China became the first country to clone a monkey using nonreproductive cells, reducing the need to breed lab monkeys and paving the way for more accurate, effective and affordable animal tests for new drugs, scientists said on Thursday.
By December, the Institute of Neuroscience of the Chinese Academy of Sciences had created two clone macaques(猕猴) named“Zhong Zhong” and “Hua Hua” by nuclear transferring of somatic cells(体细胞)—any cell in the organism other than reproductive cells.
Tetra, a monkey born in 1999, is the world's first cloned monkey, but it was done by using a simpler method called embryo splitting(胚胎分割); but it could only generate four cloned offspring at a time and cannot be genetically changed to suit the experimental need.
Cloning a monkey using somatic cells has been a worldclass challenge because it is a primate(灵长类) that shares its genetic makeup, and therefore all of its complexity, with humans.
For drug and other lab tests, scientists have to purchase monkeys from all over the world, which is costly and bad for the environment, and produces inaccurate results because each monkey might have different genes.
By cloning monkey using somatic cells, we can massively cultivate large numbers of genetically identical offspring in a short amount of time, and we can even change their genes to suit our needs. This can save time, cut down experiment costs, and produce more accurate results, leading to more effective medicine.
Sun Qiang, director of the nonhuman primate research facility at the institute, said most of the drug trials are currently done on lab mice. However, drugs that work on mice might not work or even have severe side effects on humans because the two species are so different.
“Monkeys and humans are both primates, so they are much closely related and testing on monkeys is supposed to be as effective as testing on humans，”he said. This is especially useful in testing drugs for neural (神经的) diseases such as Parkinson's disease, metabolic syndrome (代谢综合征) and immune system diseases, and tumors, he added.
“This achievement will help China lead the world research in the international science projects related to neural mapping of primate brains，”he said. “However, bio labs from the United States, Japan, and European countries are also very capable, and they will quickly catch up with China after the monkey cloning technology is made public，” Sun added.
“This means we have to innovate continuously and work extra hard this year to stay ahead，” he said.
本文是一篇科普类说明文。讲述了中国在克隆技术上取得的成就——中国成了第一个使用非生殖细胞克隆猕猴的国家。
1．Which of the following is the most important factor in cloning macaques named “Zhong Zhong” and “Hua Hua”？
A．Reproductive cells. B．Somatic cells.
C．Neural mapping. D．Genetic makeup.
答案：B
解析：细节理解题。根据文章第二段By December, the Institute of Neuroscience of the Chinese Academy of Sciences had created two clone macaques(猕猴) named “Zhong Zhong” and “Hua Hua” by nuclear transferring of somatic cells(体细胞)—any cell in the organism other than reproductive cells.可知，克隆的猕猴“中中”和“华华”最重要的因素是通过体细胞核移植。故选B。
2．Why is cloning monkeys so difficult?
A．Because it is bad for our environment.
B．Because each monkey might have different genes.
C．Because monkeys' genetic makeup is as complicated as humans.
D．Because it is too expensive to work on their genetic makeup.
答案：C
解析：细节理解题。根据文章第四段Cloning a monkey using somatic cells has been a worldclass challenge because it is a primate(灵长类) that shares its genetic makeup, and therefore all of its complexity, with humans.可知，由于猴子是灵长类动物且与人类的基因相似，其复杂性也相似，所以用体细胞克隆猴子是一个世界级的挑战。故选C。
3．What is the main idea of Paragraph 8?
A．The cure for neural diseases.
B．The process of cloning monkeys.
C．The significance of cloning monkeys.
D．The close relations between monkeys and humans.
答案：C
解析：段落大意题。根据文章第八段内容可知，此段主要说明克隆猴子的重要性，可以帮助人类测试药物。故选C。
4．What can we infer from this passage?
A．More effective medicine will be produced.
B．Drug trials on lab mice will be abandoned.
C．China is the first country to have cloned monkeys.
D．China will stay ahead of the world in cloning.
答案：A
解析：推理判断题。根据文章第六段This can save time, cut down experiment costs, and produce more accurate results, leading to more effective medicine. 可知，此举可节省时间，降低试验费用，并且可以使结果更精确，带来更高效的药物。由此可以推测出，更多的有效药物将被生产出来。故选A。
