The idea of cloning your pet sounds like a laughable waste of money, because it is. But it starts to seem a little less laughable when your own beloved pet starts getting older. If I had had a few hundred thousand dollars to spare, I know I would have halfseriously considered it for my dear little cat, who died last year. One couple that does happen to have a few hundred thousand dollars to spare is Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, who have reportedly cloned their beloved Jack Russell Terrier (a kind of dog), Shannon, and now have two identical Jack Russell Terriers, named Deena and Evita.
When your pet dies, you just want your pet back, or at least as close a copy as you can get. So it's really no surprise that of the around 600 dogs cloned by Sooam Biotech Research Foundation most were cloned for sad pet owners. The lab in Seoul, South Korea, is now the only place on the planet in the business of cloning pet dogs for owners.
But, in fact, the technology won't give you your pet back. There don't yet appear to be any studies on the behavior of cloned pets, but research on cloned cows and pigs has so far shown marked differences in behavior and even looks in cloned animals. The DNA is exactly the same, but there are still differences in personality and appearance.
Even if Diller and von Furstenburg raise their new dogs in the exact same environment in the exact same way that they raised Shannon, the new dogs will still behave differently. “The promise of pet cloning is that your cloned pet is going to behave and look like the one you already have — and that will not be the case (情况)，” said Professor Jorge Piedrahita at N．C. State. “We've cloned animals that were raised in the same environment, but they still didn't act the same.”
语篇解读：尽管宠物克隆技术已经比较成熟，但克隆出来的宠物并不会与原来的宠物一模一样。
1．What can we learn about the lab in Seoul?
A．It was set up by some pet owners.
B．It has cloned hundreds of pet dogs.
C．It charges nothing for its services.
D．It has cloned a cat for the author.
解析：选B 细节理解题。由第二段中的“So it's really no surprise that of the around 600 dogs cloned by Sooam Biotech Research Foundation most were cloned for sad pet owners”可知，这家实验室已经克隆了几百只宠物狗。
2．Why does the author mention the studies on cloned cows and pigs?
A．To explain why farm animals are cloned.
B．To discuss why pet cloning is so popular.
C．To show cloned animals are very different from each other.
D．To prove cloning is not a good way to bring pets from the dead.
解析：选D 推理判断题。由第三段中的“but research on cloned cows and pigs ...but there are still differences in personality and appearance”可知，作者提到关于克隆牛和猪的研究是为了说明克隆出来的宠物会与原来那个宠物不一样，因此克隆并不是一个挽回自己原有宠物的好方法。
3．What will the couple be likely to find out about their new dogs?
A．They'll grow in a very strange way.
B．They'll dislike their new environment.
C．They'll act differently from Shannon.
D．They'll have the same personality as Shannon.
解析：选C 细节理解题。由最后一段中的“the new dogs will still behave differently”可知，这对夫妇会发现他们的克隆狗与原来的Shannon在行为举止上并不相同。
4．What was Piedrahita's attitude towards the lab's promise of pet cloning?
A．He disbelieved it.
B．He was worried about it.
C．He was cautious about it.
D．He showed much interest in it.
解析：选A 推理判断题。由最后一段中的“that will not be the case”可知，Piedrahita并不相信这样的承诺。
