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Question
Comment on the indifference that meets Iona's attempts to share his grief with his fellow human beings.
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Solution
Iona Potapov had lost his son, who died a week before. He wished to share his suffering and his emotions and grieve at his loss. However, the people he came across, whether passengers or others, were not interested in listening to his story. Either the people were in a hurry or were tired or busy. Thus, none of them paid heed to his words as he began every time. Finally, he told it all to his horse.
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The Great Desert Where Hippos Once Wallowed
The Sahara sets a standard for dry land. It’s the world’s largest desert. Relative humidity can drop into the low single digits. There are places where it rains only about once a century. There are people who reach the end of their lives without ever seeing water come from the sky.
Yet beneath the Sahara are vast aquifers of fresh water, enough liquid to fill a small sea. It is fossil water, a treasure laid down in prehistoric times, some of it possibly a million years old. Just 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a much different place.
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“We’re learning, and only in recent years, that some climate changes in the past have been as rapid as anything underway today,” says Robert Giegengack, a University of Pennsylvania geologist.
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No one knows how human-driven climate change may alter the Sahara in the future. It’s something scientists can ponder while sipping bottled fossil water pumped from underground.
“It’s the best water in Egypt,” Giegengack said — clean, refreshing mineral water. If you want to drink something good, try the ancient buried treasure of the Sahara.
Staff Writer, Washington Post
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