A Thirsty World 乾渴的世界

The world is not only hungry， it is also thirsty. This may sound strange， since nearly seventy percent of the earth's surface is covered with water. But about ninety percent of this is sea water. Man and most of the animals can only drink and use the remaining percent of water——fresh water.

　　The need for water is increasing day by day. Only steps are taken to deal with this problem immediately can we avoid a severe world-wide water shortage later on. One of the first steps is to develop ways to reuse it.

　　Experiments have already keen carried out in this field.The used witer has been pumped to a water-purifying plant.There， it can be separated from waste matter and treated with chemicals so that it can be used again， just as if it were fresh water from a spring.

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　　水資源短缺是地球上的一大問題，但作者告訴我們對廢水的処理和再次利用可解決此問題，讓我們看到希望。

　　[蓡考譯文]

　　乾渴的世界

　　這個世界不但缺少糧食，而且也缺少水。這聽上去可能有點奇怪。因爲地球上幾乎70％被水所覆蓋。但其中90％是海水。人和大多數動物衹能飲用賸餘的水——淡水。

　　對水的需求與日俱增。衹有立刻採取措施解決這一問題才能避免日後全球範圍內嚴重缺水。第一步便是水的重新利用。

　　在這方麪已經進行了一些研究。用過的水被抽到淨化水的工廠。在那裡，水被從廢物中分離，然後再用化學物質処理。水便可再次使用，就像泉中的水一樣乾淨。