Fresh water life itself, has never come easy in the Middle East. Ever since the Old Testament(舊約圣經) God punished man with 40 days and 40 nights of rain, water supplies here have been dwindling. The rainfall only comes in winter, Inshallah ----- Good willing –and drains quickly through the semiarid land, leaving the soil to bake and to thirst for next November.
The region’s accelerating population, expanding agriculture, industrialization, and higher living standards demand more fresh water. Drought and pollution limit its availability. War and mismanagement squander it. Says Joyce Starr of the Global Water Summit Initiative, based in Washington, D.C.” Nations like Israel and Jordan are swiftly sliding into that zone where they are suing all the water resources available to them. They have only 15 to 20 years left before their agriculture, and ultimately their food security, is threatened.”
I came here to examine this crisis in the making, to investigate fears that “water wars “are imminent, that water has replaced oil as the region’s most contentious commodity. For more than two months I traveled through three river valleys and seven nations -----from southern Turkey down the Euphrates River Syria, Iraq, and on to Kuwait; to Israel and Jordan, neighbors across the valley of the Jordan; to the timeless Egyptian Nile.
Even amid the scarcity there are haves and have – notes. Compared with the United States, which in 1990 had a freshwater potential of 10000 cubic meters(2.6 million galloons) a year for each citizen, Iraq had 5 500, Turkey had 4 000, and Syria had more than 2 800. Egypt’s potential was only 1 100. Israel had 460, Jordan a meager 260. But these are not firm figures, because upstream use of river water can dramatically alter the potential downstream.
Scarcity is only one element of the crisis. Inefficiency is another, as is the reluctance of some water – poor nations to change priorities from agriculture to less water – intensive enterprises. Some experts suggest that if nations would share both water technology and resources, they could satisfy the region’s population, currently 159 million. But in this patchwork of ethnic and religious rivalries, water seldom stands alone as an issue. It is entangled in the politics that keep people from trusting and seeking help from one another. Here, where water, like truth, is precious, each nation tends to find its own water and supply its own truth.
As Israeli hydrology professor Uri Shamir told me :” If there is political will for peace, water will not be a hindrance. If you want reasons to fight, water will not e a hindrance. If you want reasons to fight, water will give you ample opportunities.”
1.Why “for next November” (para.1)? Because________.
A.according to the Ole Testament fresh water is available only in November B.rainfall comes only in winter starting form November C.running water systems will not be ready until next November D.it is a custom in that region that irrigation to crops is done only in November
2.What is the cause for the imminent water war?
A.Lack of water resources B.Lack of rainfall C.Inefficient use of water D.All the above
3.One way for the region to use water efficiently is to _______
A.develop other enterprises that cost less water B.draw a plan of irrigation for the various nations C.import water from water – rich nations D.stop wars of any sort for good and all
4.Uri Shamir’s viewpoint is that ________.
A.nations in that region are just fighting for water B.people there are thirsty for peace instead of water C.water is no problem as long as there is peace D.those nations have every reason to fight for water
5.The author’s tone in the article can be described as ______-.
A.depressing B.urgent C.joking D.mocking
第33篇答案：BDACB
第34篇：(Unit 9,Passage 2)
The British psychoanalyst John Bowlby maintains that separation from the parents during the sensitive “attachment” period from birth to three may scar a child’s personality and predispose to emotional problems in later life. Some people have drawn the conclusion from Bowlby’s work that children should not be subjected to day care before the age of three because of the parental separation it entails, and many people do believe this. But there are also arguments against such a strong conclusion.
Firstly, anthropologists point out that the insulated love affair between children and parents found in modern societies does not usually exist in traditional societies. For example, we saw earlier that among the Ngoni the father and mother of a child did not rear their infant alone--far from it. Secondly, common sense tells us that day care would not so widespread today if parents, caretakers found children had problems with it. Statistical studies of this kind have not yet been carried out, and even if they were, the results would be certain to be complicated and controversial. Thirdly, in the last decade, there have been a number of careful American studies of children in day care, and they have uniformly reported that day care had a neutral or slightly positive effect on children’s development. But tests that have had to be used to measure this development are not widely enough accepted to settle the issue.
But Bowlby’s analysis raises the possibility that early day care has delayed effects. The possibility that such care might lead to, say, more mental illness or crime 15 or 20 years later can only be explored by the use of statistics. Whatever the long-term effects, parents sometimes find the immediate effects difficult to deal with. Children under three are likely to protest at leaving their parents and show unhappiness. At the age of three or three and a half almost all children find the transition to nursery easy, and this is undoubtedly why more and more parents make use of child care at this time. The matter, then, is far from clear-cut, though experience and available evidence indicate that early care is reasonable for infants.
1.This passage primarily argues that ___.
A.infants under the age of three should not be sent to nursery schools. B.whether children under the age of three should be sent to nursery schools. C.there is not negative long-term effect on infants who are sent to school before they are three. D.there is some negative effect on children when they are sent to school after the age of three.
2.The phrase “predispose to” (Para. 1, line 3) most probably means ___.
A.lead to B.dispose to C.get into D.tend to suffer
3.According to Bowlby’s analysis, it is quite possible that ___.
A.children’s personalities will be changed to some extent through separation from their parents. B.early day care can delay the occurrence of mental illness in children. C.children will be exposed to many negative effects from early day care later on. D.some long-term effects can hardly be reduced from children’s development.
4.It is implied but not stated in the second paragraph that ___.
A.traditional societies separate the child from the parent at an early age. B.Children in modern societies cause more troubles than those in traditional societies. C.A child did not live together with his parents among the Ngoni. D.Children in some societies did not have emotional problems when separated from the parents.
5.The writer concludes that ___.
A.it is difficult to make clear what is the right age for nursery school. B.It is not settled now whether early care is reasonable for children. C.It is not beneficial for children to be sent to nursery school. D.It is reasonable to subject a child above three to nursery school.
，我們將會及時處理。如轉載本網內容，請注明出處。