3月22日的世界水日，让我想起前两天的北京可怕的黄色沙尘天气。据说，北京的沙尘天气，还有南方持续的干旱天气等等，是地下水位快速下降造成的。海地智利地震，洪水，干旱沙尘暴，全世界的各个角落，都饱尝着我们自己种下的恶果。
People in Bangladesh collecting water
中国的邻居孟加拉国，毒水发现后20年的今天，很多人可能还在喝着砷超标的毒水。
- 先认真听录音，再精读下面的一段文章，学习文中词汇，短语，提高雅思阅读能力。
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The researchers found that arsenic continues to be a major threat to the good health of millions of Bangladeshis, almost two decades after the problem was first detected, despite a massive effort to provide safe drinking water.
They also found that rice, the country’s staple food, can also contain potentially dangerous levels of arsenic, if the crop is irrigated with contaminated water, as happens in several parts of the country.
Ministers say that more research is needed on this and that people should not be alarmed.
Arsenic poisoning can cause cancers, heart and lung disease. It first became a problem in Bangladesh in the 1970s after the UN dug millions of new tube wells. The water that these wells tapped was contaminated with arsenic, and millions were affected in what the World Health Organisation termed ‘the greatest mass poisoning in history’.
- Words in the news
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- arsenic ：type of very strong poison which can kill people
- major threat ：serious danger
- two decades ：20 years (one decade is 10 years)
- staple food ：basic type of food eaten as part of most meals
- potentially dangerous ：possibly harmful
- irrigated ：supplied with water
- contaminated ：polluted, impure or harmful
- alarmed ：very worried that something bad will happen
- tube wells ：deep holes in the ground where water is taken from using large pipes
- mass poisoning ：many people becoming ill from being exposed to chemicals
原文转自：BBC Learning English
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