The quality of drinking water in Shanghai will meet European Union standard by 2010 and, a decade later, citizens in Shanghai will drink the best water in the world.
These were the goals set out by the Shanghai Water Authority. With the city’s population expected to increase only slightly and the economy to boom by 2020, Chen Yin, and official with the water authority, said Shanghai’s water consumption will not increase from its present amount.
Zhang Yue, director of the Urban Construction Division under the Ministry of Construction, said, “Shanghai is the first city in the country to publicize these ambitions. They will not be easy to achieve.”
He said water saving will help keep the sustainable development of China’s economy.
Saving one cubic meter of water means saving the city’s infrastructure（基础设施）costs by 10,000 Yuan. Last year, Shanghai saved 300 million cubic meters of water either from readjustment of industrial structure or the employment of new technology.
“The aim is to arouse public awareness of the seriousness of water shortages,” Chen said. “The abundant surface water and amount of rain of the city are so misleading that they result in improper use of water.”
Shanghai lacks drinkable water. The Huangpu River, which supplies 80 percent of the city’s drinkable water, is nearing exhaustion.
The city, therefore, has been exploring new sources from the Yangtze River and growing forests along it to conserve quality water.
Besides penning regulations, the authority is popularizing technology among the public to efficiently cut the amount of water used.
At present, the city has 600，000 family toilets, each using 13 liters of water per flush. These are to be renovated（整修）to use only 9 liters of water per flush.
The authority is renovating the first 200 toilets for households – at a cost of 40 Yuan each.
In three years, all the toilets will be renovated, which saves the city nearly 15 million Yuan every year in water conservation.
Another task the city is engaged in is the treatment of sewage（污水）to improve the water environment.
At present the city can only treat 44 percent of its daily 5.04 million tons of waste water. To meet the total demand, 27 more sewage treatment factories are to be established with an estimated investment of 18 billion Yuan.
41．People in Shanghai get their daily water mainly from _______now.
A．the underground                          B．the rain     
C．the Yangtze River                         D．the Huangpu River
42．According to the passage, some people have the wrong opinion of using water
because      .
A．the renovating of family toilets will save plenty of water
B．about half of waste water has been treated already
C．advanced technology makes people use water as much as possible
D．there is plenty surface water and large amount of rain at present
43．The authority is renovating the first 200 toilets for households to          .
A．make people’s living more convenient     
B．improve people’s living standards
C．ease employment pressure      
D．meet the total demand of water
44．Which group of measures are all mentioned in the passage to save water?
a．improve drinking water quality
b．change some industrial structure
c．introduce or use some new technology    
d．speed the economic development of Shanghai
e．renovate some family toilets    
f．build more sewage treatment factories
A．a, b, c, d                       B．b, c, e, f                       
C．b, c, d, e              D．a, b, e, f
45．We can infer from the passage that          .
A．the boom of economy will need a larger amount of water in the future
B．citizens today in Shanghai drink the best quality of water in the world
C．not everyone today in Shanghai is aware of water shortage
D．all the family toilets will be renovated to save water within 3 years