Genes and Other Things 3

Task 1: Read the passage below and then make up a title for this part of ‘Genes and other things’.

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What's the point of tinkering with genes - genetic engineering? One reason is that people are impatient. (   1   ) want to move fast, not just in cars, planes and spaceships. They want to make new types of life which will do new things. The best example is plants for food. About 10,000 years ago, people found a new way to make sure (   2   ) got enough food: they invented agriculture - farming. The first farmers simply collected seeds of food plants people liked to eat and sowed them in the ground. Each harvest, (   3   ) gathered in their seed crops and selected the best and fattest seeds to sow in the ground next year. Because all organisms - plants, animals or people - have in (   4   ) genes a certain amount of variation, gradually this year-by-year selection of the best quality seeds meant that the crops gradually got better, giving more food which tasted nicer. (   5   ) is now called selective breeding. And believe (   6   )or not, all dogs from huge St Bernards to tiny Chihuahuas have been bred by humans from one type of wild dog - probably a wolf. A St Bernard and a Chihuahua are the same species even though a St Bernard could gobble up a Chihuahua in one gulp. Being the same species means you can breed with any other member of your species. But breeding isn't fast enough for some humans (   7   )'ve found they can make lots of money by using the new science of genetic engineering (part of what is called biotechnology - using life to make things).

'Engineering' is a fancy word for making something. So genetic engineering (often just called GE) is making something with genes. Scientists have learned to spot which gene does what in building a new organism. At least they think (   8   ) have. They've found out that simple organisms like bacteria or viruses often have genes (   9   ) are useful because (   10   ) can be snipped out and put - spliced - into plant genes. Doing this could give the plant special new abilities like resisting disease. (   11   ) is rather like grabbing a large scorpion so (   12   )can't nip you with its claws. You know it's safe to handle since its claws can't reach (   13   ) but - ow! - it's got a sting in its tail you didn't know about. There may be a 'sting in the tail' which comes from splicing strange genes into other organisms - from viruses to plants, for example. No-one can be certain what will happen. (   14   )is unpredictable.

Task 2: Put the words they, it, their, this, which, you or who into the numbered spaces in the text.
1.    ________________________________
2.    ________________________________
3.    ________________________________
4.    ________________________________
5.    ________________________________
6.    ________________________________
7.    ________________________________
8.    ________________________________
9.    ________________________________
10.    ________________________________
11.    ________________________________
12.    ________________________________
13.    ________________________________
14.    ________________________________

Task 3: Now reread the passage and answer the following questions?
①    What does the word ‘tinkering’ mean?
②    Give another word for agriculture?
③    What does the word ‘sow’ mean?
④    What does the term ‘selective breeding’ mean?
⑤    What do the words ‘gobble’ and ‘gulp’ mean?
⑥    Is genetic engineering a kind of biotechnology, or biotechnology a kind of genetic engineering?
⑦    What does the word ‘engineering’ mean?
⑧    What does the word ‘spliced’ mean?
⑨    What does the term ‘sting in the tail mean’?

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