CLONING: WHERE IS IT LEADING US?

When it was announced in 2018 that the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai had created the world’s first cloned monkeys, Zhongzhong and Huahua, heated discussions followed online. In fact, cloning has always been with us. It is a way of making an exact copy of another animal or plant. It happens in plants when gardeners take cuttings from growing plants to make new ones. It also happens in animals when identical twins are produced from the same egg. These are both examples of natural clones.

Cloning has two major uses. First, gardeners use it to produce large quantities of plants for sale. Second, it is valuable for research on new plant species and for medical research on animals. Cloning plants is fairly straightforward, while cloning animals is much more complicated and difficult. Over the years, many scientists failed in their attempts to clone animals, but their determination and patience paid off in 1996 with a breakthrough — the cloning of Dolly the sheep.

With the advances of scientific research, cloning will have several major uses in the future. For one thing, it could be used to breed animal species which are endangered, or even bring back species which are now extinct. For another, it could be used to grow human organs or tissue in animals, which could be used for human organ transplants or medical treatments. Finally, cloning could be used to breed animals that will provide us with higher quality meat, milk, or eggs.

While there are technical issues that need to be worked through to make widespread cloning possible, the biggest concerns are moral. For example, if scientists brought an extinct animal back into existence, it would probably end up living in a zoo. That is not very good for the animal. Even worse for the animal is using it as a source of organ transplants — because it will be injured or even die. ln addition, many people worry that eating animal products that result from cloning might be harmful to our health over time. The possibility of using cloning to produce human beings is an even bigger concern. What would happen if such knowledge ended up in the wrong hands?

When it comes to cloning, we wonder, ultimately, whether cloning will help or harm the world. No doubt, we will be talking about this question for a long time to come.

【小题1】Which of the following is not the use of natural clones today?

A．Gardeners take cuttings from the plants to make new ones.

B．Identical twins are produced from the same egg.

C．Scientists created the world’s first cloned monkeys.

D．Gardeners use cloning to produce large quantities of plants for sale.

【小题2】What is the main idea of paragraph 3?

A．Possible uses of cloning in the future.	B．Current uses of cloning.
C．Whether cloning is good or bad.	D．Moral and ethical concerns about cloning.

【小题3】Why do many people worry about cloned food?

A．It might not be fresh.	B．It might not be nutritious.
C．It might not be clean.	D．It might be harmful to our health.

【小题4】What does the author mean by “What would happen if such knowledge ended up in the wrong hands”?

A．The cloned animals end up living in a zoo.

B．The cloned animal is used as a source of organ transplants.

C．Using cloning to produce human beings is a bigger concern.

D．Someone uses cloning to do immoral things.