英语科技文选自考2009年04月真题及答案解析

     There has been much recent interest in the links between social cognition and brain function, particularly as neuropsychological studies have shown that brain injury (particularly to the frontal lobes) can adversely affect social judgements and interaction. People diagnosed with certain mental illnesses are also known to show differences in how they process social information.

      There is now an expanding research field examining how such conditions may bias cognitive processes involved in social interaction, or conversely, how such biases may lead to the symptoms associated with the condition. It is also becoming clear that some aspects of psychological processes that promote social behaviour (such as face recognition) may be innate. Studies have shown that newborn babies, younger than one hour old can selectively recognize and respond to faces, while people with some developmental disorders such as autism or Williams syndrome may show differences in social interaction and social communication when compared to their unaffected peers.

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Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

All of the following are steps involved in true cloning EXCEPT_______.

The word “rejuvenated” in para. 5 is closest in meaning to_______.

                                                             (B)

     Gene therapy and gene-based drugs are two ways we would benefit from our growing mastery of genetic science. But there will be others as well. Here is one of the remarkable therapies on the cutting edge of genetic research that could make their way into mainstream medicine in the coming years.

     While it’s true that just about every cell in the body has the instructions to make a complete human, most of those instructions are inactivated, and with good reason: the last thing you want for your brain cells is to start churning out stomach acid or your nose to turn into a kidney. The only time cells truly have the potential to turn into any and all body parts is very early in a pregnancy, when so-called stem cells haven’t begun to specialize.

     Most diseases involve the death of healthy cells—brain cells in Alzheimer’s, cardiac cells in heart disease, pancreatic cells in diabetes, to name a few; if doctors could isolate stem cells, then direct their growth, they might be able to furnish patients with healthy replacement tissue.

     It was incredibly difficult, but last fall scientists at the University of Wisconsin managed to isolate stem cells and get them to grow into neural, gut, muscle and bone cells. The process still can’t be controlled, and may have unforeseen limitations; but if efforts to understand and master stem-cell development prove successful, doctors will have a therapeutic tool of incredible power.

     The same applies to cloning, which is really just the other side of the coin; true cloning, as first shown, with the sheep Dolly two years ago, involves taking a developed cell and reactivating the genome within, resenting its developmental instructions to a pristine state. Once that happens, the rejuvenated cell can develop into a full-fledged animal, genetically identical to its parent.

      For agriculture, in which purely physical characteristics like milk production in a cow or low fat in a hog have real market value, biological carbon copies could become routine within a few years. This past year scientists have done for mice and cows what Ian Wilmut did for Dolly, and other creatures are bound to join the cloned menagerie in the coming year.

     Human cloning, on the other hand, may be technically feasible but legally and emotionally more difficult. Still, one day it will happen. The ability to reset body cells to a pristine, undeveloped state could give doctors exactly the same advantages they would get from stem cells: the potential to make healthy body tissues of all sorts. And thus to cure disease.That could prove to be a true “miracle cure”.

What is the passage mainly about?

According to the passage, it can be inferred that which of the following reflects the author’s opinion?

The author implies all the following about the Mott insulator state EXCEPT that______.

What can be said about the quantum phase transition?

Which of the following is NOT mentioned in relation to a weak optical lattice?