

    Being a movie extra might seem like a lot of fun. You get to see what life is like behind the scenes. But don"t forget that being an extra is really a job, and it"s mostly about doing nothing. First-time extras are often shocked to learn how slow the process of movie making is. In a finished movie, the action may move quickly. But it can sometimes take a whole day to shoot a scene that appears for just a few minutes on the screen.

    The main requirement for being an extra is the ability to wait. You may report to work at 5 or 6 a. m. , and then you wait until the director is ready for your scene. This could take several hours. Then there may be technical problems, and you have to wait some more. After the director says "action" and you do the first "take", you may have to do it again if he or she is not satisfied with the scene. In fact, you may have to do the same scene over and over again. You could be on the set for hours, sometimes waiting outdoors in very hot or cold weather. ²You may not be finished until 11 p. m. or midnight. The pay isn"t good, either often only a little bit above minimum wage. And you must pay the agent who gets you the job a commission of about 10 percent.

    So who would want to be a movie extra? In spite of the long hours and low pay, many people still apply for the job. Some people truly enjoy the work. They like being on a movie set, and they enjoy the companionship of their fellow extras. Most of them have flexible schedules, which allow them to be available, ³ They may be students, waiters, homemakers, retired people, or unemployed actors. Some unemployed actors hope the work will help them get real acting jobs, but it doesn"t happen often. Most people in the movie industry make a sharp distinction between extras and actors, so extras are not usually considered for large parts.

    The next time you see a movie, don"t just watch the stars. Take a closer look at the people in the background, and ask yourself: Who are they? Why are they there? What else do they do in life?Maybe there is someone in the crowd who is just like you.

词汇：

movie extra   群众演员            

chase [tʃeɪs]   vt．追捕            

shoot [ʃu:t]  vt． 拍摄

action ["ækʃn]  n． （导演指令）开拍     

commission [kə"mɪʃn]  n． 佣金

注释：

1.Extras don’t normally speak any lines，but tlley help make me seenes look real．：虽然群众演员通常没有台词，但他们的存在使整个场景更加逼真。

2.You could be on me set for hours，sometimes waiting outdoors in very hot or cold weatller．：在拍摄现场，你可能一演就是几个小时，有时还要一直待在很热或很冷的环境中。on the set：在拍摄现场。

3.Most of them have flexible schedules，which allow them to be available．：这些人中大部分都是时间比较灵活的人，这样他们就能腾出时间来演戏。

What might surprise movie extras the first time they do the job?

A:It can take hours to do a scene that is only a few minutes long in the movie B:They always do the same scene many times C:The actors are interested in talking to them D:The action moves very quickly

"Equal pay for equal work" is a phrase used by the American women who feel that they are unfairly treated by society. They say it is not right for women to be paid less than men for the same work.
Some people say men have more duties than women. A married man is thought to earn money to support his family and to make the important decision, so it is right for them to be paid more. Some are even against married women working at ail. When wives go out to work, they say, the home and children are given no attention to. (80) If women are encouraged by equal pay to take full-time jobs, they will be unable to do the things they are best at doing: making a nice home and bringing up children.
Women who disagree say they want to escape from the limited place which society wishes them to fill and to have freedom to choose between work and home life, or a mixture of the two. Women have the fight not only to equal pay but also to equal chances.
The women use the phrase "equal pay for equal work" to ask society to ______.

A:pay men less than women B:give women harder work C:pay men and women the same amount of money for the same work D:pay people more who do harder work

"Equal pay for equal work" is a phrase used by the American women who feel that they are unfairly treated by society. They say it is not right for women to be paid less than men for the same work.
Some people say men have more duties than women. A married man is thought to earn money to support his family and to make the important decision, so it is right for them to be paid more. Some are even against married women working at ail. When wives go out to work, they say, the home and children are given no attention to. (80) If women are encouraged by equal pay to take full-time jobs, they will be unable to do the things they are best at doing: making a nice home and bringing up children.
Women who disagree say they want to escape from the limited place which society wishes them to fill and to have freedom to choose between work and home life, or a mixture of the two. Women have the fight not only to equal pay but also to equal chances.
The women use the phrase "equal pay for equal work" to ask society to ______.

A:pay men less than women B:give women harder work C:pay men and women the same amount of money for the same work D:pay people more who do harder work

Passage 3

A:pay men less than women B:give women harder work C:pay men and women the same amount of money for the same work D:pay people more who do harder work

阅读下面的短文，文中有15处空白，每处空白给出4个选项，请根据短文的内容从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案。

A:even B:the same C:hardly D:do