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The concept of obtaining fresh water from icebergs that are pulled to popula

游客2024-02-14  19
问题     The concept of obtaining fresh water from icebergs that are pulled to populated areas and dry regions of the world was once treated as a joke more appropriate to cartoons than real life. But now it is being considered quite seriously by many nations, especially since scientists have warned that human race will outgrow its fresh water supply faster than it runs out of food.
    Glaciers are a possible source of fresh water that has been overlooked until recently. Three quarters of the Earth’s fresh water supply is still tied up in glacial ice, a reservoir of untapped fresh water so immense that it could sustain all the rivers of the world for 1,000 years. Floating on the oceans are 7,659 trillion metric tons of ice encased (包围) in 10,000 icebergs that break away from the polar ice caps, more than ninety percent of them from Antarctica.
    Huge glaciers that stretch over the shallow continental shelf give birth to icebergs throughout the year. Icebergs are not like sea ice, which is formed when the sea itself freezes; rather, they are formed entirely on land, breaking off when glaciers spread over the sea. As they drift away from the polar region, icebergs sometimes move mysteriously in a direction opposite to the wind, pulled by subsurface currents. Because they melt more slowly than smaller pieces of ice, icebergs have been known to drift as far north as 35 degrees south of the equator in the Atlantic Ocean. To corral them and steer them to parts of the world where they are needed would not be too difficult.
    The difficulty arises in other technical matters, such as the prevention of rapid melting in warmer climates and the funneling (通过漏斗般流过) of fresh water to shore in great volume. But even if the icebergs lost half of their volume in hauling, the water they could provide would be far cheaper than that produced by desalinating (融化海水), or removing salt from water. [br] It can be inferred from the passage that______.
选项 A、there will be a shortage of water but sufficient supply of food in the future
B、there have been different opinions of future water sources
C、icebergs can be used extremely efficiently
D、the earth has 10,000 polar ice caps
答案 B
解析 根据题干中的the passage将本题出处定位到全文。末段末句提到的the water they could provide指的是从冰山中获取淡水，desalinating(淡化海水)，or removing salt from water指的是淡化海水获取淡水，由此可知，对未来淡水资源的来源人们有不同的看法，故答案为[B]。首段末句提到“人类将在耗尽粮食之前首先耗尽淡水资源”，由此可知，将来人们也会面临食物短缺这一问题，只是水资源短缺比食物短缺来临得早，故排除[A]：根据文中提到的rapid melting in warmer climates以及the icebergs lost half of their volume in hauling 可知，可能会在运输冰山过程中损失很多淡水，由此可排除[C]；原文中的10,000指的是icebergs而非polar ice caps。故排除[D]。
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