歷年考研英語閱讀理解1998年01

[00:06.00]1998 Passage1 [00:11.44]Few creations of big technology [00:13.86]capture the imagination like giant dams. [00:17.98]Perhaps it is humankind's long suffering [00:20.94]at the mercy of flood and drought [00:23.56]that makes the idea of forcing the waters to do [00:26.78]our bidding so fascinating. [00:30.01]But to be fascinated is also, sometimes, to be blind. [00:34.94]Several giant dam projects threaten to do [00:38.18]more harm than good. [00:41.10]The lesson from dams is that big is not always beautiful. [00:45.93]It doesn't help that building a big, [00:48.16]powerful dam has become a symbol of achievement [00:51.24]for nations and people striving to assert themselves. [00:55.98]Egypt's leadership in the Arab world [00:58.30]was cemented by the Aswan High Dam. [01:01.62]Turkey's bid for First World status [01:04.35]includes the giant Ataturk Dam. [01:07.98]But big dams tend not to work as intended. [01:11.92]The Aswan Dam, for example, [01:14.22]stopped the Nile flooding [01:16.14]but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left [01:20.58]--all in return for a giant reservoir of disease [01:24.41]which is now so full of silt [01:26.50]that it barely generates electricity. [01:29.84]And yet, the myth of controlling the waters persists. [01:34.18]This week, in the heart of civilized Europe, [01:37.11]Slovaks and Hungarians stopped just short of [01:40.21]sending in the troops in their contention [01:42.52]over a dam on the Danube. [01:45.75]The huge complex will probably [01:47.76]have all the usual problems of big dams. [01:51.09]But Slovakia is bidding for independence from the Czechs, [01:55.12]and now needs a dam to prove itself. [01:58.85]Meanwhile, in India, the World Bank [02:01.88]has given the go-ahead to the even more [02:04.07]wrong-headed Narmada Dam. [02:07.00]And the bank has done this even though [02:09.12]its advisors say the dam [02:11.03]will cause hardship for the powerless [02:13.26]and environmental destruction. [02:15.79]The benefits are for the powerful, [02:18.11]but they are far from guaranteed. [02:21.41]Proper, scientific study of the impacts of dams [02:25.04]and of the costs and benefits of controlling water [02:28.16]can help to resolve these conflicts. [02:31.29]Hydroelectric power and flood control and irrigation [02:35.32]are possible without building monster dams. [02:38.96]But when you are dealing with myths, [02:41.01]it is hard to be either proper, or scientific. [02:44.94]It is time that the world learned the lessons of Aswan. [02:48.57]You don't need a dam to be saved.

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