READING 1

The Burden of Thirst

Millions of women carry water long

distances. If they had a tap by their door,
whole societies would be transformed

A. Aylito Binayo's feet know the mountain.

Even at four in the morning she can run
down the rocks to the river by starlight alone
and climb the steep mountain back up to her
village with 50 pounds of water on her back.
She has made this journey three times a day
for nearly all her 25 years. So has every
other woman in her village of Foro, in the
Konso district of southwestern Ethiopia.
Binayo dropped out of school when she drop out of = quit
was eight years old, in part because she had
to help her mother fetch water from the fetch = to go to another place and get st
Toiro River. The water is dirty and unsafe to back
drink; every year that the ongoing drought ongoing = continuing
continues, the once mighty river grows mighty = very large, powerful
more exhausted. But it is the only water
Foro has ever had.

B. In developed parts of the world, people

turn on a tap and out pours abundant, clean abundant = sufficient, more than
water. Yet nearly 900 million people in the enough
world have no access to clean water.
Furthermore, 2.5 billion people have no safe
way to get rid of human waste. Polluted get rid of = to clear
water and lack of proper hygiene cause hygiene = vệ sinh
disease and kill 3.3 million people around
the world annually, most of them children. annually = yearly
Quynh Ngoc
In southern Ethiopia and in northern Kenya,
a lack of rain over the past few years has
made even dirty water hard to find. But
soon, for the first time, things are going to
change.

C. Bringing clean water close to villagers'

homes is the key to the problem.
Communities where clean water becomes accessible = reachable, available
accessible and plentiful are transformed. plentiful = sufficient, abundant
All the hours previously spent hauling haul= to pull st heavily
water can be used to cultivate more crops, cultivate = plant, grow
raise more animals or even start a business.
Families spend less time sick or caring for
family members who are unwell. Most
important, not having to collect water means
girls can go to school and get jobs. The need
to fetch water for the family, or to take care
of younger siblings while their mother goes,
usually prevents them ever having this
experience.

D. But the challenges of bringing water to

remote villages like those in Konso are remote= distant, far-away, isolated
overwhelming. Locating water overwhelming= difficult to fight against
underground and then reaching it by means
of deep wells requires geological expertise expertise= skill
and expensive, heavy machines. to be abandoned= to be left behind
Abandoned wells and water projects litter
the villages of Konso. In similar villages
around the developing world, the biggest
problem with water schemes is that about scheme= plan
half of them break down soon after the
groups that built them move on. Sometimes
technology is used that can't be repaired
locally, or spare parts are available only in
capital.

E. Today, a UK-based international non-

profit organisation called WaterAid is
tackling the job of bringing water to the tackle= to deal with, to solve
most remote villages of Konso. Their
approach combines technologies proven to
Quynh Ngoc
last - such as building a sand dam to capture
and filter rainwater that would otherwise
drain away. But the real innovation is that drain away= to disappear completely
WaterAid believes technology is only part
of the solution. Just as important is
involving the local community in designing,
building and maintaining new water
projects. Before beginning any project,
WaterAid asks the community to create a
WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene) sanitation= hệ thống vệ sinh
committee of seven people. The committee
works with WaterAid to plan projects and
involve the village in construction. Then it
maintains and runs the project.

F. The people of Konso, who grow their

crops on terraces they have dug into the
sides of mountains, are famous for hard
work. In the village of Orbeshor residents residents=inhibitants
even constructed a road themselves so that
drilling machinery could come in. Last
summer, their pump, installed by the river,
was being motorised to push its water to a
newly built reservoir on top of a nearby
mountain. From there, gravity will carry it
down in pipes to villages on the other side
of the mountain. Residents of those villages
have each given some money to help fund
the project. They have made concrete and
collected stones for the structures. Now they
are digging trenches to lay pipes if all goes
well. Aylito Binayo will have a tap with safe
water just a three-minute walk from her
front door.

Quynh Ngoc
Questions 7-11
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each
answer.

7 The water levels in the Toiro River are falling because of

8 Globally, the number of people who die each year as a result of using dirty water
is

9 When families have clean water, they can spend more time growing

10 Specialist knowledge and equipment are needed to dig

11 WaterAid uses a dam made of to capture rainwater.

HOMEWORK

The story of silk

The history of the world’s most luxurious fabric=

fabric, from ancient China to the present day
Silk is a fine, smooth material produced from
fine=
the cocoons - soft protective shells - that are
made by mulberry silkworms (insect larvae).
Legend has it that it was Lei Tzu, wife of the legend=
Yellow Emperor, ruler of China in about 3000
BC, who discovered silkworms. One account
of the story goes that as she was taking a
Quynh Ngoc
walk in her husband’s gardens, she
discovered that silkworms were responsible
for the destruction of several mulberry trees.
She collected a number of cocoons and
sat down to have a rest. It just so
happened that while she was sipping
some tea, one of the cocoons that she had
collected landed in the hot tea and started land in=
to unravel into a fine thread. Lei Tzu
found that she could wind this thread around unravel=
her fingers. Subsequently, she persuaded thread=
her husband to allow her to rear
silkworms on a grove of mulberry trees. She wind=
also devised a special reel to draw the rear=
fibres from the cocoon into a single thread
so that they would be strong enough to devise=
be woven into fabric. While it is unknown just cultivation=
how much of this is true, it is certainly known
that silk cultivation has existed in China for
several millennia. solely=
Originally, silkworm farming was solely restrict to =
restricted to women, and it was they who
were responsible for the growing, harvesting
and weaving. Silk quickly grew into a symbol
of status,and
originally, only royalty were entitled to have
clothes made of silk. The rules were e entitled to (do) something=
gradually relaxed over the years until finally peasant=
during the Qing Dynasty (1644- 1911 AD),
even peasants, the lowest caste, were caste=
also entitled to wear silk. Sometime during prized=
the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), silk
was so prized that it was also used as a unit currency=
of currency. Government officials were diplomatic=
paid their salary in silk, and farmers paid
their taxes in grain and silk. Silk was also
used as diplomatic gifts by the emperor. emperor=
Fishing lines, bowstrings, musical
instruments and paper were all made using indication=
silk. The earliest indication of noble=
silk paper being used was discovered in the

Quynh Ngoc
tomb of a noble who is estimated to have died
around 168 AD.
exotic=
Demand for this exotic fabric eventually
lucrative=
created the lucrative trade route now known
as the Silk Road, taking silk westward and
bringing gold, silver and wool to the East. It
was named the Silk Road after its most
precious commodity, which was considered commodity=
to be worth more than gold.
The Silk Road stretched over 6,000
kilometres from Eastern China to the
Mediterranean Sea, following the Great Wall
of China, climbing the Pamir mountain range,
crossing modern-day Afghanistan and going
on to the Middle East, with a major trading
market in Damascus. From there, the merchandise=
merchandise was shipped across the
Mediterranean Sea. Few merchants travelled merchant=
the entire route; goods were handled mostly
by a series of middlemen.
With the mulberry silkworm being native to
China, the country was the world’s
sole producer of silk for many hundreds
of years. The secret of silk-making
eventually reached the rest of the world via
the Byzantine Empire, which ruled over
the Mediterranean region of southern
Europe, North Africa and the Middle East
during the period 330—1453 AD. According smuggle=
to another legend, monks working for conceal=
the Byzantine emperor Justinian smuggle
silkworm eggs to Constantinople (Istanbul in hollow=
modern-day Turkey) in
550 AD, concealed inside hollow
bamboo walking canes. The Byzantines were
as secretive as the Chinese, however, and for
many centuries the weaving and trading of
silk fabric was a strict imperial monopoly. monopoly=
Then in the seventh century, the Arabs conquer=
conquered Persia, capturing their capture=
magnificent silks in the process. Silk
production thus spread through Africa, Sicily
Quynh Ngoc
and Spain as the Arabs swept, through these magnificent=
lands. Andalusia in southern Spain was
Europe’s main silk-producing centre in the
tenth century. By the thirteenth century,
however, Italy had become Europe’s leader in
silk production and export. Venetian
merchants traded extensively in silk and
encouraged silk growers to settle in Italy. settle in somewhere =
Even now, silk processed in the province of
Como in northern Italy enjoys an
esteemed reputation. esteemed=
The nineteenth century and industrialisation reputation=
saw the downfall of the European silk
industry. Cheaper Japanese silk, trade in
which was greatly facilitated by the opening
of the Suez Canal, was one of the many
factors driving the trend. Then in the facilitate=
twentieth century, new manmade fibres, such
as nylon, started to be used in what had
traditionally been silk products, such as manmade=
stockings and parachutes. The two world
wars, which interrupted the supply of raw
material from Japan, also stifled the European
silk industry. After the Second World War, stifle=
Japan’s silk production was restored, with
improved production and quality of raw silk.
Japan was to remain the world’s biggest
producer of raw silk, and practically the only
major exporter of raw silk, until the 1970s.
However, in more recent decades, China has
gradually recaptured its position as the
world’s biggest producer and exporter of recapture=
raw silk and silk yarn. Today, around
125,000 metric tons of silk are produced in
the world, and almost two thirds of
that production takes place in China.

Quynh Ngoc
Questions 1-9
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-9 on your answer sheet.

Early silk production in China

• Around 3000 BC, according to legend:

- silkworm cocoon fell into emperor’s wife’s 1

- emperor’s wife invented a 2 to pull out silk fibres

• Only 3 were allowed to produce silk

• Only 4 were allowed to wear silk

• Silk used as a form of 5

- e.g. farmers’ taxes consisted partly of silk

• Silk used for many purposes

- e.g. evidence found of 6 made from silk around 168 AD

Silk reaches rest of world

• Merchants use Silk Road to take silk westward and bring back 7 and precious
metals

• 550 AD: 8 hide silkworm eggs in canes and take them to Constantinople

• Silk production spreads across Middle East and Europe

• 20th century: 9 and other manmade fibres cause decline in silk production

Quynh Ngoc