Page 107 - Full Solutions 2nd Advanced Student Book_Neat

ffiffi{ffiffi,H Work in pairs. Look at the photo of a patient care Read the first two paragraphs ofthe text and find the answer
bay and the title of the text. What do you think is inside the to question 1. Explain in your own words what'cryonics' is.
metaI cylinders?

Wsuld Umu dEe mf 20 This may be exptained by the growing convict'ion among scientists

'is
horedonr if UCIrr that mankind ctoser than ever to achieving what untiI now
has seemed the stuff of our wjtdest dreams or worst nightmares.
depending on your perspective. They think it may wel[ be possibte t:
llued fur Brrtsr? 25 many hundreds ofyears and perhaps even for ever.
extend human life way beyond its current span - enabling us to live

The probLem with al"l" attempts to find the secret to Longer Life
Lined up in neat rows, their stainless steel sjdes gleaming. the huge over the centuries has been that the human body somehow seems
metal cylinders stored in a nondescrjpt office buitding give tittle programmed to die. Although we generalty enjoy much tonger lives
clue as to their gruesome contents. 0n each vesseI there is a stjcker than our forebears, we accept that even jf we avoid accident or
bearing the name and Logo of a company ca[[ed Alcor. 0nLy the 30 iLlness. our bodies wiL[ wear out and we wit[ eventuatty die of
smal[ print beneath hints at what its work might be. 'Life Extensjon 'o[d age'. However, humans don't have a'death gene'which triggers
Foundation Since 1,972i it reads, offering a website address for those the ageing process; the process is the result of malfunctioning cetl
visitors who join the twice-weekly tours of Alcor's headquarters in reproduction. From the jmmortalists' point of view, instead of being
Scottsda[e, Arizona, and who might want to find out more about its an jnevjtabte part of human b'iol"ogical destiny. death is something
highly unusual services. 35 whjch can be avoided if we can onty find cures for the illnesses
Alcor is in the business of cryonics. For a fee of approximatety whjch threaten our [ves. Given that we are talking about diseases
$200.000 - depending on your age and heal.th - it wiLL dispatch such as cancer, this is a very big'if'- but medicine's success in
a trajned response team when you die to drajn your blood and eradicating polio in the twentjeth century shows how quickty today's
deep freeze your body in one of those huge vacuum fl.asks of Liquid incurabLe iLtness can become tomorrow's medical success story.
nitrogen. The theory js that the firm's emptoyees witl thaw you 40 Atready, advances in technotogy are raising previousty unimaginable
1,5 out and revive you at some point in the future when scjence has possibiI'ities in medicaI science. For exampLe, scientjsts at the Wake
advanced enough to cure you of whatever it was you djed of. And Forest Universjty Medical School in Amerjca are working to grow
aLthough the total number of peopte across the world who have twenty different tjssues and organs, including blood vessels and
signed up for freezing is stjtt tittte more than 1,000, Atcor says its hearts, in the [aboratory using human cetts. This procedure coutd,
membership has increased rapidty recentty. 45 one day, heLp combat diseases such as cancer, by simpty rep[acing
the diseased organs with 'spares' supptied by the recipients'own
cells, wjth therefore no rjsk of rejection. In this way, humans might
become much [ike cars - wjth every part replaceabte and immortality
guaranteed.
50 Perhaps the reaI question js not whether eterna[ life wil.t one day
be possibte, but whether the quest itse[f is misdirected. In his
short story. The Immoftal, the Argentinean writerJorge Luis Borges
wrjtes of a man who goes in search of a river which cleanses people
of death. The immortal peopte whom he finds there are inert and
jnfinjte
55 apparently miserabte. Since they wiLl' Live for an number of
years, they reason that everything that can happen to them witl do
at some point. As a resuLt they can hardl.y bring themselves to move.
'I remember one who I never saw stand upi says Borges'narrator.'A
bird had nested on his breastl
60 This rajses the question: what incentive wou[d there be to do
anything if we knew that we had an endless number of days ahead
of us in whjch to accomptish at[ our goa[s? Indeed, wou[d our
Lives have any meaning at aLl'? As humans, we onty seem able to
understand our feelings when they are batanced against opposing
65 emotions. When we feet happy, it is in contrast to being sad; when
we fee[ at peace, it is a respite from being anxious. How then coutd
we feel gtad to be ative, to savour our existence day to day, if there

106 Unit 10 , Endings