Shock of the new - GM Mosquitoes

Level 3 Advanced
1

Pre-reading 1: Introduction

You are going to read an article about Genetic Modification. In Britain, recently, there has been a lot of
discussion about GM crops. These are plants grown for food, which scientists have changed so that they
are more productive, or can resist diseases or insects that destroy them. Before you read the article, think
about these questions.
1. In your country, is there a debate about GM crops?

2. What are the arguments in favour?

3. What are the arguments against?

4. Have you also heard of genetically modified animals or insects?

5. What reasons could scientists have for genetically modifying them?

6. What could be the dangers of interfering with natural processes in this way?
7. In what other ways can humans interfere with the balance of nature?

Now read the article quickly, to see if it mentions any of your ideas.

2 Pre-reading 2: Key words

Match these keywords from the text with the definitions below.
wary

parasite
thrives

gene
side-effects
immune defence
fauna

predators
prey
mutation

1. A system in the body that helps you to resist disease. _____________

2. The unpleasant additional results of taking a particular medicine. _____________
3. The animal life of a particular region. _____________
4. A plant or animal that lives on or in another, usually larger one, and feeds on it. _____________
5. Grows very well. _____________
6. A smaller animal that is used as food by a larger one. _____________
7. A change in the basic structure of a plant or animal. _____________
8. Very careful about possible dangers. _____________
9. Larger animals that attack and kill other animals for food. _____________
10. The basic unit of life that transmits characteristics from parent to child. _____________

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Now scan the text quickly to see if your matches make sense.

Shock of the new - GM Mosquitoes

Level 3 Advanced
Scientists hope to release GM mosquitoes
into the wild in an attempt to wipe out malaria.
They should be extremely wary, says James
Randerson introducing new species has often
proved disastrous.
March 21, 2007
1 It is a daring scientific project that could offer
hope to 300 million malaria sufferers worldwide.
The plan is to genetically alter the mosquitoes in
countries with malaria, so that the insects can no
longer carry the malaria parasite and so cant
transfer it to people. Without its taxi service, the
disease would rapidly die out.
2 Although the release of genetically modified
insects is not a new idea, it was given fresh
importance this week by new work from a team
at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. The
scientists there cannot yet prove what would
actually happen if GM mosquitoes were released
into the wild. However, their lab studies suggest
that insects carrying a gene that resists malaria
would not simply die out as soon as they
encountered normal mosquitoes and might
even start to take over.

cannot defend themselves against their hunting

strategies. New species can also affect local
plants and animals by bringing in diseases they
have not met before.
6 This is a particular problem for islands and
the southern hemisphere, says Andre Farrar,
a spokesman for the Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds. In the past, small oceanic
islands in the southern hemisphere tended not
to have any land-based predators because
mammals simply couldnt get there. This meant
that many bird species nested on the ground.
So when European explorers introduced rats,
dogs, pigs and cats to the islands, the birds eggs
were easy pickings. When the brown tree snake
(native to Australia) was accidentally introduced
to Guam in the western Pacific in the 1950s, for
example, it devastated local bird populations.
7 The cooking pots of Portuguese sailors are often
blamed for the extinction of the dodo. But it was
probably the animals they brought with them to
Mauritius that really finished them off.

4 However, the long list of ecological disasters that

have followed both deliberate and accidental
releases of non-native species into new
environments will make scientists and nonscientists extremely wary.

8 There are many examples of disasters. In

Australia, rabbits were introduced and quickly
ran out of control, destroying native species.
Despite huge efforts to get rid of them, they are
still a major pest. The coypu, a large rodent,
was introduced from South America into parts
of North America and now cause damage to the
environment in wetlands there. The aggressive
African honeybee was introduced to Brazil in the
1950s and spread, displacing and interbreeding
with European honeybees that came to South
America with the first Europeans. It is much more
aggressive than native species, attacking people
and animals. Meanwhile, water hyacinth was
introduced to Africa and elsewhere from South
America in the 19th century. It now clogs up
waterways, making them impassable.

5 If new species get out of their ecosystem and

are not kept under control by other processes,
they start to cause trouble, says Deborah Long
at Plantlife Scotland. New species may have no
natural predators, or may encounter prey that

9 Even in this country, foreign invaders are a huge

problem for conservationists. The worst one is
Japanese knotweed, which thrives in gardens.
Japanese knotweed causes massive problems
for home owners, says Dr Long. The weed can

3 Many human lives might be saved. But what

consequences would result from releasing
millions of GM-insects into the wild? Would the
gene they carry have unintended side-effects
when the mosquito is in its natural habitat? Could
the gene jump into other species? Because large
scale releases of GM animals have never been
carried out, these questions are hard to answer.

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Shock of the new

Shock of the new - GM Mosquitoes

Level 3 Advanced
grow through walls and concrete, as well as
taking over gardens. It causes massive social
and economic problems as well as conservation
problems.
10 Another problem plant is rhododendron
ponticum, which is taking over the so-called
Celtic rainforest woodlands of the west coast of
Scotland and Wales. These fairytale woodlands
are internationally important because of the
special plants there, says Long. But to thrive, the
plants require precise amounts of light and water,
which are provided by the humid atmosphere of
the forest. The invading rhododendrons, which
were introduced by Victorian gardeners, shade
out the native plants.
11 The destructive cane toad of Australia is also the
result of a failed attempt at biological control. The
toad was brought in to control sugar-cane pests
in 1935. But it soon began preying on and
out-competing native species. It now occupies
much of the north east of Australia. Getting rid of
the invasive species, as Australias rabbits and
cane toads have shown, often proves much more
difficult than introducing it. Despite continuing
efforts to control the cane toads, their seemingly
unstoppable march continues.
12 Perhaps the worst example of a disastrous
introduction is that of the snails of French
Polynesia. In 1975, the wolf snail was
deliberately introduced to stop the spread of the
previously introduced giant African land snail. But
the predatory wolf mostly ignored its intended
prey and instead developed a taste for the

smaller native partula snails. Since then, 72% of

the partula species have become extinct and only
five remain.
13 But there have been successes in eradication,
especially on the islands where introduced
species can cause most damage. It is
expensive, it is time-consuming but is potentially
very effective, says Farrar. The ground-nesting
kakapo parrot from New Zealand, for example,
has been given new life by transferring it to
islands without rats and ferrets.
14 So what are the lessons here for introducing
GM-mosquitoes? It can be argued that putting
a new mosquito with an extra gene into a place
where there are lots of mosquitoes already is not
as bad as introducing an entirely new species
with hunting strategies, immune defences and
diseases that are entirely new to the local fauna.
That change may not be very different from
something that has happened countless times
in evolution a random mutation to a gene that
gives the mosquito resistance to a parasite.
Finally, though, it will probably be what people
think is a risk rather than the actual risks that
matters. GM-crops had no chance in Europe
because of what-if? fears: in the end, scientists
opinions had no influence. If public opinion in
African countries is strongly against the GMmosquito, or if people feel that a technology
rejected by Europe is being forced onto them, it
will never happen.
Guardian News & Media 2007
First published in The Guardian, 21/3/07

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Did the article mention any of your ideas?

Shock of the new - GM Mosquitoes

Level 3 Advanced
3 General understanding
Now read the text again, more carefully. Match the beginnings of these sentences about the text with
their endings.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

The structure of the mosquitoes will be changed

a
Scientists do not know if the new mosquitoes
b
Perhaps the altered gene could even
c
When other species have moved to new places
d
The balance of nature depends on each species e
Plants and animals that are brought in to help,
f
Some native species in danger from new species g
Some people think that artificial new species are h

cross over into other animals

it has often led to trouble in the past
having its own predators to keep numbers low
have been removed to new places of safety
so that they cant infect humans with malaria
no more dangerous than natural changes
will multiply so much that other species die out
often cause more problems than they solve

4 Language development 1: Word formation

Complete the table below. All the missing forms are in the text.

noun

release

adjective

adverb

disastrously

adapt

adaptive

adaptively

protect

protective

protectively

accidental

extinct

introduce

invade

invasively

effect

effectively

resist

resistant

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verb

Shock of the new - GM Mosquitoes

Level 3 Advanced
5 Language development 2: Phrasal verbs
The following sentences all contain a phrasal verb taken from the text. See if you can remember what they
are, and understand the meaning from the context.
1. Scientists are hoping to w____ ____ diseases like cancer.
2. There is a danger that some species may d____ ____, and become extinct.
3. If one species gets too strong, they may t_____ _____ from another one.
4. Most experiments have to be c_______ ____ very carefully.
5. If a species g_____ ____ ____ its own environment, and enters another, it may destroy other species, or
be destroyed.
6. The tomatoes were not growing very well, and the terrible storm finally f________ them ____.
7. If a certain plant starts to grow in one part of a river, it soon c______ it ___ completely, and the water cant
flow at all.
8. When the trees grow too close together, they s______ ____ the plants growing under them, as no sun can
reach the ground.
9. The government introduced a new tax system, but as soon as it was b_______ ___ , people began to protest.
10. A lot of animals get their food by p__________ ___ smaller animals.

6 Language development 3: Logical connectors

This text contains several connectors showing contrast. See if you can remember which of the following
were used in each of the sentences below.

despite

though

however

although

1. __________ the release of genetically modified insects is not a new idea, it was given fresh importance
this week
2. __________, the long list of ecological disasters will make scientists extremely wary.
3. __________ huge efforts to get rid of them, they are still a major pest.

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4. Finally, _________, it will probably be what people think is a risk that matters.

Shock of the new - GM Mosquitoes

Level 3 Advanced
Now scan the text quickly to check. Looking back at the examples, see if you can complete the rules below.
5. __________ is used to join two sentences; it is a conjunction.
6. __________ is used before a noun, pronoun or -ing form; it is a preposition.
7. __________ does not connect two sentences. It can come at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a
sentence. It is an adverb.
8. __________ usually comes in the middle or at the end of a sentence. It is separated from the rest of the
sentence by commas. It is an adverb, and is less formal than ___________.
And now see if you can use the appropriate word in each of these sentences.
9. It was raining. ___________, we played tennis.
10. __________ the rain, we played tennis.
11. __________ it was raining, we played tennis.
12. It was raining. My brother, ________, still played tennis.

7 Discussion
1. Do you think it is a good idea to introduce these genetically modified mosquitoes? Why / why not?
2. Do you think people from more developed countries should pass on their technology to people in less

developed countries?
3. Do you see this as a right or an obligation?
4. Are any species of animal or plant in danger of becoming extinct in your country?
5. How far do you think people should be concerned about individual species dying out, when there is so much

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hunger and poverty in the world?