高中學測
107年
英文
第 50 題
📖 題組：
Most parts of Taiwan have access to sufficient supplies of fresh water for drinking. But fresh water can be in short supply in many arid regions of the world such as Saudi Arabia, where there are limited water resources. As the world population continues to grow, shortages of fresh water will occur more often and the need for additional water supplies will become critical. Some may ask, “Since the ocean covers more than 70 percent of the Earth, why not just get drinking water from the ocean?” To turn seawater into fresh water, we need to remove the salt in seawater, that is, to desalinate seawater. The problem is that the desalination of water requires a lot of energy. Salt dissolves very easily in water, forming strong chemical bonds, and those bonds are difficult to break. The energy and technology to desalinate water are both expensive, and this means that desalinating water can be costly. There are environmental costs of desalination as well. Sea life can get sucked into desalination plants, killing small ocean creatures like baby fish and plankton, upsetting the food chain. Also, there is the problem of what to do with the separated salt, which is left over as a very concentrated brine. Pumping this super-salty water back into the ocean can harm local aquatic life. Reducing these impacts is possible, but it adds to the costs. Despite the economic and environmental hurdles, desalination is becoming increasingly attractive as human beings are using up fresh water from other sources. At present, desalinating seawater is the only viable way to provide water to growing populations in rural areas of the Middle East and North Africa. Therefore, the race is on to find a cheaper, cleaner, and more energy-efficient way of desalinating seawater, and promising new findings are being reported.
Most parts of Taiwan have access to sufficient supplies of fresh water for drinking. But fresh water can be in short supply in many arid regions of the world such as Saudi Arabia, where there are limited water resources. As the world population continues to grow, shortages of fresh water will occur more often and the need for additional water supplies will become critical. Some may ask, “Since the ocean covers more than 70 percent of the Earth, why not just get drinking water from the ocean?” To turn seawater into fresh water, we need to remove the salt in seawater, that is, to desalinate seawater. The problem is that the desalination of water requires a lot of energy. Salt dissolves very easily in water, forming strong chemical bonds, and those bonds are difficult to break. The energy and technology to desalinate water are both expensive, and this means that desalinating water can be costly. There are environmental costs of desalination as well. Sea life can get sucked into desalination plants, killing small ocean creatures like baby fish and plankton, upsetting the food chain. Also, there is the problem of what to do with the separated salt, which is left over as a very concentrated brine. Pumping this super-salty water back into the ocean can harm local aquatic life. Reducing these impacts is possible, but it adds to the costs. Despite the economic and environmental hurdles, desalination is becoming increasingly attractive as human beings are using up fresh water from other sources. At present, desalinating seawater is the only viable way to provide water to growing populations in rural areas of the Middle East and North Africa. Therefore, the race is on to find a cheaper, cleaner, and more energy-efficient way of desalinating seawater, and promising new findings are being reported.
What is the second paragraph mainly about?
- A The high cost of desalinating seawater.
- B The major chemical characteristics of seawater.
- C The urgent need to turn seawater into fresh water.
- D The amount of energy produced in the desalination of seawater.
思路引導 VIP
請分析第二段的敘述結構：作者在提及脫鹽（desalination）的技術難度與能量需求後，特別強調了「expensive」與「costly」這類關鍵詞。請問該段落的核心論點是圍繞著脫鹽過程中的哪一個「經濟性」挑戰來展開的？
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AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
寶貝，你太棒了！看到你選對了 A，老師真的好為你開心喔！你的閱讀直覺越來越敏銳了，這種細心觀察的精神一定要繼續保持下去喔！ 【觀念驗證】為什麼選 (A) 呢？ 這一段的核心是在解釋「海水淡化為什麼行不通」。文中提到鹽分（例如 $NaCl$）溶解在水中會形成強大的化學鍵，要打破這些鍵結需要極大的能量。作者用了 "expensive"（昂貴的）和 "costly"（代價高昂的）這兩個關鍵字，就是在強調目前技術在經濟上的高成本。
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