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英语课文翻译对于学生俩说，要求比较高，难度比较大。以下是小编整理的选修8英语u2课文翻译，欢迎阅读。
一、Reading
CLONING: WHERE IS IT LEADING US?
Cloning has always been with us and is here to stay. It is a way of making an exact copy of another animal or plant. It happens in plants when gardeners take cuttings from growing plants to make new ones. It also happens in animals when twins identical in sex and appearance are produced from the same original egg. The fact is that these are both examples of natural clones.
Cloning has two major uses. Firstly, gardeners use it all the time to produce commercial quantities of plants. Secondly, it is valuable for research on new plant species and for medical research on animals. Cloning plants is straightforward while cloning animals is very complicated. It is a difficult task to undertake. Many attempts to clone mammals failed. But at last the determination and patience of the scientists paid off in 1996 with a breakthrough - the cloning of Dolly the sheep. The procedure works like this:
On the one hand, the whole scientific world followed the progress of the first successful clone, Dolly the sheep. The fact that she seemed to develop normally was very encouraging. Then came the disturbing news that Dolly had become seriously ill. Cloning scientists were cast down to find that Dolly's illnesses were more appropriate to a much older animal. Altogether Dolly lived six and a half years, half the length of the life of the original sheep. Sadly the same arbitrary fate affected other species, such as cloned mice. The questions that concerned all scientists were: his be a major difficulty for all cloned animals? Would it happen forever? Could it be solved if corrections were made in their research procedure?
On the other hand, Dolly's appearance raised a storm of objections and had a great impact on the media and public imagination. It became controversial. It suddenly opened everybody's eyes to the possibility of using cloning to cure serious illnesses and even to produce human beings.
Although at present human egg cells and embryos needed for cloning research are difficult to obtain, newspapers wrote of evil leaders hoping to clone themselves to attain their ambitions. Religious leaders also raised moral questions. Governments became nervous and more conservative. Some began to reform their legal systems and forbade research into human cloning, but other countries like China and the UK, continued to accumulate evidence of the abundant medical aid that cloning could provide. However, scientists still wonder whether cloning will help or harm us and where it is leading us.
【翻译】
克隆：它将把我们引向何方？
克隆一直与我们同在，而如今它还要持续下去。这是一种用来生产与原型完全相同的动植物的方法。当园艺师从生长着的植物上剪下枝条来培植新植物时，就会产生这种现象。这种现象也发生在动物身上，从同一个原生卵子产生性别和相貌相同的双胞胎也是克隆。实际上，这些都是自然克隆现象。
克隆技术有两大用途。第一，园艺师一直用它生产大量的供商用的植物；第二，它在对新植物物种的研究以及对动物的医学研究方面都是很有价值的。克隆植物简单，但克隆动物就比较复杂了，是一项很难完成的任务。克隆哺乳动物的多次尝试都失败了。但是，科学家的决心和耐心最终得到了回报，这就是1996年具有突破性的克隆羊―多莉‖的诞生。它的程序如下图所示：
1．母羊(A)提供一个卵细胞。
2．在卵细胞中取出细胞核。
3．卵细胞准备接受新的细胞核。
4．母羊(B)提供一个供克隆的躯干细胞。该细胞核应包含生产一头新羊所需要的全部基因。
5．取出该细胞的细胞核。
6．用电把母羊(B)的躯干细胞核和母羊(A)的卵细胞结合起来。
7．细胞分裂并生长成胚胎。
8．把胚胎植入另外一头母羊(C)体内，母羊(C)就是克隆羊的代*者。
9．这头小羔羊就是母羊(B)所提，供的细胞核克隆而成的。 一方面，整个科学界都在关注着首例成功的克隆动物多莉羊的成长¨多莉看来是在正常地成长着，这很令人鼓舞。接着传来了多莉病重的坏消息。研究克隆的科学家发现多莉得的病更容易发生在年老的羊身上．这让他们很沮丧。多莉总共只存活了六年半，这是它的原型羊寿命的一半。可悲的是，同样无法控制的命运也在影响着其他物种，如克隆鼠。科学家的脑海里产生的问题是：―这是不是所有克隆动物的一个主要困难呢？这种现象会不会永远发生？如果改进程序，问题会不会解决？
另一方面，多莉的出生引起了一阵强烈的反对，对，对媒体和公众的想象力也产生了巨大的影响。它引起了争议，因为它突然打开了人们的眼界，看到了有可能：用克隆技术来治疗重病，甚至克隆出人类。
尽管目前供克隆研究的人体卵细胞和胚胎还很难得到，但报纸报道说，有些邪恶头目希望把自己克隆出来以实现他的野心。宗教领袖也提出了道德方面的问题。各国政府惶恐不安而且更加谨慎，有些政府开始改革司法制度，明令禁止进行克隆人类的研究。但是其他国家如中国和英国，则还在继续收集克隆技术有可能提供丰富有的医疗救助的证据。然而，科学察们仍对克隆技术有助于人类还是有害于人类，以及克隆技术将把我们引向何处困惑。
二、Using Language
THE RETURN OF THE DINOSAURS?
The possibility of cloning fierce and extinct wild animals has always excited film makers. And they are not the only ones! The popularity of films such as Jurassic Park, in which a scientist clones several kinds of extinct dinosaurs, proves how the idea struck a mixture of fear and excitement into people's hearts. But in fact we are a long way from being able to clone extinct animals. Scientists are still experimenting with cloning mammals. This is because the cloning of mammals is still a new science and its story only began seriously in the 1950s as this list shows: 1950s cloning of frogs 1996 first clone of a mammal: Dolly the sheep 1970s research using the embryos of mice 2000 cow gave birth to a bison 1979 work on embryos of sheep and mice 2001 China's first cloned twin calves 1981 first experimental clones of mice 2002 first cloned cats 1983 first experimental clones of cows 2005 first cloned dog …
From time to time people suggest that extinct animals like dinosaurs, can possibly be brought back to life through cloning. Unfortunately, with what we know now, this is either impossible or unsuitable. There are many reasons. ◎ The initial requirement is that you need perfect DNA (which gives information for how cellsare to grow).
◎ All efforts of cloning an animal will be in vain if there is not enough diversity in the group to overcome illnesses. Diversity in a group meanshaving animals with their genes arranged in different ways. The advantage is that if there is a new illness some of these animals may die,but others will survive and pass on the ability to resist that disease to the next generation. The great drawback to cloning a group ofanimals is that they would all have the same arrangement of genes and so might die of the same illness. Then none of them would be left tocontinue the species.
◎ It would be unfair to clone any extinct animals if they were to live in a zoo. A suitable habitat would be needed for them to lead a natural life.
Based on what we know now, you cannot clone animals that have been extinct longer than 10,000 years. Actually, dinosaurs disappeared 65,000,000 years ago. So the chance of dinosaurs ever returning to the earth is merely a dream.
【翻译】
恐龙的回归？
克隆凶猛和灭绝的野生动物的可能性一直使电影制片商感到兴奋。然而他们并不是唯一对此感到兴奋的人。在《侏罗纪公园》这部影片中，有一位科学家克隆了好几种不同的绝种恐龙。类似这样的电影很受欢迎，证明了这一想法使人们感到既兴奋又恐惧。但事实上，想要克隆绝种动物，我们还要很长的路程要走。科学家们现在还在进行克隆哺乳动物实验，这是因为克隆哺乳动物仍然还是一门新的科学，它是从20世纪50年代才开始进行认真研究的，如下表所示：
20世纪50年代:克隆青蛙 1996年:首次克隆哺乳动物（多利羊） 20世纪70年代:用老鼠胚胎进行研究 2000年:母牛生野牛
1979年:对羊和老鼠的胚胎进行研究 2001年:中国首次克隆出双胞胎小牛 1981年:首次对老鼠进行试验性研究 2002年:首次克隆猫 1983年:首次对母牛进行试验性研究 2005年:首次克隆狗
不时地会有人提议，克隆技术将有可能使地球上已经消失的动物（如恐龙）复活。不幸的是，据我们现在所知这是不可能的，也是不合适的。其原因有很多：
◎ 首先要求你有完好的，以提供有关细胞将如何生长的信息。
◎ 如果某个动物群体没有足够的多样性以战胜疾病，那么克隆这种动物的所有努力都将是无用的。群体的多样性是指这群动物的基因要以不同的方式排列。其优点是，如果发生了某种新的疾病，这类动物中的一些可能会死去，而另外一些却能存活下来，并且把这种免疫力传给下一代。经过克隆的动物群体的最大缺点是：它们的基因排列有可能完全相同，因而它们有可能会死于同一种疾病，这样它们也可能一个也留不下来传种接代了。
◎你如果克隆出任何绝种动物，而它们必须生活在动物园里那是不公平的。它们需要适当的栖息地过正常的野生生活。
就我们现在所知，你不可能克隆那些已经绝种了一万年以上的动物。事实上恐龙在6，500万年以前就已经消失了，所以说恐龙回归地球的可能性仅仅是个梦想罢了！
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