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  3. If you live in a city in North America or Europe, you have probably never thought much about water. Whenever you need some, you

If you live in a city in North America or Europe, you have probably never thought much about water. Whenever you need some, you

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问题     If you live in a city in North America or Europe, you have probably never thought much about water. Whenever you need some, you turn on the tap and there it is. Millions of people in other parts of the world are not so lucky. They have trouble getting enough clean water for their basic needs. This situation may soon become common all around the world, scientists believe. In fact, they say that the lack of clean water may be one of the biggest issues in the twenty-first century.
    The reasons for this are clear. On the one hand, people are using more water than ever before. Over the last fifty years, the population of the world has more than doubled. On the other hand, many sources of surface water such as rivers, lakes and streams are too polluted and unhealthy for use as drinking water.
    This has forced more and more people to drill wells so they can get water from underground. There are enormous amounts of water deep underground in lakes called aquifers. Until recently, scientists believed this underground water was safe from pollution. Then, in the 1980s, people in the United States began to find chemicals in their well water, and scientists took a closer look at what was happening. Weldon Spring, Missouri, for example, was the site of a bomb factory during World War II. The factory was destroyed after the war, but poisonous chemicals remained on the ground. Very slowly, these chemicals dripped down through the ground and into the aquifer. Once they did, however, the water from that aquifer was no longer drinkable.
    It probably never will be drinkable again. Underground water is not renewed regularly by the rain, like lake or river water. Thus, if a harmful chemical gets into an aquifer, it will stay there for a very long time. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to remove all the water in an aquifer and clean out the pollutants.
    Industrial sites like Weldon Spring are one cause of underground water pollution. There are thousands of such sites in the United States alone, and many others around the world. Underground water pollution is also caused by modern farming methods, which require the use of large amounts of chemicals in the fields. And finally, yet another important cause of underground water pollution is waste. That includes solid waste thrown away in dumps and landfills, and also untreated human and animal waste.
    The situation is indeed very serious. Fortunately, there are many aquifers and they are very large. Only a small number have been seriously damaged so far. But if the world does not want to go thirsty in the near future, further pollution must be prevented. Around the world, governments must make real changes in industry, agriculture and waste disposal.
This passage is mainly about______.
选项 A、pollution problems in general
B、people in North America or Europe are living happier than those in other parts
C、people drilling wells to check chemicals in well water
D、underground water pollution
答案D
解析 根据文章大意可知，该文是通过提出饮用水匮乏这一问题的解决方案，即开发地下水资源，引发了对于地下水污染这一现象及其成因的探讨。因此，文章探讨的核心一定是关于地下水污染的问题，故选D。A项过于笼统，原文除地下水污染外并未涉及其他污染；B项指出北美和欧洲人生活更加幸福与原文内容不符；C项与第3段内容不符，人们掘井的目的是为了取水而非测量其中的化学物质。
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