READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based
on Reading Passage 1 below.
For Want of a Drink
A WHEN the word water appears in print these days, crisis is rarely
far behind. Water, as is said, is the new oil: a resource long squandered
lãng phí, now growing expensive and soon to be overwhelmed by
insatiable demands nhu cầu vô độ. Aquifers tầng ngậm nước are falling,
glaciers vanishing ( sông bangw biến mất) , reservoirs drying up and
rivers no longer flowing to the sea. Climate change threatens to make the
problems worse. Everyone must use less water if famine, pestilence and
mass migration are not to sweep the globe. As it is, wars are about to
break out between countries squabbling over dams and rivers. The
language is often overblown and the remedies are sometimes ill
conceived, but the basic message is not wrong. Water is indeed scarce in
many places, and will grow scarcer. Bringing supply and demand into
equilibrium will be painful, and political disputes may increase in
number and intensify in their capacity to cause trouble. To carry on with
present practices would indeed be to invite disaster.
B The troubles start with the number of people using the stuff. When,
50 years ago, the world's population was about 2.5 billion, worries about
water supply affected relatively few people. Both drought and hunger
existed, as they have throughout history, but most people could be fed
without irrigated farming. Then the green revolution, in an inspired
combination of new crop breeds, fertilizers and water, made possible a
huge rise in the population. The number of people on Earth rose to 6
billion in 2000 and is heading for 9 billion in 2050. The area under
irrigation has doubled and the amount of water drawn for farming has
tripled. The proportion of people living in countries chronically short of
water, which stood at 8 % ( 500m ) at the turn of the 21st century , is set
to rise to 45 % ( 4 billion ) by 2050 , And about 1 billion people go to
bed hungry each night, partly for lack of water to grow food.
C People in temperate climates where the rain falls moderately all the
year round may not realize how much water is needed for farming. In
Britain farming takes only 3 % of all water withdrawals. In the United
States, by contrast, 41 % goes for agriculture irrigation. For the world as
a whole, agriculture accounts for almost 70 %. Farmers ' increasing
demand for water is caused not only by the growing number of mouths
to be fed but also by people's desire for better-tasting, more interesting
food. Unfortunately, it takes nearly twice as much water to grow a kilo
of peanuts as a kilo of soya beans, nearly four times as much to produce
a kilo of beef as a kilo of chicken, and nearly five times as much to
produce a glass of orange juice as a cup of tea. With 2 billion people
around the world about to enter the middle class, the agricultural
demands on water would increase even if the population stood still.
D Most of the Earth's surface is sea, and the water below it - over 97
% of the total on Earth - is salty. In principle the salt can be removed to
increase the supply of fresh water, but at present desalination is
expensive and uses lots of energy. Although costs have come down, no
one expects it to provide wide-scale irrigation soon.
E Of the 2.5 % of water that is not salty, about 70 % is frozen, either
at the poles, in glaciers or in permafrost. All living things, except those
in the sea, have about 0.75 % of the total to survive on. Most of this
available water is underground, in aquifers or similar formations. The
rest is ling as rain, sitting in lakes and reservoirs or flowing in rivers
where it is, with luck, replaced by rainfall and melting snow and ice.
There is also, to take note, water vapor in the atmosphere.
F Many of these conceptual difficulties arise from other unusual
aspects of water. It is a commodity whose value varies according to
locality purpose and circumstance. Take locality first. Water is not
evenly distributed - just nine countries account for 60 % of all available
fresh supplies - and among them only Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Congo
Indonesia and Russia have an abundance. America is relatively well off,
but China and India, with over a third of the world's population between
them, have less than 10 % of its water.
G Even within countries the variations may be huge. The average
annual rainfall in India's northeast is 110 times that in its western desert.
And many places have plenty of water, or even far too much, at some
times of the year, but not nearly enough at others. Most of India's crucial
rain is brought by the summer monsoon, which falls, with luck, in just a
few weeks between June and September. Flooding is routine, and may
become more frequent and damaging with climate change.
H The water underground, once largely ignored, has come to be seen
as especially valuable as the demands of farmers have outgrown their
supplies of rain and surface water. Groundwater has come to the rescue
as a miraculous solution: drill a borehole, pump the stuff up from below
and in due course it will be replaced. In some places it is replenished if
rain or surface water is available. In many places, however, the
quantities being withdrawn exceed the annual recharge. This is serious
for millions of people in many cities, who often depend on them for their
drinking water.
I All humans, however, need a basic minimum of two litres of
water in food or drink each day, and for this there is no substitute. No
one survived in the ruins after a heavy earthquake unless they had access
to water-based food or drink. Many people believe water to be a human
right, a necessity more basic than bread or a roof over the head. There is
a widespread belief that no one should have to pay for water. Water
often has a sacred or mystical quality. Throughout history, man's
dependence on water has made him live near it.
J Water has provided not just life and food but also a means of
transport, a way of keeping clean, a mechanism for removing sewage, a
home for fish and other animals, a medium with which to cook, in which
to swim, on which to skate and sail, a thing of beauty to provide
inspiration, to gaze upon and to enjoy. No wonder a commodity with so
many qualities, uses and associations has proved so difficult to organize.
Questions 1-5
Reading Passage 1 has ten paragraphs, A-J.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
1 The aquifers are overdrawn in some areas.
2 Water is essential for our daily life. I
3 More delicious and processed food contribute to the increasing
consumption of water. C
4 Negative effects on the water consumption owe much to the
demographic changes. F
5 The precipitation is unevenly distributed in one nation state or area. G
Questions 6-12
Do the following statements agree with the information given in
Reading Passage 1? In boxes 6-12 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about
this
6. The supply of water is finite and the situation is getting worse. False3
7. Most farmers were vexed by the problems caused by the deficiency of
water nearly half century ago. Not given
8. The water consumption in farming may climb up while matching
against static population true
9. Desalination has experienced a series of great breakthroughs in
technology. Not given/true
10. Most global freshwater resources are in liquid state. true
11. Brazil has more available water than Russia. Not given
12. More important than our daily food and domestic dwellings, water is
seen as a human right and a totally free source for everyone. true
Question 13
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D
Write the correct letter in box 13 on your answer sheet.
13 The writer's aim in this passage is
A to warn that most Western governments have underestimated their
chronic shortage of water.
B to prove that water is a commodity that is too difficult to manage.
C to make believe that water is another kind of the new oil.
D to show that water is finite, vital but little understood and looks
unmanageable,