英语短文：
Obtaining Fresh water from icebergs
从冰山中获得淡水
The concept of obtaining fresh water from icebergs that are towedto populatedareas and aridregions of the world was once treated as a joke more appropriate to cartoons than real life. But now it is being considered quite seriously by many nations, especially since scientists have warned that the human race will outgrow its fresh water supply faster than it runs out of food.
把冰山拖到世界上人口稠密的区域和干旱地带，再从中获得淡水，这个想法曾一度被觉得是一个笑话，更合适于卡通画，而非现实生活。然而目前，很多国家正相当认真地考虑这件事情，尤其是在科学家们发出警告之后。科学家们觉得人类将在耗尽粮食之前第一耗尽淡水资源。
Glaciersare a possible source of fresh water that has been overlooked until recently. Three-quarters of the Earth‘s fresh water supply is still tied up in glacialice, a reservoirof untappedfresh water so immensethat it could sustain all the rivers of the world for 1,000 years. Floating on the oceans every year are 7,659 trillion metrictons of ice encasedin 10000 icebergs that break away from the polar ice caps, more than ninety percent of them from Antarctica. Huge glaciers that stretch over the shallow continental shelf give birth to icebergs throughout the year.
冰川是一个直到近期以前一直被忽略的可能的淡水源。全球四分之三的淡水还锁在冰川的冰块中。冰川就是一个蓄水池，其中未开发的淡水量是这样巨大，足够支持全世界的江河1000年。每年有7,659万亿公吨冰漂流在海洋中。它们包括在10,000座从极地冰帽中断裂出来的冰山中。这类冰山的90%以上来自南极。一年四季里，覆盖在浅层国内架上的巨大冰川生成了海量冰山。
Icebergs are not like sea ice, which is formed when the sea itself freezes, rather, they are formed entirely on land, breaking off when glaciers spread over the sea. As they drift away from the polar region, icebergs sometimes move mysteriously in a direction opposite to the wind, pulled by subsurfacecurrents. Because they melt more slowly than smaller pieces of ice, icebergs have been known to drift as far north as 35 degrees south of the equator in the Atlantic Ocean. To corralthem and steerthem to parts of the world where they are needed would not be too difficult.The difficulty arises in other technical matters, such as the prevention of rapid melting in warmer climates and the funnelingof fresh water to shore in great volume. But even if the icebergs lost half of their volume in towing, the water they could provide would be far cheaper than that produced by desalinization, or removing salt from water.
冰山和海水的冰不同，后者是海水自己结冰形成的，而冰山则完全是在陆地上形成的。当冰川伸展到海水中时，冰山就断裂下来。当漂离极地区域时，冰山有时会在底层洋流的推进下颇为神秘地逆风移动。因为冰山比小块的冰融化要慢，因此有些冰山在大西洋中向北飘到了赤道以南35的地方。把冰山蓄拦起来并拖到世界上需要它们的地方将不会太困难。有困难的是其它的技术事宜。譬如，怎么样预防冰山在较暖的气候中飞速融化与怎么样把很多的淡水采集到岸上去。但，即使在拖的过程中冰山失去了一半体积，如此做也远比从海水中脱盐获得淡水实惠。
