Контрольное задание №5

существительное

субстантивированное прилагательное

прилагательное

II форма глагола (простое прошедшее время

4,

III форма глагола (причастие II )

1,

текст

перевод

1

The term “eugenics” was coined in 1883 by Sir Francis

был предложен

2

Galton, a British scientist and cousin of Charles Darwin.

3

The word comes from Greek terms meaning “good in birth”

4

or “noble in heredity.” Galton believed that humanity could

5

be improved by selective breeding. Influenced by the

6

writings of Darwin, he reasoned that it was time for humans

7

to take control of their own evolution. During the early

8

decades of the 20th century, Galton’s i^deas became

9

extremely popular among politicians, scientists, and

10

academics, in both Europe and the United States. Reflecting

11

the popular notions of his day, the leader of a powerful

12

nation wrote: “Society has no business to permit degenerates

13

to reproduce their kind. … Any group of farmers who

14

permitted their best stock not to breed, and let all the

15

increase come from the worst stock, would be treated as fit

16

inmates for an asylum. … Some day we will realize that the

17

prime duty of the good citizen of the right type is to leave his

18

blood behind him in the world, and that we have no business

19

to perpetuate citizens of the wrong type.” Those words were

20

written by the 26^th president of the Un^ited States, Theodore

21

Roosevelt.

22

In fairs and expositions in both Britain and America, the

23

laws of genetic inheritance were depicted, often on a

24

vertical board displaying an array of stuffed guinea pigs.

25

They were arranged to show the inheritance of fur color

26

from one generation to the next generation. The point

27

of the exhibits was made clear by accompanying text. One

28

chart stated:” Unfit human traits such as feeblemindedness,

29

epilepsy, criminality, insanity, alcoholism, pauperism and

30

many others run in families and are inherited in exactly the

31

same way as color in guinea pigs.” Another exhibit placard

32

asked: ”How long are we Americans to be so careful for the

33

pedigree of our pigs and chickens and cattle – and then leave

34

the ancestry of our children to chance?”

35

These ideas were not merely intellectual exercises. Tens of

36

thousands of “undesirables” were sterilized in both North

37

America and Europe. Of course, the definition of who or

38

what was undesirable depended largely on the views of those

39

making the decisions to force sterilization. In the state of

40

Missouri, U.S.A. , for example, legislation was proposed that

41

called for the sterilization of those “convicted of murder,

42

rape, highway robbery, chicken stealing, bombing, or theft

43

of automobiles.” In its misguided effort to achieve a master

44

race in one generation, Nazi Germany went a step further.

45

After the forced sterilization of up to 225,000 people,

46

millions of others – Jews, Romanies (Gypsies), the disabled,

47

and other “undesirables” – were exterminated under the

48

guise of eugenics.

49

Because of the barbarism of the Nazi era, eugenics took on

50

an ugly connotation, and many hoped that this field of study

51

had been laid to rest, buried with the millions who died in its

52

name. In the 1970’s, however, reports circulated of

53

scientific advances in the fledgling field of molecular

54

biology. Some feared that these advances might fuel a return

55

to the ideas that had seduced Europe and North America

56

earlier in the century. For example, in 1977 a prominent

57

biologist warned his colleagues at a National Academy of

58

Science forum on recombinant DNA: “This research is going

59

to bring us one step closer to genetic engineering of people.

60

That’s where they figure out how to have us produce

61

children with ideal characteristics. … The last time the ideal

62

children had blond hair, blue eyes and Aryan genes.”

63

Many today would consider it ludicrous to compare the

64

advances in genetic engineering with Hitler’s eugenic

65

program. Seventy years ago, there were harsh demands for

66

racial purity. Today people talk about improving health and

67

the quality of life. The old eugenics was rooted in politics

68

and fueled by bigotry and hatred. The new advances in

69

genetic research are fueled by commercial interests and

70

consumer desires for better health. But while there are major

71

differences, the goal of shaping people to our own genetic

72

prejudices may sound much like the old eugenics.