2. 外语
  3. Henry III didn’t know much about biology. He went through six wives back in the 1500s, looking for one who could bear him a son.

Henry III didn’t know much about biology. He went through six wives back in the 1500s, looking for one who could bear him a son.

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问题     Henry III didn’t know much about biology. He went through six wives back in the 1500s, looking for one who could bear him a son. Scientists now know that it’s the father’s sperm, not the mother’s egg, which determines whether a baby is a boy or a girl. And last week researchers at the Genetics and IVF Institute, a private fertility (生育能力) center in Virginia, announced a new technique that will allow parents to choose the sex of their baby-to-be, before it has even been conceived. The scientist used a tiny laser detector to measure the DNA in millions of sperm cells as they pass single file through a narrow tube, like cattle being herded through a corral (牲口栏). In a study published last week, "girl sperm," which has more DNA—the genetic material—in each cell, was collected, while "boy sperm" was discarded. And when purified girl sperm was used to impregnate(使受孕) a group of mothers, 15 of 17 resulting babies turned out to be girls.
    The researchers say that "sex selection" can also double a mother’s chance of having a son and can be used to avoid genetic diseases that affect only one gender, such as hemophilia (血友病). But some experts, like New York University fertility specialist Dr. Jamie Grifo, worry that sex selection could lead to a kind of in uteri (子宫) discrimination, especially in cultures where sons are considered superior to daughters. "It’s valuing one gender over another," Grifo says. "I don’t think that’s something we should be doing." So far, patients at the institute have been asking for both boys and girls, in order to "balance" their families. And some ethics experts say that’s fine, as long as parents are just looking for a little gender variety. "If you have three boys, and you want a girl," says University of Texas reproductive-law professor John Robertson, "that’s not gender bias at all."
According to this passage, the practice of "sex selection"______.
选项 A、can help to prevent all genetic problems
B、is totally unacceptable to ethics experts
C、was already realized five hundred years ago
D、will benefit families with certain inheritable diseases
答案D
解析 推理判断题。第2段第1句中的genetic暗示有些疾病是遗传的，即如选项D所述。第2段第1句同时表明选项A的说法是不全面的。选项B与第2段最后两句正好相反。第1段前两句说明选项C是错误的。
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大学英语四级

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