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  3. Handle With Care When Thomas Butler stepped off a

Handle With Care When Thomas Butler stepped off a

游客2023-12-11  16
问题                            Handle With Care
    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 reentering 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 defense.
    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 affect the developing world. Why, they ask, prosecute Butler for breaking the 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 prosecution if they fail to dot all the i’s and cross all the i’s on their paperwork. Some US microbiologists are so frightened of being hauled off in handcuffs for a minor administrative error that they have decided to avoid biodefense research entirely—despite the current funding boom in the field.
    Whether Butler is a villain or a scapegoat is now for a jury to decide. But whatever verdict is eventually reached, scientists who are lobbying on Butler’s behalf would do well to consider public perceptions. If the rules governing the import of pathogenic bacteria make no sense, then microbiologists must make that case clearly, and lobby for the regulations to be changed. Researchers are also justified in making statements to help ensure that any punishment that Butler might receive is proportionate.
    But researchers risk a damaging public protest if the main message that emerges is that his peers think he was justified in carrying samples of the plague bacterium onto a commercial flight. Appearing to deny the importance of rules designed to protect the public from deadly pathogens—however unwieldy those rules may be in practice— will not generate trust. It will not foster a culture of responsibility. And it would show disregard for the public’s faith that scientific research will be conducted as safely and as competently as possible. [br] According to Butler’s defenders, the prosecution of Butler will______.
选项 A、discourage the biological research
B、loosen the import controls of pathogens
C、punish one to warn a hundred
D、cause new panic in the United States
答案 A
解析 本题考查推理引申。关于支持者的观点，在第二、三和四段中都有所涉及。第四段第二、三句表明，许多研究人员因巴特勒被起诉而担心犯一点儿小错误也会受到法律制裁，一些微生物学家甚至停止生物研究活动。由此可推出，对巴特勒的起诉会阻碍科学研究的发展。pathogens一词出现在第三段第一句中。原文指出，支持者认为，有关携带病原体入境的规定限制过分严格，因此有关研究人员为了做有益于发展中国家人民的研究工作只能违反有关规定(bending them)。但原文并没有提及对巴特勒的指控会导致放松对携带病原体入境的限制，所以排除[B]。第四段首句提到，支持者认为，对巴特勒的指控反映了联邦起诉人的决心，即用最严厉的惩罚对待巴特勒从而达到“杀一儆百”(make an example of him to others)的目的。因此[C]项只是联邦起诉人的目的，而不一定是事实上能够实现的。原文没有出现有关“美国新的恐慌”的信息，所以排除[D]。
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