TPO21 integrated

The reading passage explores the issue of several benefits of using genetically modified trees. However, in the lecture, the professor thinks that all these benefits are weak, and it has a lot of hidden costs to use this technology. She also uses three specific points and elaborate details to support her position.

To begin with, according to the passage, genetically modified trees are easy to survive in than those who are unmodified. The writer uses an improvement of the papaya tree in Hawaii as an example, designed to resistant pests such as ringspot viruses. However, the professor refutes it by pointing out that no guarantee genetically modified trees can survive. This is because of the problem of gene diversity. Many non-modified trees are diverse since they suffer from different insects and pesticides. If someone dies, others can survive. On the contrary, the gene form of modified trees is designed to uniform. Thus they cannot survive in some severe damage, like climate changes or pest invasion.

Moreover, the passage also contends that modified trees have economic benefits because of the faster yeilds and hardier quantity, giving profitable returns to investment. However, the professor claims that using these special trees also has some hidden costs. To be specific, if farmers want to cultivate these trees, they need to pay the company for seeds, and this process will occur annually, while farmers can get the seeds when their plants grow for free.

Finally, the reading material asserts that genetic modification will be helpful to inhibit the overexploitation of wild trees since the trees grow faster and yield higher, and could be cut down quickly. On the contrary, the professor points out that these trees would also damage the local environment just because they grow too fast. These trees may win the competition with native trees and take over some essential resources like sunlight, water, and so on. Therefore, native trees will die in the future.