Question

    Imagine having an ear made out of an apple. It seems like a crazy idea from a horror movie. But it could happen in the near future.

Canadian biophysicist Andrew Pelling used an apple to grow a human ear. He thinks fruit and vegetables can be used to cheaply repair human body parts in the future.

Scientists have been trying to grow organs(器官) in labs to replace our old ones. But it is a hard job. For example, liver cells(肝细胞) can grow in a lab, but the cells still need things like blood vessels(血管)to actually work. These things have to grow inside a scaffold (支架).

In the past, scientists have used man-made materials, animal parts and even dead people as scaffolds. But that has proved to be difficult and expensive.

Pelling and his team, however, found the apple to be a cheap and easy-to-use scaffold.

They first cut an apple into the shape of an ear. Then they used a special way to take out the apple's cells and make it a scaffold. The team then added human cells to the apple, and watched it grow.

“You can implant these scaffolds into the body, and the body will send in cells and a blood supply and actually keep these things alive.” Pelling said during a Ted Talk speech.

The team put the apple scaffold inside a living mouse and the mouse's cells slowly took over the pieces of apple.

Now Pelling is thinking of other fruit, plants or vegetables to use.

He says that the lower petals could be perfect for repairing skin. And asparagus(芦笋) could fix a broken spine(脊柱).

Now, Pelling and his team are trying hard to put these crazy ideas into reality.

1.Pelling’s idea of man-made ear seems crazy because he used _______ as scaffolds.

A.animal parts B.dead people C.man-made materials D.ordinary apples

2.The underlined word “implant” in Paragraph 7 probably means _______.

A.pick B.put C.produce D.protect

3.From the last three paragraphs, we can infer that Pelling will experiment with other fruit, plants or vegetables _______.

A.to make human ears B.to repair burnt skin

C.to fix a broken spine D.to make human body parts

Answer

1.D

2.B

3.D

【解析】

本文讲述了加拿大生物物理学家安德鲁·佩林用苹果来培育人类耳朵。这是一项艰难的工作。过去，科学家们使用人造材料、动物器官甚至死人作为支架。事实证明，这既困难又昂贵。佩林和他的团队发现，苹果是一种廉价容易于使用的支架。他们把苹果切成耳朵的形状。然后用一种特殊的方法把苹果细胞取出来做成支架。然后，将人类细胞添加到苹果中，并观察其生长。把这些支架植入人体，人体会输送细胞和血液，让这些东西活下来。研究小组将苹果支架植入一只活老鼠体内，老鼠的细胞慢慢地占据了苹果碎片。现在佩林正在考虑用其他的水果、植物或蔬菜，现在，佩林和他的团队正努力将这些疯狂的想法变成现实。

1.细节理解题。根据“Canadian biophysicist Andrew Pelling used an apple to grow a human ear. He thinks fruit and vegetables can be used to cheaply repair human body parts in the future.”可知是使用普通的苹果作为支架，故选D。

2.词义猜测题。pick挑选；put放置；produce生产；protect保护；根据“You can implant these scaffolds into the body, and the body will send in cells and a blood supply and actually keep these things alive.”可知此处是把支架放进身体里，所以此处是“放入”，故选B。

3.推理判断题。根据“He says that the lower petals could be perfect for repairing skin. And asparagus(芦笋) could fix a broken spine(脊柱).”可知是身体的相关器官，所以用水果等制造人体器官，故选D。