【推荐3】China suffers choking smog, mass destruction of habitats and food poisoned with heavy metals. But ask an environmentalist what is the country’s biggest problem, and the answer is always the same. “Water is the worst,” says Wang Tao, of the Carnegie Tsinghua Centre in Beijing, “because of its shortage, and because of its pollution.” “Without water,’’ agrees Pan Jiahua, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, “people cannot survive in a desert.’’ Wang Shucheng, a former water minister, once said, “To fight for every drop of water or die. That is the challenge facing China.” He was not exaggerating (夸大).

China uses 600 billion cubic meters of water a year. The national average hides an even more alarming regional difference. Four fifths of China’s water is in the south, particularly the Yangtze river basin. Half the people and two thirds of the farmland are in the north, including the Yellow River basin. Beijing has the sort of water shortage usually associated with Saudi Arabia: just 100 cubic meters per person a year.

China is using up water at an unsustainable (无法可持续的) rate. As if that were not bad enough,         . The Yellow River is often called the cradle of Chinese civilization. However, a third of the water is unfit even for agriculture. Four thousand petrochemical factories are built on its banks.

The water available for use is thus so bad. Song Lanhe, chief engineer for urban water quality monitoring at the housing ministry, says only half the water sources in cities are safe to drink. More than half the groundwater in the north China plain cannot be used for industry, while seven tenths is unfit for human contact, even for washing.

The best answer would be to improve the efficiency (效率) with which water is used. Only about 40% of water used in industry is recycled, half as much as in Europe. The rest is dumped in rivers and lakes. Wang Zhansheng of Tsinghua University argues that China is neglecting its urban water infrastructure (基础设施), leading to more waste. Water prices in most cities are only about a tenth of the level in big European cities, yet the government is unwilling to raise them, for fear of a popular criticism. The result is that China’s “water productivity” is low.

Rather than making wise reforms in pricing and water protection, China is focusing on increasing supplies. The best known such project is the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze. But this year an even vaster project - the South North Water Diversion Project (南水北调工程)-is due to start. It will link the Yangtze with the Yellow River, taking water from the wet south to the dry north. When finished, it is intended to deliver 45 billion cubic meters of water a year and to cost a total of 486 billion yuan ($ 79.4 billion).

The environmental damage could be huge. The Yangtze is already seriously polluted. The project so far has reduced the quantity of underwater life in the Yangtze by over two thirds. And that was before it even opened. Ma Jun. China’s best known environmental activist, says the government’s preference for giant engineering projects only makes matters worse, “causing us to hit the limits of our water resources”. The water crisis is driving China to desperate but eventually unhelpful measures.

1. From the first two paragraphs we know that       .

A．water is badly polluted in most of the area of China

B．the water in China is unfit for people to survive in a desert

C．Wang Shucheng was sad about China’s future

D．people in North China are facing a more serious water shortage

2. Which of the following may help complete the missing sentence in Para. 3?

A．China is polluting what little water it has left.

B．The biggest damage of the water .shortage could be political.

C．300 dead bodies were found floating in the Yellow River near Lanzhou.

D．The Chinese government have reacted, to water problems by huge but harmful projects.

3. How does Song Lanhe convince us that the water available for use is so bad?

A．By listing data.	B．By giving examples.
C．By making comparisons.	D．By delivering warnings.

4. China can raise “water productivity” by       .

A．offering diverse water supplies and conservation

B．strengthening construction of water infrastructure and recycling

C．raising water prices in big cities as European countries

D．building up more giant water projects and cooperating with neighbors

5. According to the author, the South North Water Diversion Project is       .

A．a vast and significant project	B．a huge and promising project
C．a giant but unsuccessful project	D．a costly but effective project

6. By saying “The water crisis is driving China to desperate but eventually unhelpful measures” in the last paragraph, the author implies       .

A．there is no good way for China to solve the problem of water crisis

B．more giant projects like the Three Gorges should be built

C．it is urgent for China to deal with the crisis of water shortage and pollution

D．China should put forward other efficient ways instead of those giant engineering projects