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1、智课网 TOEFL备考资料托福阅读材料：一箱水能为世界重新造林吗？我们的地球家园经过多年的开发很多资源已接近耗竭，而地球上的植被也因人类活动遭到破坏。全球土地沙漠化严重。这一切难道就没有办法挽回了么？一位荷兰的科学家似乎仍未放弃努力，最近他发明的一种“Waterboxx”(自灌溉水箱)的出现让人们看到了希望。From the land of dams and canals comes a new device billed as the savior of agriculture and reforestation in drought-plagued areas.The Waterboxx
2、is the brainchild of Dutch businessman Pieter Hoff， who sold his lily-growing operation in 2003 to focus on water. Then he started tinkering with a polypropylene box， about the size of a laundry basket. It has a fluted lid and a wick extending from the bottom. The plant sits in a cylindrical opening
3、 in the center that goes all the way through the box.The mechanism is almost suspiciously simple. The box collects rainwater and condensation and funnels it to the plant. In spring 2009， Hoff partnered with Eduard Zanen， co-founder of the stroller company Bugaboo International， to finance experiment
4、s with the device that are now under way in Kenya， Morocco， Spain and the United States. Eight hundred of the boxes have been installed in Joshua Tree National Park， where they are nourishing native mesquite and saltbush plants.Hoff， an impassioned climate evangelist， published a book in 2008 titled
5、 CO2： A Gift From Heaven， which argues that policymakers should leave the climate debate aside and focus on planting trees. Planting 5 billion acres of trees - about 2.5 times the surface area of Canada - would be enough to offset annual emissions of 10 billion metric tons of CO2， he calculates.For
6、Hoff， the box is the solution. It collects any amount of water - from inches of rainfall to minute droplets of condensation - and delivers it slowly and steadily. Just 3 inches of rainfall per year is enough to keep the boxs water supply replenished. It can also be screwed into the ground， both to p
7、revent theft and to secure it to sloping or rocky land.We can use the box to reforest California， and we can use it to restore our water tables to safer levels again， he said.Margrit Mondavi， the widow of Napa Valley winemaker Robert Mondavi， christened two of the devices at her vineyard last week w
8、ith a bottle of 1990 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. She called it an important development because water is becoming more precious all the time.Matt Ashby， director of vineyards for Mondavi， is conducting an experiment with 500 Waterboxxes around new grapevines. Hell compare their growth in the fall to
9、 a control group of 10，000 vines that are receiving conventional drip irrigation.Im not sure why no ones done it before， he wondered， adding： Im convinced its going to work.First， add waterTo start， the farmer fills the box partway with 2 gallons of water. Any condensation or rain is theoretically e
10、nough to keep the box filled and supplying enough water to the plant via the wick. The device is stoppered with a siphon to prevent evaporation. The box has to be oriented facing a certain way， so the oblong opening in the center points east-west and shades the plant from the sun during the hottest
11、part of the day.The box is removed after the plant sends its roots deep enough to access groundwater. It can then be used over and over again. Hoff said he has spent about $7 million on the project thus far， with about $500，000 coming from the Dutch government. He has been through more than 10 proto
12、types， and is also working on building one out of biodegradable material， for one-time use in remote areas like the Sierra Nevada.Right now， Hoff sells the boxes for $275 for 10， manufactured in his native Holland， but he envisions local production wherever the box is sold. I think its a disaster th
13、at the only people who know how to weave clothing are in China， he said. Gardening and home-improvement stores could sell them for about $15， he said.Although it does require initial watering， it still beats traditional irrigation， particularly in areas that are hard to reach. Richard Dale， executiv
14、e director at the Sonoma Ecology Center， is planning to use the boxes along to replant the banks along Sonoma Creek. Restoration can be challenging here because you have to get through the long， dry， Mediterranean summer， he said. This could really transform the way restoration is done in arid regions.相关推荐：托福阅读材料：“vuvuzela”入选牛津词典新词做好托福阅读必备攻略托福阅读背景材料：什么是火星相关字搜索： 托福阅读
