A British scientist whose schoolmasters told him he was too stupid to study scie

 

A British scientist whose schoolmasters told him he was too stupid to study science has been awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for his pioneering work on cloning.

At the age of 15, John Gurdon ranked last out of the 250 boys in his school at biology, and was in the bottom set in every other science subject. Sixty-four years later he has been recognized as one of the finest minds of his generation after being awarded the ￡750,000 prizes, which he shares with Japanese stem cell (干细胞)researcher Shinya Yamanaka.

John revealed that his school report, which noted that for him to study science at University would be a waste of time, still sits on his desk at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge. After receiving the report he switched his attention to classics and was offered a place to study at Christ Church, Oxford, but was allowed to switch courses and read zoology instead.

It was at Oxford as a postgraduate student that he published his research on genetics and proved for the first time that every cell in the body contains the same genes. He did so by taking a cell from an adult frog’s intestine (肠), removing its genes and putting them into an egg cell, which grew into a clone of the adult frog.

The idea was controversial at the time because it contradicted previous studies, and it was a decade before his work became widely accepted. But it later led directly to the cloning of Dolly the Sheep by Prof Ian Wilmut in 1996.

He received a call from the Swedish Academy telling him he had won the prize, but he was initially suspicious that the call was a trick by a friend or colleague speaking in a Swedish accent.

56. When John Gurdon was fifteen, he________.

       A. performed badly in science subjects.

       B. ranked last in every subject in his school

       C. showed great interest in working on cloning

       D. was not clever enough to go on with his study

57. According to the passage, the school report________.

       A. meant nothing to John Gurdon

       B. had a long-term effect on John Gurdon

       C. encouraged John Gurdon to work harder on science

       D. advised John Gurdon to study classics at Christ Church

58. How did John Gurdon prove that his idea is right?

       A. By reasoning.                                            B. By questioning.                           

C. By doing experiments                                 D. By quoting(引用) others’ research

59. When John Gurdon was informed of his winning the Nobel Prize, he felt________.

       A. excited                    B. calm                 C. relaxed                   D. doubtful

试题答案

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