05年职称英语综合ab考试模拟题(5).docx

05 年职称英语综合 AB 考试模拟题 (5) 难度E/A级 Thirsty in Karachi After two weeks in Karachi ， I'm not sure whether to laugh or to cry ．Either way ， it involves water-or rather the lack of it ． In Western Europe or the US ， you only have to turn on the tap and you'11 see a jet of cold water, ready to drink ，cook and bathe in ，or wash the car ． Turn on the tap in Karachi and you'll be lucky to fill a few buckets ．Until 1947 ，the city was part of British India ，whose engineers built and maintained a modest water supply network for the city's 500.000 inthabitants ．Today, Karachi is home to around 12 million people ． Half of them live in slum townships ， with 1ittle or no water through the mains ． Even the "rich'' half usually have to wait days before anything tickles through their pipes ． And the coloured liquid that finally emerges is usually too contaminated to drink ． According to the state ． owned Karachi Water and Sewerage Board ，the city needs more than 2.500 million litres of water each day. The board currently supplies 1 ，650 million 1itres of which nearly 40 per cent is lost from 1eaks-and theft ．Leaks are dime a dozen to water utilities the world over, but theft? Karachi's unlikely water pirates turn out to be ordinary families struggling to get adequate supplies of one of life's necessities ．Stealing water takes many forms ．The simplest is to buy a suction pump and get it attached to the water pipe that feeds your house from the mains ． This should maximize your share of water every time the board switches oil the supply ．When the practice started 20 years ago ． the pumps would be carefully hidden or disguised as garden ornaments ．These days people hardly bother ．The pumps are so widespread and water board inspectors so thin on the ground that when officials do confiscate a pump its owner simply buy a replacement ． Insisting that people obey the law won't work because most households have little alternative but to steal ． For its part, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board s