TEST 10
Reclaiming the future of aral sea
A The Aral Sea gets almost all its water from the Amu and Syr rivers. Over millennium the
Amu’s course has drifted away from the sea, causing it to shrink. But the lake always
rebounded as the Amu shifted back again. Today heavy irrigation for crops such as cotton and
rice siphons off much of the two rivers, severely cutting flow into their deltas and thus into the
sea. Evaporation vastly outpaces any rainfall, snowmelt or groundwater supply, reducing water
volume and raising salinity. The Soviet Union hid the sea’s demise for decades until 1985,
when leader Mikhail Gorbachev revealed the great environmental and human tragedy. By the
late 1980s the sea’s level had dropped so much that the water had separated into two distinct
bodies: the Small Aral (north) and the Large Aral (south). By 2007 the south had split into a
deep western basin, a shallow eastern basin and a small, isolated gulf. The Large Aral’s volume
had dropped from 708 to only 75 cubic kilometers (km3), and salinity had risen from 14 to
more than 100 grams per liter (g/1). The 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union divided the lake
between newly formed Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, ending a grand Soviet plan to channel in
water from distant Siberian rivers and establishing competition for the dwindling resource.
B Desiccation of the Aral Sea has wrought severe consequences. Greatly reduced river flows
ended the spring floods that sustained wetlands with freshwater and enriched sediment. Fish
species in the lakes dropped from 32 to 6 because of rising salinity and loss of spawning and
feeding grounds (most survived in the river deltas). Commercial fisheries, which caught 40,000
metric tons of fish in 1960, were gone by the mid-1980s; more than 60,000 related jobs were
lost. The most common
remaining lake occupant was the Black Sea flounder, a saltwater fish introduced in the 1970s,
but by 2003 it had disappeared from the southern lakes because salinity was more than 70 g/1,
double that of a typical ocean. Shipping on the Aral also ceased because the water receded
many kilometers from the major ports of Aralsk to the north and Moynak in the south; keeping
increasingly long channels open to the cities became too costly. Groundwater levels dropped
with falling lake levels, intensifying desertification.
C The receding sea has exposed and dried 54,000 square kilometers of seabed, which is choked
with salt and in some places laced with pesticides and other agricultural chemicals deposited by
runoff from area farming. Strong windstorms blow salt, dust and contaminants as far as 500
km. Winds from the north and northeast drive the most severe storms, seriously impacting the
Amu delta to the south—the most densely settled and most economically and ecologically
important area in the region. Afrbome sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate
kill or retard the growth of natural vegetation and crops—a cruel irony given that irrigating
those crops starves the sea. Health experts say the local population suffers from high levels of
respiratory illnesses, throat and esophageal cancer, and digestive disorders caused by breathing
and ingesting salt-laden air and water. Liver and kidney ailments, as well as eye problems, are
common. The loss of fish has also greatly reduced dietary variety, worsening malnutrition and
anemia, particularly in pregnant women.
D Returning the entire Aral Sea to its 1960s state is unrealistic. The annual inflow from the Syr
and Amu rivers would have to be quadrupled from the recent average of 13 km3. The only
means would be to curtail irrigation, which accounts for 92 percent of water withdrawals. Yet
four of the five former Soviet republics in the Aral Sea basin (Kazakhstan is the exception)
intend to expand irrigation, mainly to feed growing populations. Switching to less water-
intensive crops, such as replacing cotton with winter wheat, could help, but the two primary
irrigating nations, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, intend to keep cotton to earn foreign
currency. The extensive irrigation canals could be greatly improved; many are simply cuts
through sand, and they allow enormous quantities of water to seep away. Modernizing the
entire system could save 12 km3 a year but would cost at least $16 billion. The basin states do
not have the money or the political will. Kazakhstan has nonetheless tried to partially restore
the northern Aral.
E We expect salinities in the Small Aral to settle at three to 14 g/1, depending on location. At
these levels many more indigenous species should return, although the saltwater kambala
would disappear from most places. Further restoration is possible. For example, if irrigation
improvements raised the average annual inflow from the Syr to 4.5 km3, which is entirely
feasible, the lake’s level could stabilize at about 47 meters. This change would bring the
shoreline to within eight kilometers of Aralsk, the former major port city, close enough to allow
recovery of an earlier channel that connected the city to the receding waters. The channel
would give large commercial fishing vessels access to the sea, and shipping could restart.
Marshlands and fish populations would improve even more because of a further reduction in
salinity. Outflow to the southern lakes could also increase, helping then restoration. Such a plan
would require a much longer and higher dike, as well as reconstruction of the gate facility, and
it is not clear that Kazakhstan has the means or desire to pursue it. The country is, however,
now discussing more modest proposals to bring water closer to Aralsk.
F The Large Aral faces a difficult future; it continues to shrink rapidly. Only a long, narrow
channel connects the shallow eastern basin and the deeper western basin, and this could close
altogether. If countries along the Amu make no changes, we estimate that at current rates of
groundwater in and evaporation out, an isolated eastern basin would stabilize at an area of
4,300 square kilometers (km2). But it would average only 2.5 meters deep. Salinity would
exceed 100 g/1, possibly reaching 200 g/1; the only creatures that could live in it would be
brine shrimp and bacteria. The western basin’s fate depends on ground- water inflow, estimates
for which are uncertain. Someone has noted numerous fresh- water springs on the western
cliffs. The most reliable calculations indicate that the basin would settle at about 2,100 km2.
The lake would still be relatively deep, reaching 37 meters in spots, but salinity would rise well
above 100 g/1.
Questions 1-6
The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-F.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-F, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1. A mission impossible
2. An extremely worrying trend for one main part of Aral Sea
3. An uncompleted project because of political reasons
4. A promising recovery in the future
5. A strongly affected populated district
6. The disclosure of a big secret
Questions 7-9
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 7-9 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE. if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE. if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN. If there is no information on this
7. In response to the increasingly growing number in the population, not all
nations near the Aral Sea consider plans which will enhance the severity of the problems the
Aral Sea is faced with.
8. The willingness for Kazakhstan to take the restoration action to save the
Small Aral Sea is somehow not certain.
9. The western basin seems to have a destined future regardless of the influx of
the groundwater.
Questions 10-13
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using NO MORE
THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.
The produced by the floodwaters, which were ceased because of the decrease
in of the Aral Sea, are main sources to keep the survival of the wetlands. The
types of fishes living in it experienced a devastating tragedy out of the increase
in and decrease in spots for with a good example of the extinction
of a specific fish. What is more, fisheries and shipping suffered greatly from these vast
changes.
Conflicting climatic phenomena co-existing on the Mars
A On Mars, signs of wetness keep pouring in: deeply carved river valleys, vast deltas and
widespread remnants of evaporating seas have convinced many experts that liquid water may
have covered large parts of the Red Planet for a billion years or more. But most efforts to
explain how Martian climate ever permitted such clement conditions come up dry. Bitterly cold
and parched today, Mars needed a potent greenhouse atmosphere to sustain its watery past. A
thick layer of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from volcanoes probably shrouded the young
planet, but climate models indicate time and again that C02 alone could not have kept the
surface above freezing.
B Now, inspired by the surprising discovery that sulfur minerals are pervasive in the Martian
soil, scientists are beginning to suspect that C02 had a warm-up partner: sulfur dioxide (S02).
Like C02, S02 is a common gas emitted when volcanoes erupt, a frequent occurrence on Mars
when it was still young. A hundredth or even a thousandth of a percent S02 in Mars's early
atmosphere could have provided the extra boost of greenhouse warming that the Red Planet
needed to stay wet, explains geochemist Daniel p. Schrag of Harvard University.
C That may not sound like much, but for many gases, even minuscule concentrations are hard
to maintain. On our home planet, S02 provides no significant long-term warmth because it
combines almost instantly with oxygen in the atmosphere to form sulfate, a type of salt. Early
Mars would have been virtually free of atmospheric oxygen, though, so S02 would have stuck
around much longer.
D "When you take away oxygen, it's a profound change, and the atmosphere works really
differently," Schrag remarks. According to Schrag and his colleagues, that difference also
implies that S02 would have played a starring role in the Martian water cycle—thus resolving
another climate conundrum, namely, a lack of certain rocks.
E Schrag's team contends that on early Mars, much of the S02 would have combined with
airborne water droplets and fallen as sulfurous acid rain, rather than transforming into a salt as
on Earth. The resulting acidity would have inhibited the formation of thick layers of limestone
and other carbonate rocks. Researchers assumed Mars would be chock-full of carbonate rocks
because their formation is such a fundamental consequence of the humid, C02-rich atmosphere.
Over millions of years, this rock-forming process has sequestered enough of the carbon dioxide
spewed from earthly volcanoes to limit the buildup of the gas in the atmosphere. stifling this
C02-sequestration step on early Mars would have forced more of the gas to accumulate in the
atmosphere—another way S02 could have boosted greenhouse warming, Schrag suggests.
F Some scientists doubt that S02 was really up to these climatic tasks . Even in an oxygen-free
atmosphere, S02 is still extremely fragile; the sun's ultraviolet radiation splits apart S02
molecules quite readily, points out James F. Kasting, an atmospheric chemist at Pennsylvania
state University. In Easting's computer models of Earth's early climate, which is often
compared with that of early Mars, this photochemical destruction capped S02 concentrations at
one thousandth as much as Schrag and his colleagues describe. "There may be ways to make
this idea work," Kasting says. "But it would take some detailed modeling to convince skeptics,
including me, that it is actually feasible."
G Schrag admits that the details are uncertain, but he cites estimates by other researchers who
suggest that early Martian volcanoes could have spewed enough S02 to keep pace with the S02
destroyed photochemically. Previous findings also indicate that a thick C02 atmosphere would
have effectively scattered the most destructive wavelengths of ultraviolet radiation—yet
another example of an apparently mutually beneficial partnership between C02 and S02 on
early Mars.
H Kasting maintains that an S02 climate feedback could not have made early Mars as warm as
Earth, but he does allow for the possibility that S02 concentrations may have remained high
enough to keep the planet partly defrosted, with perhaps enough rainfall to form river valleys.
Over that point, Schrag does not quibble. "Our hypothesis doesn't depend at all on whether
there was a big ocean, a few lakes or just a few little puddles," he says. " Warm doesn't mean
warm like the Amazon. It could mean warm like Iceland— just warm enough to create those
river valleys . " with S02, it only takes a little. If sulfur dioxide warmed early Mars, as a new
hypothesis suggests, minerals called sulfites would have formed in standing water at the
surface. No sulfites have yet turned up, possibly because no one was looking for them. The
next-generation rover, the Mars Science Laboratory, is well equipped for the search. Scheduled
to launch in 2009, the rover (shown here in an artist's conception) will be the first to carry an x-
ray diffractometer, which can scan and identify the crystal structure of any mineral it
encounters.
Questions 14-19
The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-H, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14. A problem indirectly solved by SO2
15. A device with an astounding ability for detection
16. A potential contributor to the warmth of the Mars interacting with CO2
17. The destructive effect brought by the sunlight proposed by the opponents
18. A specific condition on early Mars to guarantee the SO2 to maintain in the
atmosphere for a long time
19. Conflicting climatic phenomena co-existing on the Mars
Questions 20-22
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 20-22 on your answer sheet, write
{OPTION}
20. Schrag has provided concrete proofs to fight against the skeptics for his
view.
21. More and more evidences show up to be in favor of the leading role
SO2 has for the warming up the Mars.
22. The sulfites have not been detected probably because of no concern for
them.
Questions 23-26
Summary
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using No More than
Three words from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 23-26 on
your answer sheet.
An opinion held by Schrag’s team indicates that formed from the integration of
SO2 with would have stopped the built up of thick layers of limestone as well as
certain carbonate rocks. Wetness and abundance in CO2 could directly result in the good
production rocky layer of . As time went by, sufficient CO2 was emitted from the
volcanoes and restricted the formation of the gas in the afr. To stop this process made SO2
possible to accelerate
The Nagymaros Dam
When Janos Vargha, a biologist from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, began a new career
as a writer with a small monthly nature magazine called Buvar, it was 9 years after the story
behind the fall of the Berlin Wall had started to unfold. During his early research, he went to a
beauty spot on the river Danube outside Budapest known as the Danube Bend to interview
local officials about plans to build a small park on the site of an ancient Hungarian capital.
One official mentioned that passing this tree-lined curve in the river, a popular tourism spot for
Hungarians was monotonous. Also, it was to be submerged by a giant hydroelectric dam in
secret by a much-feared state agency known simply as the Water Management.
Vargha investigated and learned that the Nagymaros dam (pronounced “nosh-marosh”) would
cause pollution, destroy underground water reserves, dry out wetlands and wreck the unique
ecosystem of central Europe’s longest river. Unfortunately, nobody objected. “Of course, I
wrote an article. But there was a director of the Water Management on the magazine’s editorial
board. The last time, he went to the printers and stopped the presses, the article was never
published. I was frustrated and angry, but I was ultimately interested in why they cared to ban
my article,” he remembers today.
He found that the Nagymaros dam was part of a joint project with neighbouring
Czechoslovakia to produce hydroelectricity, irrigate farms and enhance navigation. They would
build two dams and re-engineer the Danube for 200 kilometres where it created the border
between them. “The Russians were working together, too. They wanted to take their big ships
from the Black Sea right up the Danube to the border with Austria.”
Vargha was soon under vigorous investigation, and some of his articles got past the censors. He
gathered supporters for some years, but he was one of only a few people who believed the dam
should be stopped. He was hardly surprised when the Water Management refused to debate the
project in public. After a public meeting, the bureaucrats had pulled out at the last minute.
Vargha knew he had to take the next step. “We decided it wasn’t enough to talk and write, so
we set up an organization, the Danube Circle. We announced that we didn’t agree with
censorship. We would act as if we were living in a democracy.” he says.
The Danube Circle was illegal and the secret publications it produced turned out to be samizdat
leaflets. In an extraordinary act of defiance, it gathered 10,000 signatures for a petition
objecting to the dam and made links with environmentalists in the west, inviting them to
Budapest for a press conference.
The Hungarian government enforced a news blackout on the dam, but articles about the
Danube Circle began to be published and appear in the western media. In 1985, the Circle and
Vargha, a public spokesman, won the Right Livelihood award known as the alternative Nobel
prize. Officials told Vargha he should not take the prize but he ignored them. The following
year when Austrian environmentalists joined a protest in Budapest, they were met with tear gas
and batons. Then the Politburo had Vargha taken from his new job as editor of the Hungarian
version of Scientific American.
The dam became a focus for opposition to the hated regime. Communists tried to hold back the
waters in the Danube and resist the will of the people. Vargha says, “Opposing the state
directly was still hard.” “Objecting to the dam was less of a hazard, but it was still considered a
resistance to the state.”
Under increasing pressure from the anti-dam movement, the Hungarian Communist Party was
divided. Vargha says, “Reformists found that the dam was not very popular and economical. It
would be cheaper to generate electricity by burning coal or nuclear power.” “But hardliners
were standing for Stalinist ideas of large dams which mean symbols of progress.”
Environmental issues seemed to be a weak point of east European communism in its final
years. During the 1970s under the support of the Young Communist Leagues, a host of
environmental groups had been founded. Party officials saw them as a harmless product of
youthful idealism created by Boy Scouts and natural history societies.
Green idealism steadily became a focal point for political opposition. In Czechoslovakia, the
human rights of Charter 77 took up environmentalism. The green-minded people of both
Poland and Estonia participated in the Friends of the Earth International to protest against air
pollution. Bulgarian environmentalists built a resistance group, called Ecoglasnost, which held
huge rallies in 1989. Big water engineering projects were potent symbols of the old Stalinism.
Questions 27-34
Complete the summary, using the list of words and phrases, A-L, below.
Write the correct letter, A-L, in boxes 27-34 on your answer sheet.
A. severe
B. discharged
C. constructing a park of small-scale
D. passed
E. reformist
F. swallowed up
G. separated
H. favourable
I. established
J. collision
K. combined
L. environmentalists
The story of the fall of the Berlin Wall had started to unfold 9 years earlier, Janos Vargha
visited the river Danube out of Budapest to discuss a matter of 27. with executives.
However, unfortunately, the tree-lined curve in the river was 28. by a colossal dam
which caused a lot of fear. He noticed the negative impact of the Nagymaros dam would
be 29. on the ecosystem around the main river. Besides, the dam was engineering
public works, generating hydroelectricity, irrigating farmlands and developing sailing trade
which was 30. with a border of Czechoslovakia.
After one public meeting, Vargha 31. the Danube Circle for showing the autonomy
of the people in a democracy. Despite every effort, he who would eventually become the editor
of the Hungarian edition was 32. by the Politburo. Fortunately, with plenty of
pressure from the anti-dam movement, east European communism’s final symbol was opposed
by the 33. . Overall, between political processing and environmentalists have been on
a 34. of views.
Questions 35-39
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage ?
In boxes 35-39 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE. if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE. if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN. If there is no information on this
35. Janos Vargha predicted that the Nagymaros dam would wreck the natural
atmosphere before it was built.
36. The Nagymaros dam’s project was managed by the Russians only.
37. The Danube Circle was an unauthorised group for opposing the dam.
38. The Politburo accepted Vargha as editor of the Hungarian edition.
39. The human rights Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia accepted green thoughts.
Question 40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxe 40 on your answer sheet.
40. In this passage, the Nagymaros dam’s main purpose was
A related to Russian Water Management.
B to develop a source of electronic power, farming and sail.
C to connect the Black Sea and the Danube.
D to develop a beauty spot on the river Danube.
