英語課文翻譯對於學生倆說，要求比較高，難度比較大。以下是小編整理的選修8英語u2課文翻譯，歡迎閱讀。
一、Reading
CLONING: WHERE IS IT LEADING US?
Cloning has always been with us and is here to stay. It is a way of making an exact copy of another animal or plant. It happens in plants when gardeners take cuttings from growing plants to make new ones. It also happens in animals when twins identical in sex and appearance are produced from the same original egg. The fact is that these are both examples of natural clones.
Cloning has two major uses. Firstly, gardeners use it all the time to produce commercial quantities of plants. Secondly, it is valuable for research on new plant species and for medical research on animals. Cloning plants is straightforward while cloning animals is very complicated. It is a difficult task to undertake. Many attempts to clone mammals failed. But at last the determination and patience of the scientists paid off in 1996 with a breakthrough - the cloning of Dolly the sheep. The procedure works like this:
On the one hand, the whole scientific world followed the progress of the first successful clone, Dolly the sheep. The fact that she seemed to develop normally was very encouraging. Then came the disturbing news that Dolly had become seriously ill. Cloning scientists were cast down to find that Dolly's illnesses were more appropriate to a much older animal. Altogether Dolly lived six and a half years, half the length of the life of the original sheep. Sadly the same arbitrary fate affected other species, such as cloned mice. The questions that concerned all scientists were: his be a major difficulty for all cloned animals? Would it happen forever? Could it be solved if corrections were made in their research procedure?
On the other hand, Dolly's appearance raised a storm of objections and had a great impact on the media and public imagination. It became controversial. It suddenly opened everybody's eyes to the possibility of using cloning to cure serious illnesses and even to produce human beings.
Although at present human egg cells and embryos needed for cloning research are difficult to obtain, newspapers wrote of evil leaders hoping to clone themselves to attain their ambitions. Religious leaders also raised moral questions. Governments became nervous and more conservative. Some began to reform their legal systems and forbade research into human cloning, but other countries like China and the UK, continued to accumulate evidence of the abundant medical aid that cloning could provide. However, scientists still wonder whether cloning will help or harm us and where it is leading us.
【翻譯】
克隆：它將把我們引向何方？
克隆一直與我們同在，而如今它還要持續下去。這是一種用來生產與原型完全相同的動植物的方法。當園藝師從生長着的植物上剪下枝條來培植新植物時，就會產生這種現象。這種現象也發生在動物身上，從同一個原生卵子產生性別和相貌相同的雙胞胎也是克隆。實際上，這些都是自然克隆現象。
克隆技術有兩大用途。第一，園藝師一直用它生產大量的供商用的植物；第二，它在對新植物物種的研究以及對動物的醫學研究方面都是很有價值的。克隆植物簡單，但克隆動物就比較複雜了，是一項很難完成的任務。克隆哺乳動物的多次嘗試都失敗了。但是，科學家的決心和耐心最終得到了回報，這就是1996年具有突破性的克隆羊―多莉‖的誕生。它的程序如下圖所示：
1．母羊(A)提供一個卵細胞。
2．在卵細胞中取出細胞核。
3．卵細胞準備接受新的細胞核。
4．母羊(B)提供一個供克隆的軀幹細胞。該細胞核應包含生產一頭新羊所需要的全部基因。
5．取出該細胞的細胞核。
6．用電把母羊(B)的'軀幹細胞核和母羊(A)的卵細胞結合起來。
7．細胞分裂並生長成胚胎。
8．把胚胎植入另外一頭母羊(C)體內，母羊(C)就是克隆羊的代*者。
9．這頭小羔羊就是母羊(B)所提，供的細胞核克隆而成的。 一方面，整個科學界都在關注着首例成功的克隆動物多莉羊的成長¨多莉看來是在正常地成長着，這很令人鼓舞。接着傳來了多莉病重的壞消息。研究克隆的科學家發現多莉得的病更容易發生在年老的羊身上．這讓他們很沮喪。多莉總共只存活了六年半，這是它的原型羊壽命的一半。可悲的是，同樣無法控制的命運也在影響着其他物種，如克隆鼠。科學家的腦海裏產生的問題是：―這是不是所有克隆動物的一個主要困難呢？這種現象會不會永遠發生？如果改進程序，問題會不會解決？
另一方面，多莉的出生引起了一陣強烈的反對，對，對媒體和公衆的想象力也產生了巨大的影響。它引起了爭議，因爲它突然打開了人們的眼界，看到了有可能：用克隆技術來治療重病，甚至克隆出人類。
儘管目前供克隆研究的人體卵細胞和胚胎還很難得到，但報紙報道說，有些邪惡頭目希望把自己克隆出來以實現他的野心。宗教領袖也提出了道德方面的問題。各國政府惶恐不安而且更加謹慎，有些政府開始改革司法制度，明令禁止進行克隆人類的研究。但是其他國家如中國和英國，則還在繼續收集克隆技術有可能提供豐富有的醫療救助的證據。然而，科學察們仍對克隆技術有助於人類還是有害於人類，以及克隆技術將把我們引向何處困惑。
二、Using Language
THE RETURN OF THE DINOSAURS?
The possibility of cloning fierce and extinct wild animals has always excited film makers. And they are not the only ones! The popularity of films such as Jurassic Park, in which a scientist clones several kinds of extinct dinosaurs, proves how the idea struck a mixture of fear and excitement into people's hearts. But in fact we are a long way from being able to clone extinct animals. Scientists are still experimenting with cloning mammals. This is because the cloning of mammals is still a new science and its story only began seriously in the 1950s as this list shows: 1950s cloning of frogs 1996 first clone of a mammal: Dolly the sheep 1970s research using the embryos of mice 2000 cow gave birth to a bison 1979 work on embryos of sheep and mice 2001 China's first cloned twin calves 1981 first experimental clones of mice 2002 first cloned cats 1983 first experimental clones of cows 2005 first cloned dog …
From time to time people suggest that extinct animals like dinosaurs, can possibly be brought back to life through cloning. Unfortunately, with what we know now, this is either impossible or unsuitable. There are many reasons. ◎ The initial requirement is that you need perfect DNA (which gives information for how cellsare to grow).
◎ All efforts of cloning an animal will be in vain if there is not enough diversity in the group to overcome illnesses. Diversity in a group meanshaving animals with their genes arranged in different ways. The advantage is that if there is a new illness some of these animals may die,but others will survive and pass on the ability to resist that disease to the next generation. The great drawback to cloning a group ofanimals is that they would all have the same arrangement of genes and so might die of the same illness. Then none of them would be left tocontinue the species.
◎ It would be unfair to clone any extinct animals if they were to live in a zoo. A suitable habitat would be needed for them to lead a natural life.
Based on what we know now, you cannot clone animals that have been extinct longer than 10,000 years. Actually, dinosaurs disappeared 65,000,000 years ago. So the chance of dinosaurs ever returning to the earth is merely a dream.
【翻譯】
恐龍的迴歸？
克隆兇猛和滅絕的野生動物的可能性一直使電影製片商感到興奮。然而他們並不是唯一對此感到興奮的人。在《侏羅紀公園》這部影片中，有一位科學家克隆了好幾種不同的絕種恐龍。類似這樣的電影很受歡迎，證明了這一想法使人們感到既興奮又恐懼。但事實上，想要克隆絕種動物，我們還要很長的路程要走。科學家們現在還在進行克隆哺乳動物實驗，這是因爲克隆哺乳動物仍然還是一門新的科學，它是從20世紀50年代纔開始進行認真研究的，如下表所示：
20世紀50年代:克隆青蛙 1996年:首次克隆哺乳動物（多利羊） 20世紀70年代:用老鼠胚胎進行研究 2000年:母牛生野牛
1979年:對羊和老鼠的胚胎進行研究 2001年:中國首次克隆出雙胞胎小牛 1981年:首次對老鼠進行試驗性研究 2002年:首次克隆貓 1983年:首次對母牛進行試驗性研究 2005年:首次克隆狗
不時地會有人提議，克隆技術將有可能使地球上已經消失的動物（如恐龍）復活。不幸的是，據我們現在所知這是不可能的，也是不合適的。其原因有很多：
◎ 首先要求你有完好的，以提供有關細胞將如何生長的信息。
◎ 如果某個動物羣體沒有足夠的多樣性以戰勝疾病，那麼克隆這種動物的所有努力都將是無用的。羣體的多樣性是指這羣動物的基因要以不同的方式排列。其優點是，如果發生了某種新的疾病，這類動物中的一些可能會死去，而另外一些卻能存活下來，並且把這種免疫力傳給下一代。經過克隆的動物羣體的最大缺點是：它們的基因排列有可能完全相同，因而它們有可能會死於同一種疾病，這樣它們也可能一個也留不下來傳種接代了。
◎你如果克隆出任何絕種動物，而它們必須生活在動物園裏那是不公平的。它們需要適當的棲息地過正常的野生生活。
就我們現在所知，你不可能克隆那些已經絕種了一萬年以上的動物。事實上恐龍在6，500萬年以前就已經消失了，所以說恐龍迴歸地球的可能性僅僅是個夢想罷了！
