Recent advances in science and technology have made it
possible for geneticists to find out abnormalities in the unborn foetus and
take remedial action to rectify some defects which would otherwise prove to be
fatal to the child. Though genetic engineering is still at tis infancy,
scientists can now predict with greater accuracy, a genetic disorder. It is not
yet an exact science since they are not in a position to predict when exactly a
genetic disorder will set in. While they have not yet been able to change the
genetic order of the gene in germs, they are optimistic and are holding about
that in the near future they might be successful in achieving this feat. They
have, however, acquired the ability to manipulate tissue cells. However,
genetic mis-information can sometimes be damaging for it may adversely affect
people psychologically. Genetic information may lead to a tendency to brand
some people as inferiors. Genetic information can therefore be abused and its
application in deciding the sex of the foetus and its subsequent abortion is
now hotly debated on ethical lines. But on this issue geneticists cannot be
squarely blamed though this charge has often been leveled at them. It is mainly
a societal problem. At present genetic engineering is a costly process of
detecting disorders but scientists hope to reduce the costs when technology
becomes more advanced. This why much progress in this area has been possible in
scientifically advanced and rich countries like the U.S.A., U.K., and Japan. It
remains to be seen if in the future this science will lead to the development
of a race of supermen or will be able to obliterate illness from this world.
Q: Which of the following is the same in meaning as he phrase "holding out" as used in the passage?
Anthropologists who study orangutans, distant cousins of the
human race, find in the animals behavior hints of how our earliest ancestors
may have lived. It has long been accepted that primates originally dwelt in the
treetops and only migrated to the ground as forests began to dwindle. While to
a certain extent, all primates except humans spend at least some time dwelling
in trees, the orangutans, can grow as heavy as 330 pounds and live for decades,
requiring copious amounts of fruits simply to stay alive. Thus, they become
very jealous of the territory where they find their food. Compounding his
territoriality are the breeding habits of orangulants, since females can only
breed every few years and, like humans, give birth not to litters but single
off-spring.
Consequently, orangutans are solitary, territorial animals
who have difficulty foraging in an part of the forest where they were not raised.
Orangutans take from poachers by costums agents undergo incredible hardship on
their return to the wild. Incorrectly relocating a male orangutan is especially
problematic, often ending in the animal’s death at the hands of a rival who
sees not only his territory but also the females of his loosely knit community
under threat from an outsider. While humans, like chimpanzees, are more
gregarious and resourceful then orangutans, the latter provide anthropologists
with useful information about the behavior of prehominid primates and how
apelike behavior influenced out ancestors search for the food and family
beneath the forest canopy.
The author of the passage discusses orangutans taken from poachers in order to
