2018年12月四级第1套仔细阅读 Passage 1 原文翻译及答案解析

California has been facing a drought for many years now, with certain areas even having to pump freshwater hundreds of miles to their distribution system. The problem is growing as the population of the state continues to expand. New research has found deep water reserves under the state which could help solve their drought crisis. Previous drilling of wells could only reach depths of 1,000 feet, but due to new pumping practices, water deeper than this can now be extracted (抽取). The team at Stanford investigated the aquifers (地下蓄水层) below this depth and found that reserves may be triple what was previously thought.

加利福尼亚州多年来一直面临干旱问题，某些地区甚至不得不将淡水从数百英里外抽送到其分配系统。随着该州人口持续增长，问题日益严重。新研究发现该州地下深处存在水资源储备，可能有助于解决其干旱危机。先前钻井只能达到1000英尺的深度，但由于新的抽水技术，现在可以抽取比这更深的水。斯坦福大学的研究团队调查了这一深度以下的地下蓄水层，发现储备量可能是之前估计的三倍。

It is profitable to drill to depths more than 1,000 feet for oil and gas extraction, but only recently in California has it become profitable to pump water from this depth. The aquifers range from 1,000 to 3,000 feet below the ground, which means that pumping will be expensive and there are other concerns. The biggest concern of pumping out water from this deep is the gradual settling down of the land surface. As the water is pumped out, the vacant space left is compacted by the weight of the earth above.

为石油和天然气开采钻深超过1000英尺是有利可图的，但直到最近在加利福尼亚，从这一深度抽水才变得经济可行。地下蓄水层位于地面以下1000至3000英尺，这意味着抽水成本高昂，还有其他担忧。从如此深处抽水的最大担忧是地表逐渐沉降。随着水被抽出，留下的空旷空间被上方土壤的重量压实。

Even though pumping from these depths is expensive, it is still cheaper than desalinating (脱盐) the ocean water in the largely coastal state. Some desalination plants exist where feasible, but they are costly to run and can need constant repairs. Wells are much more reliable sources of freshwater, and California is hoping that these deep wells may be the answer to their severe water shortage.

尽管从这些深度抽水成本高昂，但在这个主要为沿海的州，它仍然比海水脱盐便宜。在可行的地方有一些脱盐厂，但运营成本高昂且需要持续维修。水井是更可靠的淡水来源，加利福尼亚希望这些深井能够解决其严重的水短缺问题。

One problem with these sources is that the deep water also has a higher level of salt than shallower aquifers. This means that some wells may even need to undergo desalination after extraction, thus increasing the cost. Research from the exhaustive study of groundwater from over 950 drilling logs has just been published. New estimates of the water reserves now go up to 2,700 billion cubic meters of freshwater.

这些水源的一个问题是，深层水的盐含量比浅层含水层更高。这意味着一些井在抽水后甚至需要进行脱盐处理，从而增加成本。基于950多份钻探日志对地下水的详尽研究刚刚发表。现在对水资源储备的新估计高达27000亿立方米淡水。