Life on earth depends on water, and there is no substitute for it. The current assumption is that our basic needs for water—whether for drinking, agriculture, industry or the raising of fish—will always have to be met. Given this premise (前提), there are two basic routes we can go; more equal access to water or better engineering solutions.
Look at the engineering solutions first. A lot of my research concentrates on what happens to wetlands when you build dams in river basins, particularly in Africa. The ecology of such areas is almost entirely driven by the seasonal changes of the river—the pulse of the water. And the fact is that if you build a dam, you generally spoil the downstream ecology. In the past, such problems have been hidden by a lack of information. But in the near future, governments will have no excuses for their ignorance.
The engineers’ ability to control water flows has created new kinds of unpredictability, too. Dams in Africa have meant fewer fish, less grazing and less floodplain (洪泛区) agriculture, none of which were expected. And there average economic life is assumed to be thirty years. Dams don’t exist forever, but what will replace them is not clear.
The challenge for the future is to find new means of controlling water. Although GM technology(转基因) will allow us to breed better dry-land crops, there is no market for companies to develop crops suitable for the micro-climates of the Sahel and elsewhere in Africa. Who is going to pay for research on locally appropriate crops in the Third World?
小题1:What’s the main idea of this passage?
A．The engineering solutions to water resource and their limitation.
B．The challenge for the future.
C．The basic means of controlling water.
D．The challenge for developing crops.小题2:The author suggests that governments will have no excuse for their careless ignorance in the future because _____.
A．The ecological destruction will be known to the public by researchers
B．The ecological destruction will no longer be a problem in the future
C．The future is an information age
D．Governments will face greater challenge in the future小题3:Which of the following statements is NOT true for meeting our basic needs for water?
A．Water resource should be used more reasonably.
B．More dams should be built in river basins.
C．More wetlands should be protected from destruction.
D．More dry-land crops could be developed in Africa.小题4:The last sentence probably implies that _____.
A．No one will invest in developing locally appropriate crops in Africa
B．Researchers have no interest in developing dry-land crops
C．Research on locally appropriate crops in the Third World may be profitable
D．There is less water resource in the Third World
小题1:A
小题2:C
小题3:B
小题4:A
题目分析：文章分析水资源局限的工程解决方案的做法和不利因素，并提出如何找出代替的方法。
小题1:主旨题：从第二段的第一句话：Look at the engineering solutions first. 可知这篇文章讲的是水资源局限的工程解决方案。选A
小题2:细节题：从第二段的句子：In the past, such problems have been hidden by a lack of information.可知过去这样的问题被隐藏起来，未来是信息时代，政府就没有借口了。选C
小题3:细节题：从第三段的句子：Dams don’t exist forever, but what will replace them is not clear.可知不会再多建大坝了。选B
小题4:句意理解题：最后一句话Who is going to pay for research on locally appropriate crops in the Third World?的意思是：谁会为研究适合第三世界的国家生长的作物买单呢？也就是没有人愿意为研究适合第三世界的国家生长的作物投资。选A
点评：本文考查细节题为主，细节题可以在文章中直接找到与答案有关的信息或是其变体。搜查信息在阅读中非常重要它包括理解作者在叙述某事时使用的具体事实、数据、图表等细节信息。在一篇短文里大部分篇幅都属于这类围绕主体展开的细节。做这类题一般采用寻读法即先读题，然后带着问题快速阅读短文，找出与问题有关的词语或句子，再对相关部分进行分析对比，找出答案。