以Have you ever imagined 开头的阅读理解

以Have you ever imagined 开头的阅读理解

人类胚胎细胞"横空出世",引起全球一片哗然.
HAVE you ever imagined that you could be cloned
The news that a human embryo (胚胎) has been successfully cloned for the first time has caused mixed reactions.
The research was carried out by scientists from the Advanced Cell Technology Inc (ACT,先进细胞技术公司),in Massachusetts,US.The group revealed the news on November 25.
"This is not a cloned human being.A clone is alive,it walks,it breathes," said Jamie Grifo,an expert on the study of cloning at New York University School of Medicine.
"This is a set of cells (细胞) in a lab that will be used to save someone's life."
Such research could lead to treatments for diseases such as heart disease,AIDS and even cancer,according to scientists.
Despite high hopes from other scientists,the news raised concerns immediately from religious and political leaders.Several states in the US do not allow human cloning.President George W.Bush also made it clear that he is against any type of human cloning.However,the scientists at ACT said they have no interest at present in developing an early embryo into a baby.
Animals have been cloned repeatedly since Dolly the sheep appeared in 1997.And there were no real technical problems to stand in the way of scientists making a cloned human embryo.
This time the research group used traditional cloning technology with a human egg (卵细胞) .After it was given DNA (脱氧核糖核酸) from an adult cell,the egg began to grow.But it was stopped from becoming a baby — at a stage in which it was still a ball of cells.The same technology has been used to clone sheep,cattle and monkeys.
Questions about cloning
Q:Could some mad person clone Hitler (希特勒) in the future?
A:Just possibly — but they would not get what they wanted.First,they would need some living cells from his body.Unless it was frozen soon after death,the cells would probably be unusable.
More importantly,because of differences in the environment of the womb (子宫),clone Hitlers would not act,think or even necessarily look like the person they were cloned from.
Q:Could cloning be used to create "supermen" or super-clever people?
A:Possibly — though we do not yet know enough about human genetics (遗传学) to do much "improving."
So far,because of moral concerns,geneticists (遗传学家) are focusing on finding the causes of genetic diseases and then curing them.Cloning makes it easier to interfere with (干扰) human and animal genes.But is not necessarily genetic improvement,by itself.
Even before recent discoveries,a considerable amount of genetic improvement of animals was already taking place.
Q:Would a clone have a soul?
A:If you believe that twins have souls,as well as "test tube babies," then it follows that a clone would have one too.