Is Water the New Oil? Exercises

Is Water the New Oil? Exercises

Wadi Faynan (above) is a spectacular desert area in the south of Jordan, and is the subject of this reading exercise. Click here to read this article online up to the reference to the author Marq de Villiers’ book Water Wars.

Exercise 1
Can you pick out from the text the words that mean the following? They are in the same order as you come across them in the text.

1. Examining thoroughly to isolate what is important or useful
2. Way in which something progresses or develops
3. 1) Very nearly 2) all except
4. Flowing, leaking, moving or spreading slowly, through small holes or through something porous
5. Layer of rock, sand or earth that contains water or allows water to pass through it
6. Produced in inadequate or difficult conditions
7. Body of traditions and knowledge on a subject – eg rural lore
8. Every two years, alternate years
9. Experiencing the bad result of something you have done
10. Phrase used after a negative statement to emphasize that a situation is extremely unlikely because something much more likely has never happened
11. Controlled / seized by
12. Extending across the whole of a particular geographical area in America
13. Place where machinery or a process removes salt from seawater
14. Term describing a rare combination of factors that together aggravate a situation drastically or create a / the worst possible case scenario
15. Predicted / described / imagined / expected something unpleasant or dangerous
16. In an attempt to
17. A difficult problem which can only be understood if all the different influences are considered

Click here to see if you were right!

Exercise 2

Can you read these summarising statements and decide the order they relate to the paragraphs lettered in the document attached above?

a) Radical approaches to the use and treatment of water are being pursued.
b) Water management was key if humans were to survive.
c) The challenge is to supply the amount of water required for our various needs at the places where we actually need it.
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d) The desperation that a desperate shortage of water can lead to may well give rise to conflicts between people and governments in deep crises.
e) What was true on a tiny scale has become true on a global one.
f) Poor living conditions inevitably led to people migrating to more fertile areas.
g) WF16, the desert of Wadi Faynan, looks a very barren place for humans to live in.
h) Some countries who have never known water shortages have in recent times had to devise strategies for ensuring supplies of water.
i) We are not actually short of water.
j) Water-scarcity is affecting everyone all over the world.
k) The point in history when humans abandoned their nomadic life for one in which they could survive as settlers is highly significant.

Answers and notes