Jurassic Park - Henry Quinson

Jurassic Park
An island off Costa Rica hosts a very strange lab.
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The sign on the door said EXTRACTIONS and, like all the doors in the laboratory building; it
opened with a security card. Ed Regis slipped the card in the slot; the light blinked; and the door opened.
Inside, Tim saw a small room bathed in green light. Four technicians in lab coats were peering into
double-barreled stereo microscopes, or looking at images on high-resolution video screens. The room was
filled with yellow stones. The stones were in glass shelves; in cardboard boxes; in large pull-out trays.
Each stone was tagged and numbered in black ink.
Regis introduced Henry Wu, a slender man in his thirties. "Dr. Wu is our chief geneticist. I’ll let
him explain what we do here."
Henry Wu smiled. "At least, I’ll try," he said. "Genetics is a bit complicated. But you're probably
wondering where our dinosaur DNA comes from."
"It crossed my mind ' " Grant said.
"As a matter of fact," Wu said, "There are two possible sources. Using the Loy antibody extraction
technique, we can sometimes get DNA directly from dinosaur bones. "
"And you’ve adapted his technique here?" Grant asked.
"Only as a backup1" Wu said. "As you can imagine, a twenty percent yield2 is insufficient for our
work. We need the entire dinosaur DNA- strand3 in order to clone. And we get it here." He held up one of
the yellow stones. "From amber – the fossilized resin of prehistoric tree sap."
Grant looked at Ellie, then at Malcolm.
"That's really quite clever," Malcolm said, nodding.
"I still don't understand," Grant admitted.
"Tree sap," Wu explained, "often flows over insects and traps them. The insects are then perfectly
preserved within the fossil. One finds all kinds of insects in amber – including biting insects that have
sucked the blood from larger animals."
"Sucked the blood," Grant repeated. His mouth fell open. "You mean sucked the blood of
dinosaurs..."
"Hopefully, yes."
"And then the insects are preserved in amber..." Grant shook his head. "I’ll be damned – that just
might work."
"I assure you, it does work," Wu said. He moved to one of the microscopes, where a technician
positioned a piece of amber containing a fly under the microscope. On the video monitor, they watched as
he inserted a long needle through the amber, into, the thorax of the prehistoric fly.
"If this insect has any foreign blood cells, we may be able to extract them, and obtain paleo-DNA,
the DNA of an extinct creature. We won’t know for sure, of course, until we extract whatever is in there,
replicate it, and test it. That is what we have been doing for five years now. It has been a long, slow
process – but it has paid off."
Jurassic Park, Michael CRICHTON, 1990
THE AUTHOR
Born in Chicago in 1942, Michael CRICHTON qualified as a medical doctor in 1969 and then
became a successful novelist. He also created the TV series ER. Many of his novels have been made into
films. Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Disclosure and Rising Sun are among the most famous.
Overall comprehension
1. Where does the scene take place? Describe the atmosphere of the place.
2. What is the main focus of the passage?
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Jurassic Park
Detailed comprehension
1. The characters
a. Count the number of characters present. Give their names and occupations whenever possible.
b. Who are the visitors and who are the hosts? Identify the major characters in the passage.
2. The lab.
Say if the following statements are true or false. Explain your answer.
a. The lab is open to visitors.
b. They want to obtain insect DNA.
c. They have got dinosaur DNA.
d. They need more than 20% of the DNA strand to be able to clone.
e. They have developed one extraction technique.
f. The most efficient one is Loy's procedure.
g. Grant doesn't need explanations concerning the technique.
3. The fossils
a. Describe the stones as accurately as possible.
b. What might they contain? Why is this important for the scientists?
c. How long have they been working on the process?
Between the lines
1. What makes you realize the author has a genuine scientific background?
2. What feelings does Grant experience in this excerpt? Pick out two sentences that show he is
amazed at one particular moment.
3. Would you say this passage comes from the beginning, the middle or the end of the novel? What
makes you think so?
Work on Words
1. Pick out all the scientific words from the excerpt. Sort them into three categories:
¾ equipment
¾ biology
¾ other
2. Find the equivalents for:
¾ fente (l. 2)
¾ clignoter (l. 2)
¾ regarder attentivement (l. 3)
¾ étiqueter (l. 6)
¾ se demander (l. 10)
¾ sève (l. 17)
¾ prendre au piège (l. 21)
¾ qui pique (insecte) (l. 22)
¾ s'avérer rentable (l. 35)
Build up your vocabulary
1. Compounds and word order
¾ security card ¨ carte de sécurité
¾ lab coats ¨ blouses de laboratoire
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Jurassic Park
Find at least five other similar compounds in the passage.
Now, find the English translations for:
a) boîte en plastique
b) bouteille de verre
c) laboratoire de recherches
d) instruments de laboratoire.
Pay attention to word order and plurals.
2. Abstract words and jobs
¾ Genetics is a bit complicated. (l. 9)
Translate into French. What do you notice?
Now, translate the following nouns into English:
a) mathématiques,
b) physique,
c) politique.
¾ Dr. Wu is our chief geneticist (l. 7)
What are the jobs corresponding to the three fields you have translated?
What are the jobs corresponding to:
a) science
b) palaeontology
c) chemistry
d) biology
e) medicine
f) history?
Compare the two languages
Translate the sentences, paying attention to the words in bold.
¾ Grant shook his head. "I’ll be damned - that just might work."
¾ "I assure you, it does work," Wu said.
Expression
1. Would you say this experiment is scary? Why?
2. What other novels, films or stories does it make you think of?
3. After witnessing the hatching of the first cloned dinosaur egg, Grant reports to his colleagues in
the form of a lecture. Write his speech.
present perfect en BE + -ING
1. Observez et analysez.
That is what we have been doing for five years now. (l. 34)
¾ Ajouté au present perfect, BE + -ING prend sa valeur d'identification: l'énoncé dit en quoi a consisté
l'activité de Wu et de son équipe pendant la période indiquée.
¾ Par contraste, le present perfect "simple", employé avec un verbe d'action, met l'accent sur les
conséquences de l'action : Look, this is what we have done.
¾ L’emploi du present perfect en BE + -ING est cependant impossible avec les verbes d'état du type
know : I have known him for five years now.
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Jurassic Park
2. Exercices
A. Complétez avec le verbe au present perfect simple ou au present perfect avec BE + -ING.
a. They (obtain) the dinosaur's DNA.
b. They (try) to obtain the dinosaurs DNA for years.
c. They (use) only a little DNA.
d. They (experiment) with small quantities of material.
e. The technician (position) the amber under the microscope.
f. He (explain) how it works, so 1 understand now.
g. He (work) on this experiment for months.
h. You can see how amber (flow) over the insect.
i. The insect (be trapped) for centuries.
j. He (perfect) the technique ever since he started working here.
B. Écrivez un énoncé qui exprime l'activité dans son déroulement ou son résultat.
Insects got trapped in tree sap centuries ago. (They are still there.)
¨ Insects have been trapped in tree sap for centuries.
a. (They finished the experiment five months ago.) They're still waiting for the results.
b. (There are new research assistants now.) The lab hired quite a few.
c. (There's a new experiment under way.) We started a few months ago.
d. The researchers started studying DNA cloning only last year.
e. (They needed new lab equipment.) So they bought some.
As
1. Observez et analysez.
(1) As you can imagine, a twenty percent yield is insufficient for our work. (l. 15)
(2) ... they watched as he inserted a long needle... (l. 30-31)
¾ Comparez la subordonnée introduite par as à sa traduction : "Comme vous pouvez l'imaginer". Dans cette
traduction, quel mot n'a pas d'équivalent en anglais ?
¾ D'une façon générale, et comme dans l'exemple 1, le complément de verbes du type think, imagine, see, etc.
(verbes d'opinion ou de perception) n'est pas exprimé dans les subordonnées de manière introduites par as : As I
thought, he had disappeared. / As we saw last time, ... C'est parfois le sujet qui n'est pas exprimé: As can be
imagined…
¾ Dans l'exemple 2, as a un sens voisin de celui de while ("comme", "tandis que") : c'est une conjonction de temps.
Les subordonnées de temps introduites par as sont à la forme simple quand l'événement de la subordonnée et
celui de sa principale sont vus comme se déroulant de façon parallèle.
2. Exercices
A. complétez avec as ou when.
a. ……………….. he was twelve, he visited his father's lab.
b. ……………….. Professor Wu was leaving the room, a dinosaur egg started to move.
c. Tim wants to be an archaeologist ……………….. he grows up.
d. …………... they were carefully watching each step of the experiment, a terrible noise was heard outside.
e. Just ……………….. he stepped into the morning sun, Grant felt a sudden headache.
f. They don't know ……………….. the results will be known.
g. The lab technicians will take notes ……………….. they observe the mice.
h. ……………….. you can see, science is never easy.
B. Traduisez les phrases suivantes.
a. Tandis que Tim entrait dans le labo, le docteur Wu s'approcha.
b. Tandis que Wu expliquait sa théorie, Grant écoutait avec attention.
c. Comme on peut l'imaginer, cette découverte pourrait avoir des conséquences inattendues.
d. Comme on a l'habitude de le penser, les chercheurs rêvent tous de faire une découverte révolutionnaire.
e. Comme chacun sait, cette expérience doit rester secrète.
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