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

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

游客2024-02-14  23
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] The word "corral" (Line 6, Para. 3) is closest in meaning to "______".
选项 A、protect by forming groups
B、capture and keep hold of
C、gather
D、break
答案 B
解析 根据题干中的corral将本题出处定位到第三段末句。该句提到，To corral them and steer them to parts of the world where they are needed would not be too difficult，其中的them指代icebergs。 steer意为“驾驶，掌舵”，用在此处表示把冰山拖到世界上需要它们的地方，而steer之前的动作应该是截获那些drift(漂流)的冰山，故答案为[B]“捕获并抓住”。文章没有提到把冰山形成组，故排除[A]：冰山一般很大，把它们聚集起来也不合理，故排除[C]；把冰山打碎与原文相反，故排除[D]。
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