1 . One picture in the Wonder Book of knowledge I had as a little boy showed a man reading a book while floating in the Dead Sea. What a miracle! How would it feel to lie back in water so thick with salt that it was impossible to sink?

Fed by the Jordan River and smaller streams, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on the earth’s surface, and its water is ten times saltier than the Mediterranean. With evaporation its only outlet, salt and other minerals become super-concentrated.

Earlier this year, I drove down the long, steep hill to realize my dream. The shoreline was a broad area of bare salt-mud, but the water edge was far out of sight. Had somebody pulled the Dead Sea’s plug? I wondered. Eli Dior, an Israeli official, explained the problem: “The Dead Sea is drying up. Every year, the surface drops about one meter, and as the water level falls, shadow areas are left high and dry.”

Over the last half-century, the five neighboring countries have collectively diverted nearly all the water flowing into the Dead Sea to meet human and agriculture needs. Result: the Dead Sea is being emptied.

With population in the region set to double at least in the next 50 years, there is little hope of restoring the water being diverted for human consumption. No country has a drop to spare for the Dead Sea, where they know it will just evaporate. To dream of opening the dams and restoring natural balance is plainly unrealistic.

Yet one ambitious high-tech dream may turn out to be not only the salvation of the Dead Sea but also a ticket to peace around its shores. The “Red-Dead” is a proposed $5 billion project to bring sea water some 240 kilometers by pipeline and canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. The Red-Dead may be the only solution, but even if the project is carried out successfully, the Dead Sea will be 10 to 20 meters lower than now and two thirds of its current size.

Whatever the future holds, the Dead Sea’s magical mix of sun, mud, sea and salt will surely survive. Many might complain that the Dead Sea is half empty—but for me the Dead sea will always be half full.

1. What’s the passage mainly about?

A．Dead Sea – miracle of the world.

B．Save the environment of the Dead Sea.

C．Slow shrinking of the Dead Sea.

D．Why is the Dead Sea so salty.

2. The shrinking of the Dead Sea is mainly caused by ________ according to the passage.

A．a severe reduction of the water flowing into the sea

B．rapid evaporation of the water in the Dead Sea area

C．the increasing quantity of water drawn from the sea

D．very low annual rainfall in the Dead Sea Area

3. Which of the following is right according to the passage?

A．With no outlet to any ocean, the Dead Sea has become by evaporation most dense waters on earth.

B．Though burdened with the growing population, the neighboring countries haven’t cut off the sources of the Dead Sea.

C．All the countries in the area will consider diverting less water from the Jordan River.

D．The Red-Dead Project has not only brought water to the Dead Sea, but peace to the area as well.

4. Which of the following statements will the author approve of?

A．If the Dead Sea dried up, great natural disasters would happen in the region.

B．The Dead Sea will not survive no matter what people do to save it.

C．The five neighboring countries should stop diverting water from the Jordan River.

D．Though the Dead Sea is shrinking gradually, it will not die.