Question

As soon as a person dies, decomposition(分解) begins. And the first visitors arrive. “Within 5 to 15 minutes of death, flies or other insects begin to colonize the body.” says Rabi Musah, an organic chemist at the University at Albany.

She says different species turn up at different stages of decomposition. “So because of that, depending upon what entomological(昆虫学的) evidence you find, you can learn something about when the person died in terms of the timing of the death.”

Flies don't tend to stick around when disturbed by detectives. But they do leave behind eggs. The eggs are hard to tell apart by appearance alone, so specialists raise them until they hatch, a few weeks later—and they get a species ID and, with a little guesswork, a person's time of death.   But Musah has come up with a more time-saving approach: chemical analysis of the eggs. She and her team investigated that method by first harvesting flies with pig-liver traps hidden throughout New York City. They collected the trapped flies and then chemically analyzed their eggs. And it turns out each species of fly egg has a unique chemical fingerprint—enough to tell the eggs apart without raising the eggs to maturity. The study is in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

Musah and her colleague Jennifer Rosati are now testing the method on a real case. “And once we do that we will be publishing some case studies to illustrate(阐明) that this is a method that can be used, and hopefully eventually it's something that will stand up in court, and something that could speed up detective work—or help deal with a cold case.”

1.Which of the following can best replace the underlined word “colonize” in paragraph 1?

A. look for    B. fight over    C. carry away    D. gather on

2.How can a specialist know a person’s time of death?

A. By researching the habitual nature of flies.

B. By relying on the entomological evidence.

C. By distinguishing the appearance of flies.

D. By discovering a new detective method.

3.What can we infer about Musah’s approach from the last paragraph?

A. Scientists have published studies about it.

B. It is bound to make every cold case solved.

C. It may help accelerate the detection of cases.

D. It will be published in Analytical Chemistry.

4.Where most probably can you see this article?

A. In a science fiction.    B. In a newspaper.

C. In a medical paper.    D. In a novel.

Answer

1.D

2.B

3.C

4.B

【解析】本文是一篇科学分析。人一死亡，分解过程就开始了。人死后五到十五分钟内，苍蝇或其他昆虫便开始占领尸体。文章对此进行了详细分析。

1.D

词义猜测题。根据第一段中Within 5 to 15 minutes of death, flies or other insects begin to colonize the body. 人死后五到十五分钟内，苍蝇或其他昆虫便开始占领尸体。也就是“聚集”在尸体上，所以划线词的意思是“聚集”。故D项正确。

2.B

细节理解题。根据第二段She says different species turn up at different stages of decomposition. “So because of that, depending upon what entomological(昆虫学的) evidence you find, you can learn something about when the person died in terms of the timing of the death.”可知，依靠昆虫学的证据，一个专家可以知道一个人的死亡时间。故B项正确。

3.C

推理判断题。根据最后一段中hopefully eventually it's something that will stand up in court, and something that could speed up detective work—or help deal with a cold case.可知，Musah的方法可能有助于加快案例的侦破。故C项正确。

4.B

推理判断题。本文是一篇科学分析，所以它不可能出现在一篇医学论文里，更不可能出现在一部小说或科幻小说里，最有可能出现在一份报纸上。故B项正确。