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Some 330 million people — about one quarter of India’s population — are facing the worst water crisis in four decades. A drought has turned vast areas of the country into a dust bowl, drying up crops and forcing farmers from their lands. Coal-fired power plants — the major source of India’s electricity — have had to stop output because there is not enough water in nearby rivers to produce steam. Armed guards are being posted at dams to prevent desperate farmers from stealing water. Over 600 million people in India depend on agriculture for their living and nearly two-thirds of land under cultivation has no irrigation and so relies on rain. Part of the problem is El Niño, the climate pattern that puts extra heat into the atmosphere. But much of the problem is a result of years of mismanagement of water resources, a failure to stop corruption (腐败) and the hesitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in taking action to help those affected. Back in 2009, an American report by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration based on satellite images showed a sharp decrease in groundwater levels under northern India’s irrigated fields of wheat, rice and barley. The response — drilling wells deeper as water levels fell — has made the problem worse. Reservoirs and wells are now running dry. India’s so-called sand mafia (黑帮), operating in secret with the support of local officials, has also contributed to the problem by illegally removing sand — important to allow water to pass slowly into underground aquifers (地下水层) — from riverbeds to supply concrete (混凝土) for India’s fast-developing construction industry. India is now entering the hot season, and temperatures have risen to record levels. Thankfully, El Niño is pulling back, and the India Meteorological Department is predicting an above-average rainy season later this year, which will provide some relief. But unless there is a way to build facilities to quickly capture the rain, much of it will simply run off or evaporate. Mr. Modi’s most urgent task is to help those suffering from the drought. He must also place water at the center of his development plan. A growing population means that India’s water needs will only increase, even as climate change will most likely make water scarcer.【缺少答案,请补充】
We live in a digital age. It is becoming cheaper and truly more convenient for us to get connected to the Internet anytime and anywhere. Over the years ______, technological advances have made it possible to introduce new means of communication and expression. In the past, we went ______ through browsers on our fixed line-connected PC and put ourselves at the receiving end for information. In today’s fast-paced life, we find ourselves no longer ______ the Web nearly as much anymore. There is an increasing trend that we get in touch with friends more easily through mobile devices with built-in Wi-Fi features such as smartphones and tablet computers. ______ the first stage of the Web development, social ______ on mobile devices operate under a dialogic model, which is different from the traditional one. The mobile apps available help to manage new types of online activities. They allow individuals, communities and organizations to actively create and ______ content online. They also allow us to ______ with one another by sharing details about our lives, photos and thoughts. Examples of such new media include blogs, wikis and social networks. However, social media have been ______ for issues with reliability of information presented when there are no proper rules ______ to online behavior. Compared with information from traditional media, particularly books, trust in information from social media sources is low. In the ______ of firm evidence, some people even go so far as to use social media to quickly spread misinformation, lies and rumors.
College students seem unable to get off their cellphones. Professors find it challenging to get students to stop using their cellphones in class. Doug Duncan, a professor at the University of Colorado has come up with a solution to smartphone distraction in his astronomy class. He has published a paper showing that, at his college, more than 75 percent of undergrads reported texting while in class, and that in-class texting was linked to an average drop of half a letter grade in the course. Ten percent of the grade in Duncan's class comes from participation points. To reduce smartphone use, he carried out an experiment. While sharing his plan with his colleagues, he wrote: "I asked my students to vote if I should offer one participation point for taking out their cellphone, turning it off and leaving it out on my desk. To my amazement 100% voted yes. So they all took out their phones, put them on the desk, and we had an extremely engaged class." Three class meetings later, the no-cellphone rule is still going strong. Should other professors follow Duncan's lead? Larry Rosen, a research psychologist at California State University, studies smartphone use among college students. He doesn't think simply rewarding students for turning off their phones is a good strategy. "It doesn't get at the real issue of why students are distracted," he explains. "Most college students are heavy users who are going to get anxious within 10 or 15 minutes if they can't check their phones." In experiments, Rosen has shown that students' heart rate and other vital signs rise when they hear their phones ring and can't answer them. He says that putting the phones in sight, but out of reach, even when turned off, will only increase that anxiety and the distraction that comes with it. Rosen has his own solution. "I start by calling a tech break, where they can check their phone for one minute, every 15 minutes," he says. "Over time you can increase it to 20, 25. And within a couple weeks you can get them to go 30 minutes without needing it."【缺少答案,请补充】