英语听力精选进阶版 11215

Keep your English up to date 

GM 

Professor David Crystal 

In the mid-1990s there was a new big, controversy¹ that came in, 

wasn’t there, about genetically³ modified foods:  foodstuffs 

containing genetically altered plant or animal material. And it 

wasn’t long before an abbreviation came along to summarise⁴ all 

these: genetically modified – G.M. or "genetic² modification⁵".  

Now that’s a pretty technical abbreviation; you might not expect 

to encounter it very often, but actually, you do. Because it was 

controversial at the time and people didn’t know whether to put 

this stuff into their foods or not (and it still is controversial), you 

began to see it on signs – especially after 1996, when the food 

labelling regulations came in, and they applied⁶ in Britain in, 1999 I 

think it was – and from that point on, people had to say, if you 

were a restaurant owner or a café owner, you had to say whether your foods had 

G.M. in them or not – and so you walk into a restaurant these days, and you might 

well see a sign on the wall saying "no G.M. foods here" or "the following foodstuffs 

have G.M. products inside".  

And people I've often asked them often asked you know, what do you think G.M. 

means?  And they guess all sorts of things. Some people have told me it means 

"good morning food". Somebody else told me it was a "gold medal" food. Well – it 

doesn’t mean any of those things. It means "genetically modified", that’s all! 

1 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

2 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。

3 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

4 summarise   

vt.概括，总结

参考例句：

• I will summarise what I have done.我将概述我所做的事情。
• Of course,no one article can summarise the complexities of china today.当然，没有哪一篇文章能概括出中国今日的复杂性。

5 modification   

n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻

参考例句：

• The law,in its present form,is unjust;it needs modification.现行的法律是不公正的，它需要修改。
• The design requires considerable modification.这个设计需要作大的修改。

6 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。