【轻松英文阅读】拯救猛犸象

 The woolly mammoth¹ was a very large elephant-like mammal that lived on Earth several thousand years ago.  Some mammoths grew to be four meters high and the largest weighed almost nine tons.  Both male and female mammoths had very large tusks² and walked on every continent except Australia and South America.  Sadly, these giant creatures became extinct.

 

The last mammoths lived as recently as 4,000 years ago and their well-preserved bodies can be found frozen in the tundra³ of Siberia.  Because their bodies were so well protected from decay in the permafrost, their genetic⁵ material remained intact.  

 

Scientists at Harvard University are researching ways to bring the mammoth back to life. According to these researchers, it is possible to program the Asian elephants’ genes⁶ with a mammoth’s genetic material. This is can be done because of a recent scientific developments in gene⁴ editing using a new tool called Crispr. Crispr allows scientists to cut out specific genes and replace them with different ones. They estimate that we will see a living mammoth in less than 10 years. 

1 mammoth   

n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的

参考例句：

• You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
• Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。

2 tusks   

n.（象等动物的）长牙( tusk的名词复数 )；獠牙；尖形物；尖头

参考例句：

• The elephants are poached for their tusks. 为获取象牙而偷猎大象。
• Elephant tusks, monkey tails and salt were used in some parts of Africa. 非洲的一些地区则使用象牙、猴尾和盐。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

3 tundra   

n.苔原，冻土地带

参考例句：

• The arctic tundra is at the top of the world around the North Pole.北极冻原是指北极点周边的地区，是世界最高的地方。
• There is a large amount of methane gas under the Siberian tundra.西伯利亚的冻土地带之下有大量的甲烷气体。

4 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

5 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

6 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪