2. 外语
  3. In 2010, Pamela Fink, an employee of a Connecticut energy company, made a new kind of discrimination claim: she charged that she

In 2010, Pamela Fink, an employee of a Connecticut energy company, made a new kind of discrimination claim: she charged that she

admin2012-07-05  86
问题     In 2010, Pamela Fink, an employee of a Connecticut energy company, made a new kind of discrimination claim: she charged that she had been fired because she carries genes that make her more likely to get cancer. Fink quickly became the public face for the cutting edge of civil rights: genetic discrimination.
    The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) , which was passed out of concern for just such cases in the wake of huge advances in genetics testing, took effect in late 2009. GINA, as it is known, makes it illegal for employers to fire or refuse to hire workers based on their " genetic information"—including genetic tests and family history of disease. When Congress issued GINA in 2008, the House of Representatives supported it 414-1, and the whole Senate backed it.
    There are two major reasons that so many people—even congressional Republicans who are highly doubtful of civil rights laws—like GINA. First, there is the kind of discrimination it is aimed at: penalizing people for DNA and RNA that they inherited from their parents through no fault of their own. In general, our society has decided to protect people for qualities that are "immutable"—that is, something about them that is impossible or, at least, very difficult to change. So we make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, skin color and sex. Genes are a classic immutable characteristic : outside of some complicated medical procedures, we’re pretty much stuck with the genes we were bom with.
    The second major reason genetic-discrimination laws are popular is that this is a kind of bias everyone feels they could be exposed to. None of us has perfect genes—and for the most part, we have no idea what is hiding in our DNA and RNA. Our genes are complex enough that we all have some negative information—and none of us wants to lose a job or be denied insurance over it. When juries begin to hear these cases, they are far more likely to identify with the accusers than with the companies that discriminate. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be plenty of companies looking to benefit from genetic information , but if they use it, they may well have to pay.
The phrase "cutting edge" (Line 4, Para. 1) probably means______.
选项 A、very active pioneer
B、earliest stage
C、radical advocator
D、latest advancement
答案D
解析 语义理解题。根据原文可知，Fink宣称自己受到了一种新型歧视——基因歧视，并因此成为了公众人物。从常识推断，只有非常与众不同的事物才能引起人们的广泛关注，因此cutting edge可能指非常新鲜的事物，故D)“最新的发展”正确。A)“非常活跃的先锋”、B)“最初阶段”和C)“激进的倡导者”都不符合文章意思，故排除。
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大学英语四级

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