2009年全國碩士研究生入學考試英語試題精析

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　　It is a wise father that knows his own child, but today a man can boost his paternal (fatherly) wisdom—or at least confirm that he’s the kid’s dad. All he needs to do is shell out $30 for paternity testing kit (PTK) at his local drugstore—and another $120 to get the results.

　　More than 60,000 people have purchased the PTKs since they first become available without prescriptions last year, according to Doug Fog, chief operating officer of Identigene, which makes the over�瞭he�瞔ounter kits. More than two dozen companies sell DNA tests directly to the public, ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to more than $2500.

　　Among the most popular: paternity and kinship testing, which adopted children can use to find their biological relatives and families can use to track down kids put up for adoption. DNA testing is also the latest rage a many passionate genealogists—and supports businesses that offer to search for a family’s geographic roots.

　　Most tests require collecting cells by webbing saliva in the mouth and sending it to the company for testing.All tests require a potential candidate with whom to compare DNA.

　　But some observers are skeptical. “There is a kind of false precision being hawked by people claiming they are doing ancestry testing,” says Trey Duster, a New York University sociologist. He notes that each individual has many ancestors—numbering in the hundreds just a few centuries back. Yet most ancestry testing only considers a single lineage, either the Y chromosome inherited through men in a father’s line or mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down only from mothers. This DNA can reveal genetic information about only one or two ancestors, even though, for example, just three generations back people also have six other great�瞘randparents or, four generations back, 14 other great-great-grandparents.

　　Critics also argue that commercial genetic testing is only as good as the reference collections to which a sample is compared. Databases used by some companies don’t rely on data collected systematically but rather lump together information from different research projects. This means that a DNA database may differ depending on the company that processes the results. In addition, the computer programs a company uses to estimate relationships may be patented and not subject to peer review or outside evaluation.

　　俗話說，賢父知己子，但是如今男人可以提升自己的智慧，至少可以確認自己是孩子的父親了。他所要做的就是在住所附近的藥店里付30美元買一個父子關系測試包(PTK)，然后另支付120美元以獲得結果。

　　道格·福格是Identigene(生產這種在藥店可以出售的測試包的公司)的首席運營官，他指出，自從去年PTK無需處方就可以買到以來，購買者已經超過6萬人。超過24家公司直接向公眾出售DNA檢測工具，價格從幾百美元到2500多美元不等。

　　最受歡迎的DNA測試是父子和血緣關系檢測，被收養(yǎng)的孩子可以利用它找到自己的生物學親屬，家庭也可以用它來追蹤到被收養(yǎng)的孩子。DNA檢測最近不受到許多熱心的族譜學家追捧，還為那些提供家族尋根服務的公司提供了支持。

　　許多測試需要從唾液中獲取細胞，將唾液送至公司進行檢測。所有的測試都需要另外一個相關人員的DNA進行比對。

　　但是觀察家們持懷疑態(tài)度。紐約州立大學的社會學家特洛伊·達斯特說，“那些聲稱可以進行血統(tǒng)檢測的人，他們兜售的測試有一定的不準確性”。他注意到每個人都有許多祖先，僅幾個世紀以前就有幾百個之多。但是多數(shù)血統(tǒng)檢測只考慮某個單一系統(tǒng)，或者是遺傳自父親的Y染色體，或者是只由母親遺傳的線粒體DNA。這個DNA只揭示了一兩個祖先的基因信息。但是，僅僅3代之前，除了曾祖父母，他們還有6個外曾祖父母，或者4代以前，除了曾曾祖父母，他們還有14個外曾曾祖父母。

　　批評家們還爭論說商業(yè)性基因檢測的好壞取決于參照基因數(shù)據(jù)庫的好壞，參照基因數(shù)據(jù)庫是用來同樣本進行對比的。一些公司使用的數(shù)據(jù)庫里的數(shù)據(jù)并非系統(tǒng)性的采集而得，而是將不同研究項目的信息胡亂搜集在一起。這意味某個DNA數(shù)據(jù)庫可能會從某些地區(qū)收集很多信息，而在別的地區(qū)不收集信息，所以一個人的測試結果會隨著測試公司的不同而不同。此外，公司用來評估血緣關系的電腦程序可能申請了專利，不能對其進行同行審查或外界評估。

　　第一段中心句：All he needs to do is shell out $30 for paternity testing kit (PTK) at his local drugstore – and another $120 to get the results. 他所要做的就是在住所附近的藥店里付30美元買一個父子關系測試包(PTK)，然后另支付120美元以獲得結果。

　　第二段中心句:More than 60,000 people have purchased the PTKs since they first become available without prescriptions last years, according to Doug Fog, chief operating officer of Identigene, which makes the over�瞭he�瞔ounter kits. Doug Fogg是Identigene(生產這種在藥店可以出售的測試包的公司)的首席運營官，該公司生產了在藥店可以售出的這個測試包，他指出去年PTK無需處方就可以買到，自那以來，購買者已經超過6萬人。

　　第三段中心句:Among the most popular: paternity and kinship testing, which adopted children can use to find their biological relatives and latest rage a many passionate genealogists�瞐nd supports businesses that offer to search for a family’s geographic roots . 最受歡迎的DNA測試是父子和血緣關系檢測，被收養(yǎng)的孩子可以利用它找到自己的生物學親屬，家庭可以用它來追蹤到被收養(yǎng)的孩子。

　　第四段中心句:Most tests require collecting cells by webbing saliva in the mouth and sending it to the company for testing. 許多測試需要收取口中的唾液來獲取細胞，將唾液送至公司進行檢測。

　　第五段中心句:But some observers are skeptical. 但是觀察家們持懷疑態(tài)度。

　　第六段中心句:Critics also argue that commercial genetic testing is only as good as the reference collections to which a sample is compared. 批評家們還爭論說商業(yè)性基因檢測的好壞取決于參照基因數(shù)據(jù)庫的好壞，參照基因數(shù)據(jù)庫是用來同樣本進行對比的。

　　答案A C D A B(解析略)