Table of Contents
BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 123
ACADEMIC READING TEST 123 – PASSAGE – 1
ACADEMIC READING TEST – 123
READING PASSAGE – 1
Running Dry
The problems of water shortages have always been with us. Worldwide consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, a solution is desperately needed.
A. Government water commission maps in Mexico show 96 overexploited aquifers1. Seawater has polluted 17 others because of too much pumping, while toxic seepage is spreading fast. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Mexican children are contracting digestive diseases due to poor water storage. Mexico City, built eight centuries ago atop vast lagoons, cannot adequately supply water for its 22 million inhabitants, like many cities in the world, less than half of the city’s waste is treated.
The rest sinks into underground lakes or flows toward the Gulf of Mexico, turning rivers into sewers. This presents an extremely difficult prospect for Mexico’s future. The Mexican National Water Commission lists some 35 cities that must shrink dramatically unless more water can be found. A forced exodus from parched cities seems far-fetched, and no one suggests it will happen next week but it is a spectre haunting Mexico’s future.
B. Much of the water that Mexico depends upon is the same water that is badly needed in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. One forecast is that Corpus Christi, Texas (population: 277,454), will run out of the water around 2018. In the meantime, the problem is getting worse. Deputy director of the Mexican National Water Commission Cantu Suarez reports, “In Oaxaca, south of Mexico City, women line up at dawn to fill a few plastic containers from a passing water truck. In Alamos, far to the north, ancient aquifers are pumped at five times the sustainable rate.”
C. Mexico is only one example of desperation in a world running short of water. Parts of the earth are dying, with fields poisoned by salt and village wells running dry. And there are legal battles looming. The Colorado River, drained by 10 U.S. states with their own water crises, is a muddy trickle by the time it reaches the rich farmland of Baja California. Under complex water agreements with the United States, Mexico can take water from the Rio Grande but must pay it back. President Vicente Fox has promised to pay the debt, which amounts to enough to put the state of Delaware under a flood of water. But with Mexico already so short of water, it is not realistic to think it can happen.
D. Canada with its thousands of lakes and rivers would be viewed by most people as having an inexhaustible water supply. In comparison to Africa and other dry- places, most of Canada’s waters are pristine. But the cumulative effect of mistreatment over the years has taken an evident toll. The cities of Victoria on the west coast and Halifax on the east still dump billions of litres of raw sewage into their oceans. The world’s biggest freshwater basin, the Great Lakes, is described as a chemical soup not fit to drink from or swim in. Some concerned experts view them as loaded with toxic chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, and sewage. Far too many rivers and streams in Canada have been badly contaminated by industrial activity.
E. Humans can live about a month without food but only a few days without water. Because 70 per cent of the human body is water, weight loss in some quick diets is dramatic due to water loss. Of all the water in the world, only about 2.5 per cent is fresh and two-thirds of this is locked up in glaciers and ice caps. Nobody knows how much water is underground or in permafrost. All life on earth is sustained by a fraction of one per cent of the world’s water. If a five-litre jug (about 1.3 gallons) represented the world’s water, the available freshwater would not quite fill a teaspoon.
F. Overall, in most parts of the planet, there is enough water to supply human needs. The huge problem, however, is the rapidly increasing populations in places that lack adequate water resources, as well as mismanagement of available resources. Canada, with only 0.5 per cent of the world’s population, has 5.6 per cent of its usable freshwater supply. China, with 22 per cent of the population on earth, has only 5.7 per cent of usable freshwater. We cannot just move fresh water to where it is most needed – like in the Sahara, Ethiopia, Somalia or India.
G. In January 2000, the Newfoundland government identified a dozen of its communities with high levels of potentially dangerous THMs (trihalomethanes) in water supplies. In an attempt to solve this issue the main solution put forward by scientists is sterilization of the water. However, this approach can also be the cause of problems. Drinking such water over a long period can cause bladder and colon cancers, but health experts maintain the benefits far outweigh these risks.
As a result, the bottled water business is booming. In just one decade, sales have surged from $2.6 billion to $7.7 billion in the United States of America alone. This represents a 10 per cent growth rate for the past 10 years. But is it safe? Canadian standards for testing bottled water are lower than those for municipal supplies, so there are no assurances that bottled water is any better than tap water.
H. At the start of the 20th century, there were 1.65 billion people; 100 years later there are more than 6 billion, and the United Nations estimates there will be nearly 9 billion by 2050. But the annual supply of renewable freshwater will remain the same, so the amount of water available to each person decreases and the population grows, raising the possibility of water shortages. The supply of water to the future is a major issue that will confront tomorrow’s leaders.
1. aquifers: underground bed yielding groundwater for wells and springs
2. A ground that is permanently frozen
Question 1-4
Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs A-H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-H in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
1. where most freshwater is located in the world
2. A way Mexican women obtain water
3. the effect of waste upon Mexican rivers
4. Mexico’s financial commitment for its water
Question 5-8
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet write
YES – if the statement reflects 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
5. Unhealthy water is causing illness among Mexican children.
6. Mexicans are moving to other cities because of water shortages.
7. Mexican food crops will fail without water from America.
8. Drinking water in Canada has been polluted by industry.
Question 9-13
Chose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
The main issue that confronts cities with poor water supplies is their growing (9)…………… . Canada, which contains (10)…………. of the world’s freshwater, has dealt with water pollution in some cities through a process of (11)………….. . Although treated for dangerous pollution, some health experts believe city water to be a cause of (12)…………… . Not all people are content to drink town water and this has added to a demand for (13)………….. .
ANSWERS ARE BELOW
ANSWERS
1. E
2. B
3. A
4. C
5. YES
6. NO
7. NOT GIVEN
8. YES
9. POPULATION(S)
10. 5.6 PER CENT
11. STERILIZATION
12. CANCER(S)
13. BOTTLED WATER