走进科学 探索未来

第一部分 阅读（共两节，满分50 分）

第一节 （共15小题；每小题2.5分，满分37.5分）

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项。

A

If you could change your childs DNA in the future to protect them against diseases，would you？ It could be possible because of technology known as CRISPRC，or justCRISPR.

CRISPR involves a piece of RNA， a chemical messenger， designed to work on one partof DNA; it also uses an enzyme （酶） that can take unwanted genes out and put new ones in，according to The Economist. There are other ways of editing DNA， but CRISPR will do itvery simply， quickly， and exactly.

The uses of CRISPR could mean that cures are developed for everything fromAlzheimer's disease to cancer to HIV. By allowing doctors to put just the right cancerkillinggenes into a patient's immune system， the technology could help greatly.

The US National Academy of Sciences plans to discuss questions about CRISPRsethics （伦理标准）. For example， CRISPR doesnt work properly yet. As well as cutting theDNA it is looking for， it often cuts other DNA， too. In addition， we currently seem to havetoo little understanding of what qualities DNA gives people.

There are also moral questions around“ playing God”. Of course， medicine alreadystops natural things from happening—for example， it saves people from infections. Theopportunities to treat diseases make it hard to say we shouldn't keep going.

Also， according to The Economist， gene editing may mean that parents make choicesthat are not obviously in the best interests of their children：“ Deaf parents may prefer theirchildren to be deaf too; parents might want to make their children more intelligent at allcosts.”

In the end， more research is still needed to see what we can and cant do withCRISPR.“ It's still a huge mystery how we work，” Craig Mello， a Medical School biologistand Nobel Prize winner， told The Boston Globe. “We're just trying to figure out thisamazingly complicated thing we call life.”

1. What is the text mainly about？

A. What we can and can't do with CRISPR.

B. The advantages of CRISPR and arguments about its ethics.

C. How CRISPR was developed by scientists.

D. Scientists' experiments of using CRISPR to edit human embryos.

2. What does the author mean by saying“ playing God” in paragraph 5？

A. Playing jokes on religious people.

B. Asking God to help deal with moral questions.

C. Following the instructions of God.

D. Doing things that go against nature.

3. According to the text， the technology of CRISPR .

A. is very safe because it only cuts the DNA it is looking for

B. is very helpful to cure people of any disease

C. could cause parents to make unwise choices for their children

D. could help us understand how complicated life is

B

To solve the problem of tiny plastics polluting waterways， chemists in the CzechRepublic are thinking small. Their brainchild is a new microrobot which is no bigger thanthe tip of a sharpened pencil. When sunlight hits the microrobots， they produce chemicalreactions that push them through water in a specific direction. When they find a piece ofplastic， they stick to it and start to break it down.

Chemist Martin Pumera at the University of Chemistry and Technology， Prague led theproject. A decade ago， he chose to focus on the problem posed by microplastics. They'reeverywhere—from the bottom of the ocean to the air blowing onto ice atop mountains.They've turned up in drinking water. Some studies estimate that billions of pieces of plasticend up in the worlds waters. The plastic has many sources， from shopping bags to washing and cleaning wipes.

In lab experiments， the starshapedswimmers stuck onto each of four different typesof plastic. And after a week exposed to light， the robots had reduced the weight of theplastics. It wasn't much—only by percent. But that was an indication that they werebreaking the plastic down. They also caused the surface of the plastic to change fromsmooth to rough. That's another sign that the robots were degrading （分解） it. The newstudy is a proof of concept type. That means it shows something can be done successfully.

In fact， Pumera says they still have a long way to go. There are many types of plastics.And even these microrobots are unlikely to succeed in degrading them all. The researchersalso have not yet shown how safe this system is for the environment， although Pumera saysthats their next goal. The first realworldtest will be in a wastewatertreatmentplant.“Indeed，” says one researcher，“ we'll need a lot of testing to show that they're safe in openwaterways， such as at sea.”

4. What does the underlined word“ brainchild” in paragraph 1 refer to？

A. Idea. B. Hope. C. Project. D. Routine.

5. What does the author focus on in paragraph 2？

A. The purpose of Pumera's project.

B. The preciousness of drinking water.