All living things on the Earth need water to live. Yet humans pollute and waste it. More than a fifth of the world’s population doesn’t have enough water. It is likely that people will go to war over water in your lifetime.

Water pollution

If you had a bottle of water that you needed to keep yourself alive, would you pour it down your toilet? Of course not. And yet, that is just what people are doing with our water, all over the world.

Mining and other industries pollute rivers with poisonous chemicals. Farmers use pesticides and fertilizers, which are washed into rivers and lakes. In many parts of the world, people use rivers like toilets and trash cans.

Drying up our planet

Near the sea, when too much water is taken from underground lakes, seawater flows, making the water salty and undrinkable.

If you take more money out of a bank than you put in, you become overdrawn and, finally, go broke. We are doing this to our underground lakes all over the world. In West Asia, North Africa, China, India, Russia and the US, we use far too much water. Water shortage is one of the most important problems in the world right now.

The amount of water we use has increased everywhere in the last 50 years. Between 1900 and the mid 1980s, water consumption in Asia increased from 600 to 5,000 km3 a year. In Beijing, water consumption increased almost 100 times between 1950 and 1980. The crazy thing is that, even in rich countries, a huge amount of water is lost through leaky (漏的) pipes. In parts of Central Asia, the pipes are so bad that over half the water is lost through leaks.

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1.The beginning of the passage mainly shows us that ______.

A people are short of water because of population growth

B people will go to war because of water sooner or later

C nowadays over 50% of the world’s population faces water shortage

D water shortage is becoming worse because of pollution and waste

解析：选D。D 主旨大意题。根据第1段，通过信息整合与分析，可知作者开篇就告诉读者主题：水缺乏问题非常严重，故选D。

2.In Paragraph 3, how many times does it mention polluted rivers or lakes?

A Two.

B Three.

C Four.

D Five.

解析：选C。C 细节理解题。在关于水污染一段的描述中，涉及到poisonous (有毒的) chemicals、pesticides、fertilizers和trash共四种污染物，所以选C。

3.The underground water near the sea became salty and undrinkable because _____.

A sea water flows into underground lakes

B too much underground water flows into the sea

C much salt is left when too much water is taken

D the dry weather causes water shortage

解析：选A。A 细节理解题。根据第4段中的seawater flows, making the water salty可知，地下水抽取过多导致海水流入并造成水质盐化，故选A。

4.According to the last paragraph, which of the following is TRUE?

A Asian countries use more water than any rich country.

B Over 50% of water is lost through leaking pipes in Central Asia.

C Water consumption increased quickly in the 1970s.

D Water consumption in Asia increased almost 10 times between 1900 and the mid 1980s.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据文章最后一句over half the water is lost through leaks可知，中亚地区有超过一半的水因管道泄漏而流失，故选B。

5.The underlined word “overdrawn” means “______” in Chinese.

A 分红

B 著名

C 透支

D 盈利

解析：选C。C 词义猜测题。 根据go broke（破产）和后句可知是透支的意思。故选C。