The world is not only hungry, but also thirsty for water. This may seem strange to you, since nearly 70% of the earth’s surface is covered with water. But about 97% of that is seawater, or salt water. Man can only drink and use the other 3%— the fresh water from rivers, lakes, groundwater, and other sources. And we cannot even use all of that. Even worse, some of it has been made dirty. However, as things stand today, this fresh water is still enough for us. But our need for water is becoming larger and larger quickly — almost day by day. We should take steps to do with this problem now, and only in this way can we get away from a serious world — wide water shortage later on.
We all have to learn how to stop wasting our valuable water. One of the first steps is to develop ways of reusing it. Today in most large cities, water is used only once and then sent out into a sewer. From there it returns to the sea or runs into underground places. But even if every large city reused its water, we still would not have enough. All we have to do to make use of seawater in the world is to remove the salt. If we take these steps, we’ll be in no danger of drying up.
Choose the best answer for each question. ( )6. The underlined sentence“The world is not only hungry, but also thirsty for water.” means “_____________________________”. A. There is little food or water in the world B. The food and water are getting less and less
C. Food and water are not enough to meet the needs of the world people
D. All the people in the world are hungry and thirsty
( )7. From the first paragraph, we know _____________.
A. 30% of the earth is covered with land B. there isn’t enough water on the earth C. people can drink 3% of water every day D. everyone has to use seawater today ( )8. The underlined word “shortage” in the second paragraph means “_______________”.
1
A. there is not enough of something that people need
B. something is short in height C. to make something short
D. short life
( )9. How many ways are mentioned to do with the problem of water shortage? A. One. B. Two. C. Three. D. Four. ( )10. We will have lots of fresh water to use if we _______________.
A. live by the seashore
B. can remove the salt from the seawater C. live in big cities
D. can drink seawater
Last summer holiday, I went shopping with my grandmother. We saw several beggars, of whom some were old people, some were young people, and some were even children! When I wanted to help them, my grandmother stopped me. She told me
they were not worth showing mercy to, because some beggars cheated people out of their money. Should I help them? Yours,
Zhang Xia
Dear Zhang Xia,
While I understand your grandmother’s idea, I think that is just because some beggars have cheated people, but this doesn’t mean you should never help any beggars.
Showing mercy and compassion to people who are not as fortunate as us is one of the kindest things we should do.
While some beggars may use dishonest means to get money, most beggars will not. Even those who use dishonest means are probably desperate for food and feel they have no choice but to cheat people.
It is important to be careful about your own safety. But if you want to help, you don’t necessarily have to give money to beggars in the streets.
Another way you can help is by giving money to the China Charity Federation. Editor
Choose the best answer for each question.