Directions: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET.
The really critical implication of the discovery still lies with the door that geneticists have opened on the environmental influences of our behavior, our personalities and our health, and for the critical blow it strikes the idea of biological determinism.
41. For the past decade, the public has witnessed a rising epidemic of tales of discoveries of genes that dispose humanity to homosexuality, to alcoholism, to political persuasion, to running ability, and to artistic taste.
But even before yesterday’s revelations by Venter, scientists had stopped believing in the gay gene. Yet belief in its existence still persists among the public. 42. The assault on biological determinism that geneticists have now triggered will be timely, and human nature is a lot more complex and intriguing than determinists have given it credit for.
It has become increasingly fashionable for individuals particularly in the United States to blame actions and crimes on the influence of their genes. Several US defendants accused of violent crimes have argued that they were innocent victims of their genes. 43. In other words, genetic predestination could soon have been used to excuse murder or robbery—if it had not been for this discovery that we lack the genes to thus dispose us!
Kevin Davies is the author of “The Sequence”, a story of the human genome race. He said. 44. “There has been a recent study on perfect pitch, the ability to know the absolute pitch of a musical note, that strongly suggests that is acquired through the inheritance of a single gene.” “That may sound like a clear-cut piece of biological determinism. However, there is a crucial corollary you have to be exposed to early musical training for the ability to materialize. In other words, even in seemingly simple inherited abilities, nurture has a role to play.”
And then there is the case quoted by Venter. Take the example of colon (结肠)cancer. People say there is a gene that predisposes us to the disease. And certainly it runs in families. 45. However, it is only the colon where we find all sorts of toxins and bacteria that provide the harsh circumstances that finally cause that gene to break down and for cancer to spread.
In short, it is not a colon cancer gene but a gene that affects our ability to respond to the environment. And that is what human nature is all about.
