1. Read the article carefully and answer these questions according to the information in the text.

1) Why do parents and children usually look so much alike but still different?

2) What is the main rule about the humane genome which makes it possible for potential parents to share their chromosomes with their offsprings?

3) How is the DNA helix formed?

4) What is the mechanism of the activation of the protein production?

5) What is the amount of “useful” genes?

6) What is the scientific usage of the male chromosome?

7) How is it possible to make the genes serve for medicine?

8) What can the prospective result be in case scientists have almost complete mastery of the genome?

9) How does the genetics-dominated world look like today?

10) Who is Sydney Brenner?

2. Read the article again and decide if the following statements are true (T), false (F) or not stated (NS). Find in the article the sentences that can prove the true statements and correct the false statements

1. There are about 3 billion genes in human genome.

2. The human genome consists of proteins and encodes various classes of organic substances.

3. There are 44 chromosomes in the cell nucleus.

4. Human DNA formulates a circular structure.

5. Nowadays it’s impossible to select the offspring sex.

6. Y-chromosome is nonfunctional.

7. Scientists can create different protein combinations so that it can make the cell change its function.

8. DNA consists of two long chains of proteins called histones.

9. Chromosomes are situated in genes.

10.Each chromosome is duplicated in the nucleus.

Language Development

1. Review the use of tenses in English and put the verb in brackets in the correct form active or passive

The work of many scientists 1)_____(pave) the way for the exploration of DNA. Way back in 1868, almost a century before the Nobel Prize 2)___( award) to Watson, Crick and Wilkins, a young Swiss physician named Friedrich Miescher,3)_____ (isolate) something no one 4)____ (see) before from the nuclei of cells. He 5)___(call) the compound "nuclein." This is today called nucleic acid, the "NA" in DNA (deoxyribo-nucleic-acid) and RNA (ribo-nucleic-acid).

Two years earlier, the Czech monk Gregor Mendel, 6)___(finish) a series of experiments with peas. His observations 7)_____ (turn) out to be closely connected to the finding of nuclein. Mendel 8)___(to be able) to show that certain traits in the peas, such as their shape or color, were inherited in different packages. These packages 9)____(to be) what we now call genes.

The remarkable scientific accomplishment that 10)____ (achieve) is to provide nearly complete DNA sequences for the 24 human chromosomes. Within a relatively short period of time, these sequences 11)_____( be ) precisely known. Eventually, the genomes of almost every living creature on Earth 12)___(be) part of the scientific data bank, the sum of which constitutes the Library of Life.