A DNA Test That Tells You How Long You Will Live
Before You Read
If you could know when you would die, would you want to know?
How much money would you pay to discover this information?
Have you heard about this DNA test?
Forever people have wanted to know their future. Now with a DNA test in Britain it seems that information on how long you can expect to live will be available in the near future. Basically, with a blood test that costs about 770,000 won, this new technology opens the way for predicting your biological age based on the length of structures on the ends of our chromosomes (염색체) called telomeres. However, some researchers say this opens a Pandora’s box of ethical problems and questions. To begin with can you imagine if employers, schools, or parents change their mind about how much to invest in you depending upon how long you will live.
Perhaps you’ve seen the movie, The Island. This movie paints a scary picture of what could happen if our societies become unethical and we end up creating a trade in humans and human parts. Even if you think this picture is unlikely, then how about insurance companies deciding if you and I are insurable or not, or a potential husband or wife asking you for a DNA lifespan test before deciding if you are the ideal person or not.
Guessing Meaning From Context
Now, match the letters of the phrasal verbs/words with the closest numbered meaning in the right column. The answers are at the bottom.
|
it seems |
A |
1 |
How old someone is because of physical test results rather than years |
|
opens the way |
B |
2 |
Something is lawful or legal, but not a good thing to do. |
|
biological age |
C |
3 |
How something appears or looks from the information you read, hear, or see. |
|
opens a Pandora’s box |
D |
4 |
Make a different or new decision. |
|
ethical |
E |
5 |
finally |
|
change their mind |
F |
6 |
A business based on selling something |
|
paints a scary picture |
G |
7 |
Makes it possible for something to happen. |
|
end up |
H |
8 |
How long something will live. In business this is how long a product can sell and be successful. |
|
a trade in |
I |
9 |
We can imagine some terrible or frightening situation. |
|
lifespan |
J |
10 |
A discovery of something not good, but there are many more bad things that follow that first bad discovery. |
A=3, B=7, C=1, D=10, E=2, F=4, G=9, H=5, I=6, J=8
Some Questions to help you use the new words/phrases
1. Does it seem right to you that the seuneung (university entrance examination) should decide your future?
2. Do you agree that Free Trade Agreements open the way for more business opportunities? Why or why not?
3. Describe someone whose biological age seems much younger than their physical age.
4. Describe how recent events/news in Middle Eastern countries has opened a pandora’s box for leaders in that part of the world.
5. Can you describe something that is legal, but unethical?
6. If you made someone angry, for example a girlfriend, then how could you change their mind?
7. Do you think that the media paints an accurate picture of life in North Korea? Why or why not?
8. How would you like to end up in your career?
9. If you owned a trading business then what would you like to trade in?
10. What do you think is the expected lifespan of a laptop or notebook computer?
Some example sentences using the new words/phrases
1. It seems that every time I don’t take an umbrella to work it rains.
2. Because Samsung built quality electronics, they opened the way for many more Korean companies.
3. She is 50, but her biological age is probably more like 35, she is so fit.
4. I forgot my wife’s birthday and this opened a pandora’s box of so many other things that she was angry towards me for.
5. Although it is legal for airlines to hide all the real costs in an air ticket, many people think it is not ethical.
6. I used to think that all foreign English speakers didn’t eat spicy food, but I changed my mind after I went to the U.S.A. and saw so many people eating it.
7. Scientists paint a scary picture of what will happen if we don’t control carbon emissions (C02).
8. Last weekend I went out with my friends and we ended up in Gangnam at 3am.
9. The police are trying to control and stop the illegal trade in drugs.
10. Turtles have a very long lifespan of more than 300 years.
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