私醫聯招 英文歷屆試題｜第 87 題

You may have the same shoe size as someone else. You may also have the same color eyes or hair. But there is one thing that cannot be the same. That is your fingerprints. No two fingerprints are alike. The curving lines on each finger make a pattern. Each print never changes, except to get bigger as you grow.

What good are fingerprints? First, they help us to hold things. You know how the lines on a tire help it grip the road. Fingerprints help us grip things the same way. Fingerprints also help police identify people. Police look for fingerprints where a crime has taken place. Dust is used to show the fingerprints. It can show prints on metal, wood, or even paper.

Before 1903, police did not use fingerprints. They identified people only by their pictures and body size. Then a strange thing happened. Police found two prisoners in Kansas. One was named Will West. The other was named William West. Both men looked the same. The only way to tell them apart was by checking their fingerprints.