Unit 2 Cloning【美文阅读】 Pandas can be saved by cloning?从 1998 年中国科学院动物研究所首席科学家、动物克隆与受精生物学学科带头人陈大元首次正式提出克隆大熊猫到现在，整整 16 年过去了，陈老仍然执著于此。然而保护大熊猫，究竟要不要通过克隆的方式呢？China has been exploring every possible means of saving giant pandas，one of the world's most endangered species，from becoming extinct，even if it means resorting to(诉诸) cloning them.Chen Dayuan，a senior scientist who specializes in cloning at the Institute of Zoology in the Chinese Academy of Sciences ， introduced the idea of performing cloning techniques on giant pandas in 1998.Using initial funding of 100,000 yuan ， Chen successfully produced blastocysts(胚泡) by transplanting the somatic nucleus from sample pandas into the egg cells of rabbits.The move was considered as one of the 10 biggest achievements of science and technology in 1999.It won an award of 6 million yuan and further funding of 5 million yuan for the project from the Ministry of Science and Technology.At first，two embryos were created from a surrogate mother(代母) cat who became pregnant after being injected with a blastocyst，but the experiment was abandoned after the cat died.Chen and his team then experimented with surrogacy on black bears.After three years of effort，a black bear became pregnant and the shape of a fetus(胎儿) could be seen on an ultrasound scan(超声波扫描检查)．However，the research was stopped in 2005 because the fetus did not completely develop before the project's deadline.“Those who are against cloning have made their voices heard throughout the research project on cloning giant pandas.Some people believe cloning goes against nature，but it is actually a pioneering technology.If successful...
