Unit 3 biotechnology group

Pre-reading

Exercise 1. Look through the text and try to get the gist.

Exercise 2. Before reading the text memorize words and word combinations.

hybridoma – гибрид

monoclonol – моноклональний

malignant – злий, злоякісний

transduction – трансдукція

serine – серин

threonine – треонін

kinase – кіназа

bio-assay – біо-проба

chain – ланцюг

urogenital – сечостатевий

tumour – пухлина

purulent-inflammatory – запальний

diminish – зменшувати

expenditure – витрата

surgery – хірургія

conifer needles – глиця (голки хвойного дерева)

bred – відгодований

drought – посуха

lodging – оселя (житло)

shattering – зруйнований

assessment – оцінка

A-GROUP

Exercise 3. Give derivatives of the following verbs. Translate them.

To organize, to develop, to act, to aim, to assess, to react, to relate, to detect, to prepare, to treat, to refuse, to collect, to success, to cultivate, to know, to use, to apply, to conduct, to determine, to radiate, to add.

Exercise 4. Read and translate the text.

Biotechnology group

The Ukrainian Biotechnology Group was organized in January 1998 on the basis of scientific group that in 1983 first started hybridoma technology in Ukraine. From that time members of the group developed more than 70 monoclonal antibodies against cell surface and intracellular human antigens. This group was an active participant in 5^th, 6th and 7th International Workshops on Human Leucocyte Differentiation Antigens.

Main scientific interests are: Expression, structure and function of cell surface antigen CD150 in normal and malignant human cells; Signal transduction via CD150 and the role of adaptor protein in switching of signalling pathways; The role of protein serine/threonine kinase in signal transduction via antigen receptors. The Biotechnology Group was involved in different international collaborative projects.

Works in biotechnology are aimed at obtaining new effective forms of plants and unique genotypes of animals, at creating biologically active substances for agriculture and veterinary, and bio-assay systems for assessment of the environment state; the medical purposes are gene diagnostics, gene therapy and diagnostic kit production. Based on the method of polymerase chain reaction, diagnostics kits for detecting pathogens of tuberculosis and some complex urogenital diseases, as well as the virus of papilloma related to high risk of tumour formation, have been created in the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry. The kits allow for detection of 20 to 40 copies of viral genomes.

Immozymasa is an efficient preparation for treating purulent-inflammatory diseases in people and animals. It enables shortening of the terms of treatment by a factor of 1.5-2 as compared to traditional methods. The production technology is adjusted to the domestic raw materials and equipment.

New medicinal forms of Feracryl, a new synthetic haemostatic preparation, have been created in the Institute of Chemistry. The use of Feracryl will diminish the expenditure of donor blood in surgery. Refusal from traditional blood-extracted haemostatics will completely rule out infecting with hepatitis, AIDS, etc.

SILK is a new ecologically safe economical biopesticide of comprehensive action, absolutely safe for people and animals, produced from conifer needles getting into forest exploitation wastes. It stimulates growth and fertility of plants (12-35% increase) and protects them from infections.

Breeding of new cultivars of winter wheat has been run for many years by biologists. The new cultivars excel the best samples of the world wheat collection in winter hardiness. They passed State Strain Testing and have been successfully introduced. Cultivar was bred at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics and accepted as a new winter hardiness standard, resistant against drought, lodging and shattering. The cultivar of a new winter variety of wheat is remarkable for high frost resistance and productivity (up to 3.5-4.0 tonnes per hectare), and as been recommended for State Strain Testing.

New cultivars-populations of corn have been created in the Institute of Cytology and Genetics. Their productivity is not less than that of heavy-producing hybrid cultivars. They also have easy and profitable seed performance; their seeds are cheap (they are 15 times cheaper than those of hybrid "Scandia" from the USA).

A new tomato variety to be grown in open ground and polythene greenhouses is selected at the Central Botanical Garden. Its fruits weighting up to 230 g are of good palatability and show good resistance to pests.

B-GROUP

Exercise 5. Give antonyms to the following words.

1. modern _________________________________________________

2. useful __________________________________________________

3. activity _________________________________________________

4. presence ________________________________________________

5. wide range ______________________________________________

6. possible ________________________________________________

7. advantage _______________________________________________

8. to create ________________________________________________

9. brightness ______________________________________________

10. monochromatic __________________________________________

11. effective ________________________________________________

C-GROUP

Exercise 6. Make the following sentences interrogative and negative. Put as many as possible special questions to them.

1. Such process proceeds until several animal families remain in one or few local places.

2. Seldom paleontologists find samples of fauna or flora which are transitional between known species.

3. In the current abstract the author suggests an alternative hypothesis of changing of species.

4. Such process proceeds until several animal families remain in one or few local places.

5. These forms will increase the population of new species as well as the habitat of population.

6. In this case the stability of the population is guaranteed by its size.

Exercise 7. Find in the text above the sentences in Perfect Passive and put as many as possible special questions to them.

Exercise 8. Find in the text above the sentence in Passive Voice and transform it into Active Voice. Put five types of questions to each sentence.

D-GROUP

Exercise 9. Answer the following questions.

1. What was organized in 1998?

2. What was developed by Ukrainian biotechnologists?

3. What are the main scientific interests of the Biotechnology group?

4. What are works in biotechnology aimed at?

5. Where have diagnostics kits been created?

6. What is immozymasa?

7. What materials is the production technology adjusted to?

8. Where is Feracryl used?

9. What is a role of SILK?

10. Where was cultivar bred?

11. What advantages does new cultivars-population of corn have?

Exercise 10. Say whether the following statements are used correctly (true) or incorrectly (false). Correct the false sentences. Use phrases given below.

That`s right I can`t agree with it.

Exactly That`s wrong

Quite so I don`t think so.

These tiny things never grow. – That`s wrong, they eat and grow, travel and multiply.

1. The Biotechnology Group was organized in January 1998 on the basis of scientific group that in 1980 first started hybridoma technology in Ukraine.

2. The Biotechnology Group was involved in different international collaborative projects.

3. Works in biotechnology are not aimed at obtaining new effective forms of plants and unique genotypes of animals.

4. Immozymasa is an efficient preparation for treating purulent-inflammatory diseases in people and animals.

5. The production technology is used for the domestic raw materials and equipment.

6. New medicinal forms of Feracryl, a new synthetic haemostatic preparation, have been created in the Institute of Biology.

7. The use of Feracryl will diminish the expenditure of donor blood in surgery.

8. SILK stimulates growth and fertility of animals and protects them from infections.

9. Breeding of new cultivars of summer wheat has been run for many years by biologists.

10. New cultivars-populations of corn have been created in the Institute of Cytology and Genetics.

Exercise 11. Read and translate the article.