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  3. Major companies are already in pursuit of commercial applications of the new biology. They dream of placing enzymes in the autom

Major companies are already in pursuit of commercial applications of the new biology. They dream of placing enzymes in the autom

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问题     Major companies are already in pursuit of commercial applications of the new biology. They dream of placing enzymes in the automobile to monitor exhaust and send data on pollution to a microprocessor that will then adjust the engine. They speak of what the New York Times calls "metal-hungry microbes that might be used to mine valuable trace metals from ocean water." They have already demanded and won the right to patent new life forms.
    Nervous critics, including many scientists, worry that there is corporate, national, international, and inter-scientific rivalry in the entire biotechnological field. They create images not of oil spills, but of "microbe spills" that could spread disease and destroy entire populations. The creation and accidental release of extremely poisonous microbes, however, is only one cause for alarm. Completely rational and respectable scientists are talking about possibilities that stagger the imagination.
    Should we breed people with cow-like stomachs so they can digest grass and hay, thereby relieving the food problem by modifying us to eat lower down on the food chain? Should we biologically alter workers to fit the job requirement, for example, creating pilots with faster reaction times or assembly-line workers designed to do our monotonous work for us? Should we attempt to eliminate "inferior" people and breed a "super-race"? (Hitler tried this, but without the genetic weaponry that may soon issue from our laboratories.) Should we produce soldiers to do our fighting? Should we use genetic forecasting to pre-eliminate "unfit" babies? Should we grow reserve organs for ourselves, each of us having, as it were, a "savings bank" full of spare kidney, livers, or hands?
    Wild as these notions may sound, everyone has its advocates (and opposers) in the scientific community as well as its striking commercial applications. As two critics of genetic engineering, Jeremy Rifkin and Ted Howard, state in their book Who Should Play God? "Broad scale genetic engineering will probably be introduced to America much the same way as assembly lines, automobiles, vaccines, computers and all the other technologies. As each new genetic advance becomes commercially practical, a new consumer need will be exploited and a market for the new technology will be created."
According to the passage, which of the following would worry the critics the most?
选项 A、The unanticipated explosion of population.
B、The creation of biological solar cells.
C、The accidental spill of oil.
D、The unexpected release of destructive microbes.
答案D
解析 事实细节题。文章第二段提到，包括很多科学家在内的评论家担心新生物学的应用会引起大范围的竞争(公司之间、国家之间的竞争等)，他们认为“微生物泄露”可能传播疾病，并威胁全人类，然而有毒微生物的制造和意外泄露只是引起恐慌的原因之一。由此可知，评论家们担心的是有毒微生物的意外泄露。本段中的“accidental release of extremely poisonous microbes”与[D]项中的“the unexpected release of destructive microbes”表达的意思相同。
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