考研英语套题.docVIP

第二十五套题 Part A Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points) Text 1 07.8 When Thomas Butler stepped off a plane in April 2002 on his return to the United States from a trip to Tanzania, he set in motion a chain of events that now threatens to destroy his life. A microbiologist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Butler was bringing back samples of the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis for his research. Yet on re-entering the country, he is alleged to have passed right by US customs inspectors without notifying them that he was carrying this potentially deadly cargo. That move and its consequences have led the federal government to prosecute Butler for a range of offences. If convicted on all counts, he could be fined millions of dollars and spend the rest of his life in jail. The US scientific community has leapt to butler’s defence, arguing that his prosecution is overzealous, alarming and unnecessary. The presidents of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine have written to Attorney General John Ashcroft, claiming that the case could endanger research into countering the threat of bioterrorism. And the academy’s human-rights committee has asked its members to write letters on Butler’s behalf and to donate funds for his defence. Those who defend Butler argue that the rules governing the import of pathogens are so restrictive that bending them is the only option for researchers who are working to provide protection from deadly diseases that afflict the developing world. Why, they ask, prosecute Butler for infractions of rules that made his work more difficult without serving a useful purpose? The supporters consider that the charge laid against Butler merely reflects the determination of federal prosecutors to throw the book at Butler to make an example of him to others. Many researchers now fear falling victim to an overzealous prosecut