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Key to Exercises
Opener
1. The speaker is talking about the coming global water crisis/water problem. 2. Water is the key component in our daily life, not only for human use, but for energy, industry, agriculture, and livestock.
3. If you look at the earth, you will notice that over 75 % of our blue planet is water. But the problem is only 3% of that water is fresh water.
Transcript:
Today, according to UNICEF, at least 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation, while 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water period. Water is the key component in all of our daily lives no matter where we live, not only for human use, but for energy, industry, agriculture, and livestock. Now if you look at the earth, you’ll notice that over 75% of our blue planet is water. The problem is only 3% of that water is fresh water. Reading & Interacting
I. Understanding the Text 1. Text Organization 1.1
Paras. 1-2: We need to conserve water aggressively so that scientists can have time to find solutions.
Paras. 3-7: Water is going to be the most important and most contentious resource of the 21st century.
Paras. 8-9: There are solutions, but they take time.
Para. 10: Aggressive conservation is needed to buy us time before scientists find solutions.
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1)Water is on the way to becoming the most important resource of the 21st century. Getting water right is the great challenge the world is confronted with. To meet the challenge conservation should come first; then follow it up with new solutions.
2)To introduce the water problem, the author tells us about what happened one night when he and his seven-year-old daughter were brushing teeth together. In so doing the author tries to introduce the reader to a serious topic in a casual manner. Besides, it also reminds us of the fact that everyone can play a role, even in our daily life, in saving water.
3)He cites the late Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley’s list of humanity’s top 10 problems for the next 50 years.
4)He wants to show the reader how difficult it is for us to find a solution to the water problem. 5)He repeats what he says at the beginning of the article: The water problem can be solved but “The scientists need time.”
2. Comprehension Check 2.1 Focusing on the main ideas
In his 2003 speech at Rice University’s Energy & Nanotechnology Conference, the late Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley highlighted the top 10 problems for the next 50 years. In his list, energy sits at the top, and water comes next. Now, with the price of solar power going down, the dawn of a new energy era is just around the corner. As a result, water is going to be the greatest challenge for humanity. But the water problem is complicated. First, unlike coal and oil, water cannot be replaced. Second, water is intertwined with every other sector of society. Third, while water demands are growing, climate change is intensifying droughts and floods and water supplies are fluctuating. There are solutions, such as building water-transfer aqueducts, hydroelectric dams, and desalination plants. But they may be incredibly expensive. It will take time for scientists to find affordable solutions to the water problem. Before that, everyone should do his or her bit to conserve water.
2.2 Digging into detail 精品文档
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1)He means that water is most likely to become a strategic resource like oil that could trigger geopolitical conflict.
2)Because solving the energy and water problems will make the other problems easier to deal with. Abundant energy and water supplies will increase food production and improve the environment. They will also reduce poverty and disease, and so forth. 3)It most probably means energy produced at a low cost.
4)He means that every other sector of society needs water. People need water in their daily life. Energy production requires water for cooling power plants. Industry needs water for all sorts of purposes. Agriculture needs water for irrigation.
5)Yes, he did. Because he said getting freshwater from saltwater at a cheap price would dwarf all other scientific accomplishments.
2.3 Understanding difficult sentences
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1) A 2) B 3) A 4) A 5) A
II. Focusing on Language in Context 1. Key Words & Expressions 1.1
1.It will be a close game. The outcome is hard to predict. 2.Travelers on a tight budget would choose to go there by train instead of by plane. 3.Tom was on the point of leaving the garden when he heard someone cry: “Isn’t it Tom? I can hardly believe my eyes.” 4.Innovation is what we need when we design new products. 5.The problem turned out to be far more complicated than he had foreseen. 精品文档
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6.The works in this room are mostly by local artists. They embody the artists’ vision of a peaceful and environment-friendly civilization. 7.Water, though abundant in Brazil, is extremely unevenly distributed among its regions. 8.Even today, my first English teacher’s encouraging words still ring in my ears. 9.Henry has many friends working in the government. His sources of information are usually reliable. 10.These figures show that the death rate of road accident gets higher as the speed of the car increases. 11.With water demand growing, the conflict between the two neighboring villages over water has intensified over the years. 12.Years ago the professor said that there was no doubt that the people in this city would be confronted with a water shortage, if not a water crisis. Subsequent events have proved his predictions to be exactly right. 13.The TV program highlights the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks. 1.2
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1) around the corner
2) The money from her uncle enabled Jenny 3) dwarfs our old house 4) on track 5) and so forth
1.3
1.We believe that building a powerful navy is in the interest of our national defense. 2.He thought the coffee at breakfast was too sweet. It wasn’t to his liking. 3.The new system is said to enable us to use much less oil than before, in other words, to increase energy efficiency considerably. 4.Speaking of the real estate market, when people are losing their jobs, it is almost certain that the house prices will go down. 精品文档
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5.A regional conference on the conservation of fishery resources will be held in Seoul next week.
2. Confusable Words 2.1
1.Labor Day in the US falls on the first Monday in September. 2.The speaker seemed a little nervous at first, but after a short while became relaxed. 3.You want to learn making Chinese dumplings? First of all, let me show you how to make dough. 4.It was sunny but cool when we started. So the journey was quite pleasant at first. Then all of a sudden there came a thunderstorm. 2.2
1.Canada is a country rich in natural resources. 2.The travelers walked upstream until they reached the source of the river. 3.So far there has been no response from official sources. 4.With such limited resources, the manager has been doing remarkably well to keep the organization going.
3. Sentence Patterns 3.1
1.The fact that he has fully recovered from his bad accident shows that medicine can work wonders.
2.The reason (that) businesses are moving their plants to developing countries is that labor costs in their home countries are too high.
3.If we go on ignoring the fact that our rivers are running dry or being polluted, the consequences will not be hard to predict.
4.The reason (that) food prices are rising is that last year’s crop wasn’t good. 3.2
1.Whether the chicken came before the egg, or the egg before the chicken, is a question of how life began in general. 精品文档
进阶大学英语第五单元课后练习答案教学文稿
