Meet Retro, a cloned rhesus monkey born on July 16, 2020. He is now more than 3 years old and is “doing well and growing strong,” according to Falong Lu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who published a study in the journal Nature Communications that describes how Retro came to be.
Retro is only the second species of primate (灵长类动物) that scientists have been able to clone successfully. The same team of researchers announced in 2018 that they had made two cloned cynomolgus monkeys, which are still alive today. “We have achieved the first live and healthy cloned rhesus monkey, which is a big step forward, although the efficiency is very low compared to fertilized embryos (受精胚胎),” said Lu. “Currently, we haven’t had the second live birth yet.”
The first animal to be cloned — Dolly the sheep — was created in 1996 using a technique called SCNT, where scientists essentially reconstruct an unfertilized egg by joining a somatic cell nucleus (体细胞核) with an egg in which the nucleus has been removed. The Chinese team improved the technique further to clone the rhesus monkey.
During hundreds of failed cloning attempts, they realized that, in the early cloned embryos, the outer part did not develop properly. To address this problem, they performed a process called inner cell mass transplantation, which involved putting cloned inner cells into a non-cloned embryo, and that allowed the clone to develop normally. “We think that there might be additional… abnormalities to be fixed. Strategies to further enhance the success rate of SCNT in primates remains … our main focus in the future,” Lu said.
The researchers said that being able to successfully clone monkeys might help accelerate biomedical research given that there are limitations on what scientists can learn from lab mice. Research on nonhuman primates, which are closer to humans, has been crucial for lifesaving medical advances, including the creation of medicines against Covid-19, according to a report by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
1. What can be learned about Retro?A.It is the second live cloned rhesus monkey. | B.It represents a major scientific breakthrough. |
C.It is a cloned monkey from a fertilized embryo. | D.It has outlived the cloned cynomolgus monkeys. |
A.The purpose. | B.The process. | C.The difficulty. | D.The method. |
A.Give the clone space to grow. | B.Fix additional abnormalities. |
C.Change a non-cloned embryo. | D.Help inner cells develop properly. |
A.To present the recent progress in cloning. | B.To reveal challenges in cloning monkeys. |
C.To call for research on nonhuman primates. | D.To stress the importance of medical advances. |
相似题推荐
I had worked long and hard on this project. Knowing it was finally completed gave me great satisfaction. “Perfect!”I said “Now, all I have to do is to keep the dogs off it.”I went about setting . Up barriers using old fence, deck chairs, planters, and anything I could find so as to avoid footprints both on the oil paint and our carpet . It worked perfectly .
Just before returning to the house and to a much needed shower, I took one last look at this fine work of art. “What is that?”I said. “Where did that come from ?”
Clearly marked and evenly spaced across the entire area, the tiny marks ran in straight lines. .I carefully stepped to our flower garden. It was there I found several of the small markings. Now, almost frozen in place by this shocking discovery, I remained in position so as to prevent further damage to my work.. Just then, off to my left, it appeared. A chipmunk (花栗鼠). He was as surprised as I was . We stood there face to face looking at each other, wondering who would make the first move .
The warm , humid air was now getting the best of me . Sweat now ran freely over my head, and in poor timing into my eyes . I reached up to rub them and when I opened my eyes he was gone .
My only satisfaction was in thinking that when he returned home he tracked oily footprints into his own home . And , hoping he was married , his wife would not let him live it down for the rest of his life . I stood up, shook my head, laughing about it and walking into my house.
Yes, I tracked oil on the carpet. I am married. My wife will not let me live it down for the rest of my life .
1. What was the project the author completed in the passage ?
A.Painting | B.A carpet |
C.A fence | D.A flower garden |
A.made fun of the author |
B.stole something important in the house |
C.spoiled the author’s work |
D.came for some food |
A.He made fun of the author. |
B.He frightened it away. |
C.He tried to catch it but failed. |
D.He didn’t do any harm to it . |
A.the author was not satisfied with his family life |
B.the author was quite satisfied with his project |
C.the barriers the author set up were quite successful |
D.the chipmunk had a happy family just like the author |
【推荐2】Around and around they go — dogs are often seen chasing (追逐) their tails. There are several possible reasons for this behavior, as well as ways to thwart it.
Puppies and younger dogs may simply chase their own tails for fun. Puppies, especially, may not yet realize their tails are actually part of their own bodies.
Boredom may be another reason, especially when dogs are left alone for a long time. “Anytime a dog is not enriched or exercised fully, they have the potential to be bored,” Russell Hartstein, a dog behavioral consultant said. For these dogs, a simple solution may be to play fetch or take a walk. Most dogs would rather chase a ball than their own tails.
Another reason dogs may chase their tails is to seek attention. A dog’s owner may have rewarded this behavior by laughing or praising it. Even blaming a dog for tail chasing may draw attention that enhances this behavior. To control tail chasing, ignore the behavior while otherwise supplying the dog with a healthy amount of attention.
Unluckily, a number of physical diseases are linked with tail chasing. An injury to the tail, itching; or reaction to some food may cause dogs to bite or chase their tails. If dogs suddenly start chasing or biting their tails, the owners should schedule a visit with their vet.
“Interestingly, we found that dogs that received dietary supplements (补充剂), especially vitamins and minerals, expressed less tail chasing compared to dogs that did not receive any supplements,” Hartstein said. “In addition, compared with dogs that didn’t chase their tails, tail chasers were often shyer and had separated earlier from their mothers.”
If a dog is otherwise healthy, “practicing dog training and engaging their mental and emotional aspects of their lives will help stop tail chasing,” Hartstein said. “There’s no harm in training more with your dog and making sure they are fulfilled and enriched in every way possible.”
1. What does the underlined word “thwart” in paragraph 1 probably mean?A.Punish. | B.Record. | C.Convey. | D.Handle. |
A.It is a normal scene for fun. | B.It is an indication of lacking exercise. |
C.It is a sign of a problem. | D.It is a behavior of seeking attention. |
A.Practicing dog training at the vet’s. | B.Encouraging dogs to chase tails to relax. |
C.Giving dogs a small number of vitamins. | D.Getting puppies independent as early as possible. |
A.Why Do Dogs Chase Their Tails? | B.Can Dogs Communicate by Tails? |
C.What Functions Do Dog Tails Have? | D.Does Every Dog Like Chasing Its Tail? |
【推荐3】Most polar bears follow the sea ice as it grows and melts (融化) throughout the year. They depend on sea ice as the platform from which they hunt for sea animals. But as global temperatures have been rising, sea ice has been disappearing. And some bears have traveled so far in search of ice that they risk dying of hunger.
But in southeast Greenland, where the sea freezes over for just a few months, some polar bears are subsisting locally. Polar bears here have adapted to hunting from the glacial mélange, which is a mix of ice, snow and slush (雪泥). “These polar bears are residents of sea ice-free areas for more than eight months of the year,” says the biologist Kristin Laidre. “Normally, a polar bear wouldn’t be able to live without sea ice for that long.”
In northeast Greenland, the distance traveled by bears was 40 kilometers every four days. But in the southeast, the distance traveled was just one-fourth of the distance.“Apparently, those southeast Greenland bears are able to use resources that are present, so that they don’t have to make these big movements,”says Steven Amstrup, a zoologist. They make the sea ice home for a few months each winter and spring. For the rest of the year, the bears hunt from the glacial mélange. They use it just like sea ice.
However, researchers say that most polar bears will die out by 2100 unless emissions (排放) of climate-warming greenhouse gases are sharply cut back. Southeast Greenland and similar, small regions could become the last places for some of the remaining polar bears. Yet even they will disappear if climate change continues to melt the sea ice on which this species depends.
“Despite having learned to adapt to their slushy world, southeast Greenland polar bears will die without human climate action,” Amstrup says. “The glacial mélange isn’t widespread in the regions around the North Pole. And it could disappear if temperatures rise much more. Polar bears still suffer hunger.”
1. What is the problem with polar bears nowadays?A.They hunt for food in polluted areas. |
B.They can hardly adapt to a new environment. |
C.They lose their living space to some sea animals. |
D.They have difficulty hunting due to the loss of sea ice. |
A.Escaping. | B.Surviving. | C.Suffering. | D.Attacking. |
A.They have poor swimming ability. |
B.They depend on existing resources to hunt. |
C.They change their diets at different times of the year. |
D.They need to produce babies in familiar environment. |
A.Human hunting. | B.Natural disasters. |
C.The industrial farming. | D.The warming climate. |
【推荐1】Imagine that one day you live in a highly immersive (身临其境) virtual world. You can go to a virtual concert, take a trip online, view or create artworks and try on or buy digital clothing. Amid a pandemic like COVID-19, instead of seeing teachers and classmates on a video call screen, you could join them in a virtual classroom. This may help you understand the concept—metaverse.
The term metaverse (元宇宙) refers to a shared virtual 3D world in which people can access via the Internet. Currently, most virtual spaces look more like the inside of a video game than real life. However, metaverse’s made the digital spaces more realistic by the use of virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR增强现实).
Metaverse was first used in Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash in 1992. The novel is about Hiro, a pizza delivery man by day and a VR superhero by night who lives in an online universe called The Metaverse. “He is in a computer-generated universe that his computer is drawing onto his glasses and pulling into his earphones,” the novel says of the city that everyone pops into in VR. The idea rings in many other works, for example, in Ready Player One directed by Steven Spielberg.
Recently, Facebook has changed its corporate name to Meta. The company said it would better include what it does, as it broadens its reach beyond social media into areas like virtual reality (VR). The CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the existing brand could not possibly represent everything that they’re doing today, let alone in the future. He also revealed that Facebook had launched meeting software for companies, called Horizon Workrooms, to use with VR headsets. The headsets cost $300 or more, putting the metaverse’s most cutting-edge (尖端的) experiences out of reach for many. For users who can afford it, they can enter the virtual worlds created by different companies. Fans of metaverse see it as the next stage in the development of the Internet. So, do you expect the coming of metaverse?
1. What can we know about metaverse?A.It is a video game like real life. | B.It is a parallel universe imagined by scientists. |
C.It gives us a vivid life in a virtual world. | D.It can protect yourself from a pandemic. |
A.The fiction Snow Crash. | B.The origin of metaverse. |
C.A VR superhero. | D.The film Ready Player One. |
A.To lead the gaming industry. | B.To cover its extended business. |
C.To improve its corporate image. | D.To attract investment for its new plans. |
A.They are very cheap for most of us. | B.Their users can experience a virtual world. |
C.Horizon Workroom don’t need them at all. | D.They will bring us into the final stage of the Internet. |
【推荐2】Some Chinese students born in the 1990’s created a microsatellite that took a stunning picture of the moon and the Earth in space, an image praised as one of the best of the two celestial bodies and one that Science magazine also used on Feb.15, 2019.
The photograph was done by the camera on Longjiang 2, a microsatellite developed by students at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.
Before its publication in the leading scientific journal, the picture had been widely circulated on mainstream media worldwide, with some foreign media outlets even praising it as one of the best photos of the moon and the earth so far.
Wei Mingchuan, born in 1991, was the chief designer responsible for the sub-system of Longjiang 2, a microsatellite launched last year together with Queqiao, the relay satellite for the Chang'e 4 lunar probe. Wei successfully developed LilacSat 1 -- the country's first microsatellite independently designed, developed and controlled by students -- and has been dubbed China's "youngest chief designer", despite being the oldest in his team.
Tai Mier, one of Wei's team members who was born in 1996, designed the camera on Longjiang 2 that captured the amazing picture of the moon and the Earth. Tai was only 20 years old when work on the project began.
The youngest member in the team is 20-year-old Huang Jiahe, who handled software design for the Longjiang 2 ground station. Beginning in primary school, Huang would buy all kinds of electronic components and parts. At first, he just simply disassembled and assembled the parts, but now he can design and create things. This young man, considered a genius by some, said that he is just curious and passionate about aerospace technology.
In their dormitory, aerospace-related items are everywhere. A postcard on the wall is printed with the words "we were born for our dreams", a reminder that the future has just begun for this youngest team of the Chang'e 4 mission.
1. What does the underlined word “dub” in Paragraph 4 mean?A.describe | B.nickname |
C.transform | D.announce |
A.2019 | B.2018 |
C.2017 | D.2016 |
A.The photograph had been known before Science issued it. |
B.Wei Mingchuan is the youngest chief designer in the team. |
C.The photo of the moon and the Earth was viewed as the best one. |
D.Queqiao was launched with the Chang’e 4 lunar probe . |
A.The best photograph was issued in the latest Science magazine. |
B.The designers of the Longjiang2 are the youngest team. |
C.An amazing picture was captured by a microsatellite made by Chinese students. |
D.Longjiang2 was created by some Chinese students born in the 1990s. |
【推荐3】He’s considered the father of the technological innovation, and apart from that, he was also known as a design perfectionist. There is no single executive or creator in the technology industry who is more creative and inspirational than him, and with that being said he was a one-in-billion creator.
On February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, United States, a baby named Steve Jobs entered the world. His parents’ inability to provide for him led to a difficult childhood, one in which he battled with his sense of self and felt constantly confused and unfulfilled. Nonetheless, who could have predicted that this person would cause such a dramatic shift in the information technology? The way Steve Jobs showed the world the new products and devices he was working on was truly out of this world, and that’s a big part of why he’s so beloved.
Steve Jobs was well-informed, but he was not a scholar. He possessed a high IQ but showed little enthusiasm for formal education. His main hobbies were playing tricks on people via phone and computer, goofing off with his best friends, and coming up with ground-breaking business concepts.
Steve Jobs’ philosophy on education is well-known at this point; he has stated publicly that he was only able to learn after leaving college. When Steve Jobs and his friend Wozniak were in their early 20s, they came up with the idea for the Apple Computer. Steve Jobs’ Volkswagen bus and Wozniak’s beloved scientific calculator were sold to finance the pair’s garage-based startup. Jobs and Wozniak have been given much of credit for democratizing the computer industry by making computers more user-friendly, portable, and affordable.
Wozniak envisioned a line of accessible and lightning-fast personal computers, and Jobs was put in charge of the company’s marketing and management. From the get-go, Apple sold the computers for up to $666. The unexpected greatness of their early success inspired them to develop more powerful machines. In the 70s, they accomplished what would become the company’s crowning achievement. Assembled by Apple, Inc. , the high-performance computer was an instant success in their home state of California, and its sales helped make Jobs a multimillionaire.
1. Which of the following is a big reason for Jobs being beloved?A.Jobs revolutionized the technology industry. |
B.Jobs realized his dream despite his painful childhood. |
C.Jobs employed an extraordinary way to present the new devices. |
D.Jobs is the most creative and motivational person in the technology industry. |
A.quitting school | B.playing around |
C.starting a business | D.learning knowledge |
A.Jobs is keen on keeping in contact with friends via phone and computer. |
B.Jobs and Wozniak advocated democracy for every staff in the computer industry. |
C.Jobs showed less passion for education because of the influence of his difficult childhood. |
D.The economic situation was a barrier to Jobs and Wozniak when they started their business. |
A.All things come to those who always choose to wait. |
B.The only thing that keeps you going is that you love what you do. |
C.Knowledge makes you humble, while ignorance makes you proud. |
D.If you look at what you have in your life, you will always have more. |
【推荐1】Network-based technologies have become increasingly widespread, and they are now being used by countless individuals, professionals, and businesses worldwide. Despite their advantages, most network-based systems are highly at risk of malicious (恶意的) attacks.
The consequences of a malicious attack on network-based systems can be extremely harmful. For instance, an attack on a power plant network could leave millions of individuals and offices without electricity, while attacks on social media networks can lead to exposure of user information.
To overcome the weaknesses of network-based systems, computer scientists worldwide have been trying to develop advanced intrusion detection systems (IDSs) (入侵检测系统) that could help to identify malicious attacks, increasing a network’s safety. In recent years, machine learning (ML) algorithms (机器学习算法) have been found to be particularly promising for automatically detecting attacks and intrusions on a network’s functioning.
An important step in the development and training of ML-based IDSs is the selection of data features that a model can rely or focus on when making predictions. Ideally, by analyzing large datasets, researchers should be able to identify the most suitable features for solving a given task using ML tools, and this can also be applied to intrusion detection.
Researchers at Canadian University Dubai in the UAE have recently developed a new feature selection method that could enable the development of more effective ML-based IDSs. This method was found to perform remarkably well when compared with other commonly employed feature selection techniques. Using the features they identified as most important for intrusion detection, the researchers created a highly efficient ML-based detection system. This system was found to be capable of distinguishing between DDoS attacks and harmless network signals with 99% accuracy.
In the future, the feature selection method developed by the researchers and their findings could help the development of new, highly effective IDSs. In addition, the system they created using the features they identified could be applied in real-world settings to detect malicious attacks on real networks.
1. What does paragraph 1 focus on about network-based technologies?A.Their targeted users. | B.Their popularity. |
C.Their potential risk. | D.Their advantages. |
A.By tracking malicious attacks. |
B.By starting anti-virus programs. |
C.By sorting out user information. |
D.By recognizing malicious attacks. |
A.Solving given tasks. | B.Selecting reliable data features. |
C.Making accurate predictions. | D.Analyzing large enough datasets. |
A.To introduce a new technique for IDSs. |
B.To promote network-based technologies. |
C.To raise people’s awareness of network safety. |
D.To discuss ways to deal with malicious attacks. |
【推荐2】For nearly every step of his almost 12-mile walk, Darryl Dyer has company. Flocks of crows follow him, signaling each other, because they all know that he’s the guy with the peanuts.
“They know your body type. The way you walk,” Dyer said. “They’ll take their young down and say: ‘You want to get to know this guy. He’s got the food.”
Scientists for years have known that crows have great memories, that they can recognize a human face and behavior, and can pass that information onto their babies.
Nowadays, researchers are trying to understand more about the crow’s brain and behavior, specifically what it does when the birds see one of their own die. They react loudly to the dead, but the reasons aren’t entirely known. Among the guesses is that they are mourning; losing a partner could be a significant moment for the social animals. Crows place sticks and other objects on dead birds—a funeral of sorts.
“Crows have evolved to have these complex social relationships, and they have a big brain,” said Kaeli Swift, who led the study.
How big of a brain? Crows are on par with smart mammals, like dolphins and monkeys, in brain-to-body proportion (比例). They have been known to be problem solvers and are among the few animals recorded to use tools.
In another part of the experiment, using slightly radioactive tracers, researchers measured the brain activity of crows after they were shown a dead bird. The scans showed the section of the hippocampus-the part involved in memory formation-light up at the sight of death. “In that particular situation at least, that crow was learning about a place, or a face, or a situation and associated it with that dead crow,” said Johin Marzluff, the lead researcher.
1. What does Darryl Dyer say about the crows?A.They have good teamwork. |
B.They want to get to know him. |
C.They like peanuts best. |
D.They are familiar with him. |
A.Crows behave badly to each other. |
B.Crows can’t remember things well. |
C.Crows can acquire information from their parents. |
D.Crows mourn their partners’ death in a silent way. |
A.the same as |
B.different from |
C.related to |
D.opposite to |
A.Crows Are Friends of Humans |
B.A Big Brain Makes Crows Intelligent |
C.Crows Can Memorize Things |
D.Crows Hold-a Funeral for the Dead |
【推荐3】Does your school have any problems with discipline? What happens when students step out of line? Here are some examples of bad behaviour:
◎Playing truant(missing school without permission from parents).
◎Stealing,smoking,hitting,swearing(说脏话),running,kissing.
◎Cheating in exams.
◎Calling a teacher or another pupil bad names.
◎Not doing homework.
◎Not listening or not paying attention in lessons.
◎Wearing unsuitable clothes.
Here are some of the ways that UK school children can be punished:
Exclusion:a pupil is asked to leave the school and not come back.The pupil has to find a new school or a different method of education.
Suspension:a pupil cannot enter the building or attend lessons until the school has a meeting about their situation.Suspension can last from one to 45 days.The pupil is usually given work to do at home with a special teacher.
Detention:a pupil is asked to stay after school and work for 30—60 minutes before they Can leave.
Lines:a pupil has to write a sentence many times(e.g.100 or more)on a sheet of paper,e,g,“I must not shout in class”.
Freya MacDonald,a 15-year-old pupil from Scotland,made the news when she refused to accept her school’s punishment.Her family says that she was given 11 detentions for trivial things in class and coming into school through a fire door.
Freya says that repeated detentions disrupted her fight to an education under Scottish law and made it difficult for her to learn.She refused to return until the school respected her civil rights.She wants the headmaster and her teachers to sign a letter to promise this.Hundreds of schools in Scotland were told not to use detention as a punishment because of her legal action.
Many UK schools now give parents a home-school contract,explaining their discipline and rules.Parents must sign this document to agree that they accept the school’s rules and discipline and that they are responsible for their child’s behaviour.
1. What does the text mainly talk about?A.Some examples of bad behaviour in schoo1. |
B.Common discipline and rules in UK schools. |
C.How UK schools discipline and punish students. |
D.What UK parents think of school punishment. |
A.It is the most serious punishment for students. |
B.A pupil is not permitted to come back to schoo1. |
C.It forces students to write a critical self-review. |
D.A pupil can come back within one and half a month. |
A.She didn’t want to study at a11. |
B.Many schools cancelled detention to punish students. |
C.She didn’t step out of line after that. |
D.Teachers signed a letter to respect her civil rights. |
A.To make it easy for students to learn. |
B.To help parents know about school rules. |
C.To share responsibility for their child’s actions. |
D.To avoid their own responsibility for education. |