Freshwater life itself has never come easy in the Middle East. Ever since The Old Testament (旧约全书), God punished man with 40 days and 40 nights of rain. Water supplies here have been dwindling. The rainfall only comes in winter and drains quickly through the semiarid land, leaving the soil to bake and to thirst for next November.

The region's accelerating population, expanding agriculture, industrialization, and higher living standards demand more freshwater. Drought and pollution limit its availability. War and mismanagement waste it. Said Joyce Start of the Global Water Summit Initiative, based in Washington, D.C. "Nations like Israel and Jordan are swiftly sliding into that zone where they are suing all the water resources available to them. They have only 15 to 20 years left before their agriculture, and ultimately their food security, is threatened."

I came here to examine this crisis in the making, to investigate fears that "water wars" are imminent, that water has replaced oil as the region's most contentious commodity. For more than two months I traveled through three river valleys and seven nations—from southern Turkey down the Euphrates River to Syria, Iraq, and on to Kuwait; to Israel and Jordan, neighbors across the valley of the Jordan; to the timeless Egyptian Nile.

Even amid the scarcity there are haves and have-nots. Compared with the United States, which in 1990 had freshwater potential of 10,000 cubic meters (2.6 million gallons) a year for each citizen, Iraq had 5,500, Turkey had 4,000, and Syria had more than 2,800. Egypt's potential was only 1,100. Israel had 460. Jordan had a meager 260. But these are not firm figures, because upstream use of river water can dramatically alter the potential downstream.

Scarcity is only one element of the crisis. Inefficiency is another, as is the reluctance of some water-poor nations to change priorities from agriculture to less water-intensive enterprises. Some experts suggest that if nations would share both water technology and resources, they could satisfy the region's population, currently 159 million. But in this patchwork of ethnic and religious rivalries, water seldom stands alone as an issue. It is entangled in the politics that keep people from trusting and seeking help from one another. Here, where water, like truth, is precious, each nation tends to find its own water and supply its own truth.

As Israeli hydrology professor Uri Shamir told me: "If there is political will for peace, water will not be a hindrance. If you want reasons to fight, water will not be a hindrance, lf you want reasons to fight, water will give you ample opportunities."

Why does the author use the phrase "for next November" (Line 3, Para. 1)？

A．According to the Old Testament freshwater is available only in November.

B．Rainfall comes only in winter staging from November.

C．Running water systems will not be ready until next November.

D．It is a custom in that region that irrigation to crops is done only in November.

Will We Run Out of Water？Picture a "ghost ship" sinking into the sand, left to rot on dry
Will We Run Out of Water？
Picture a "ghost ship" sinking into the sand, left to rot on dry land by a receding sea. Then imagine dust storms sweeping up toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizers from the dry seabed and spewing them across towns and villages.
Seem like a scene from a movie about the end of the world？ For people living near the Aral sea (咸海) in Central Asia, it's all too real. Thirty years ago, government planners diverted the rivers that flow into the sea in order to irrigate (provide water for) farmland. As a result, the sea has shrunk to half its original size, stranding (使搁浅) ships on dry land. The seawater has tripled in salt content and become polluted, killing all 24 native species offish.
Similar largecale efforts to redirect water in other parts of the world have also ended in ecological crisis, according to numerous environmental groups. But many countries continue to build massive dams and irrigation systems, even though such projects can create more problems than they fix. Why？ People in many parts of the world are desperate for water, and more people will need more water in the next century.
"Growing populations will worsen problems with water," says Peter H. Gleick, an environmental scientist at the Pacific Institute for studies in Development, Environment, and Security, a research organization in California. He fears that by the year 2025, as many as one-third of the world's projected (预测的) 8.3 billion people will suffer from water shortages.
WHERE WATER GOES
Only 2.5 percent of all water on Earth is freshwater, water suitable for drinking and growing food, says Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project in Amherst, Mass. Two-thirds of this freshwater is locked in glaciers (冰山) and ice caps (冰盖). In fact, only a tiny percentage of freshwater is part of the water cycle, in which water evaporates and rises into the atmosphere, then condenses and falls back to Earth as precipitation (rain or snow).
Some precipitation runs off land to lakes and oceans, and some becomes groundwater, water that seeps into the earth. Much of this renewable freshwater ends up in remote places like the Amazon river basin in Brazil, where few people live, In fact, the world's population has access to only 12,500 cubic kilometers of freshwater—about the amount of water in Lake Superior(苏必利尔湖). And people use half of this amount already. "If water demand continues to climb rapidly," says Postel, "there will be severe shortages and damage to the aquatic (水的) environment."
CLOSE TO HOME
Water woes(灾难) may seem remote to people living in rich countries like the United States. But Americans could face serious water shortages, too especially in areas that rely on groundwater. Groundwater accumulates in aquifers (地下蓄水层), layers of sand and gravel that lie between soil and bedrock. (For every liter of surface water, more than 90 liters are hidden underground.) Although the United States has large aquifers, farmers, ranchers, and cities are tapping many of them for water faster than nature can replenish(补充) it. In northwest Texas, for example, overpumping has shrunk groundwater supplies by 25 percent, according to Postel.
Americans may face even more urgent problems from pollution. Drinking water in the United States is generally safe and meets high standards. Nevertheless, one in five Americans every day unknowingly drinks tap water contaminated with bacteria and chemical wastes, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In Milwaukee, 400,000 people fell iii in 1993 after drinking tap water tainted with cryptosporidium (隐孢子虫), a microbe (微生物) that causes fever, diarrhea (腹泻) and vomiting.
THE SOURCE
Where so contaminants come from？ In developing countries, people dump raw (未经处理的) sewage(污水) into the same streams and rivers from which they draw water for drinking and co
A．Y
B．N
C．NG

英译汉：What kind of life do most people enjoy？

Life is unexpected. 以下感叹句正确的是()？

种子业务，云商通分销录入，需要运用（）模块进行操作

“I will drink ／ life to the lees .” In the quoted line Ulysses is saying that he till
“I will drink / life to the lees .” In the quoted line Ulysses is saying that he till the end of his life .
A、will keep traveling and exploring
B、will go on drinking and being happy
C、would like to toast to his glorious life
D、would like to drink the cup of wine

“活着"（只能做表语）（）

It has（)to change your life with sound decision.A.potentialB.possibleC.probableD.contine
It has()to change your life with sound decision.
A.potential
B.possible
C.probable
D.continental

Long life is altering our society， of course， but in experiential ________.A. itemsB.
Long life is altering our society， of course， but in experiential ________.
A. items
B. terms
C. turns
D. themes

那个系列LIFE提供了魔术座椅（）