Scientists have devised a way to determine roughly where a person has lived using a strand of hair, a technique that could help track the movements of criminal suspects or unidentified murder victims. The method relies on measuring how chemical variations in drinking water show up in people's hair. "You're what you eat and drink, and that's recorded in your hair," said Thure Cerling, a geologist at the University of Utah. While U.S diet is relatively identical, water supplies vary. The differences result from weather patterns. The chemical composition of rainfall changes slightly as rain clouds move. Most hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water are stable, but traces of both elements are also present as heavier isotopes . The heaviest rain falls first. As a result, storms that form over the Pacific deliver heavier water to California than to Utah. Similar patterns exist throughout the U.S. By measuring the proportion of heavier hydrogen and oxygen isotopes along a strand of hair, scientists can construct a geographic timeline. Each inch of hair corresponds to about two months. Cerling's team collected tap water samples from 600 cities and constructed a map of the regional differences. They checked the accuracy of the map by testing 200 hair samples collected from 65 barber shops. They were able to accurately place the hair samples in broad regions roughly corresponding to the movement of rain systems. "It's not good for pinpointing ," Cerling said. "It's good for eliminating many possibilities." Todd Park, a local detective, said the method has helped him learn more about an unidentified woman whose skeleton was found near Great Salt Lake. The woman was 5 feet tall. Police recovered 26 bones, a T-shirt and several strands of hair. When Park heard about the research, he gave the hair samples to the researchers. Chemical testing showed that over the two years before her death, she moved about every two months. She stayed in the Northwest, although the test could not be more specific than somewhere between eastern... What did Cerling's team produce in their research? A) A map showing the regional differences of tap water. B) A collection of hair samples from various barber shops. C) A method to measure the amount of water in human hair. D) A chart illustrating the movement of the rain system.
A
This place was darker than I expected, and, in spite of the rain, dirtier. Used to the life of rural Puerto Rico , I had to adjust to the similarly arranged, aggressive two-dimensionality of New York. Everywhere I looked, my eyes met gray and brown straight-edged buildings with sharp corners and deep shadows. Every few blocks there was a cement playground surrounded by chain-link fence. A girl came out of the building next door, a jump rope in her hand, and she hopped over. "Are you Hispanic?" she asked. "No, I'm Puerto Rican." "Same thing. Puerto Rican, Hispanic. That's what we are here." She skipped a tight circle, stopped abruptly, and shoved the rope in my direction. "Want a turn?" "Sure." I hopped on one leg, then the other. "So, if you're Puerto Rican, they call you Hispanic?" "Yeah. Anybody who speaks Spanish." I jumped a circle, as she had done, but faster. "You mean, if you speak Spanish, you're Hispanic?" "Well, yeah. No . . . I mean your parents have to be Puerto Rican or Cuban or something." "Okay, your parents are Cuban, let's say, and you're born here, but you don't speak Spanish. Are you Hispanic?" "I guess so," she finally said. "It has to do with being from a Spanish country. I mean, you or your parents, like, even if you don't speak Spanish, you're Hispanic, you know?" She looked at me uncertainly. But I didn't know. I'd always been Puerto Rican, and it hadn't occurred to me that in New York I'd be someone else. Later, I asked. "Are we Hispanics, Mami?" "Yes, because we speak Spanish." "But a girl said you don't have to speak the language to be Hispanic." "What girl? Where did you meet a girl?" "Outside. She lives in the next building." "Who said you could go out to the sidewalk? This isn't Puerto Rico. Something could happen to you." I listened to Mami's lecture with depressed eyes and the necessary respect. But inside, I quaked. Two days in New York, and I'd already become someone else. It wasn't hard to imagine that greater dangers lay ahead. The author's mood can best be described as _ A) angry and confused B) fearful and uncertain C) excited but lonely D) worried and resistant
B
(Question)
I went into Harrods in London (a huge department store I am sure you have heard of) to buy some Minton china plates for a wedding anniversary which was to be a group gift from friends to other friends in Geneva. Having only 30 minutes between meeting. I whizzed there in a taxi from the office and battled through the milling people on the 2nd day of the sales on the ground floor up to the 5th to the china department. There was a man standing there who was obviously a sales person who I rushed up to and asked if he had this particular china in stock and if it would take long to wrap, etc. He was amazing. He got the plates in seconds, wrapped them up and asked me if I wanted a store card, to which I replied no, because I lived in Switzerland, to which he replied asking if, as I lived abroad, would like a tax rebate form . After that he showed me what to do, produced a map of the store and told me where I should go for the formalities . That was fabulous! I thanked him and said what wonderful service he had given me. I even asked if he gave this to everyone, to which he answered: "I'm just doing what is required at Harrods". With that, a tall man in a gray suit approached me and offered his hand to shake mine saying, "Can I introduce myself? I am the Chief Executive of Harrods and what an interesting conversation I have just heard..." He had been wandering through the store (as you should do as a hands-on CEO) and had overheard me thanking this salesman, whose face, I can hardly describe, was frozen in a mixture of delight awe and astonishment! Can you imagine the salesman going home to his family and friends recounting what the CEO spoke to him after overhearing him being praised by a customer? The writer went to Harrods to _ . A) kill time B) buy some gifts C) go sightseeing D) shop for her wedding
(Answer)
B