On page 87 of Skillful Reading and Writing, the topic of water is introduced in a unit with the same title. As usual, Roger and Wilkins open with a large photograph and some discussion points (2013). We will do that discussion here on our class blog. Clicking the image on the right will show it full size.
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Discuss these questions in a comment below.
There are also some useful language suggestions included in the image. You might like to use some of those expressions in your comments.
- Where does your drinking water come from? Do you drink tap water or buy bottled water? Why?
- I usually drink ... because ...
- It come from ...
- Water covers more than 70% of the Earth's surface, yet many parts of the world don't have enough drinking water. Why is this? How many different reasons might be factors here?
- Most of the water is ...
- There isn't enough water in ... because ...
- Which of the following water-related problems do you think is the most serious? Why?
- drought
- flooding
- water pollution
Your writing might be more fluent if you do not interrupt it by adding numbers. It is not important in what order you address the questions, or even whether you cover all of them. Their purpose is to serve as prompts to start you thinking.
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Reference
I get my water from a machine in my condo. It says it uses some sort of osmosis to purify the water. I actually think it's quite safe to drink tap water in Bangkok, but it has a taste from chemicals that I don't like. The cost is 1 Baht / liter, which is OK. I never buy expensive small bottles of water.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm probably very wasteful, which is not good for the efficient supply of water. In fact, I think the people of Bangkok and other large centres of political power are selfish and unjust in their use of water. This can have serious consequences for less powerful people like farmers, whose land is alternatively likely to be flooded or drought stricken so that the rich urbanites are not inconvenienced. I would be very surprised if Silom Road were either to be allowed to flood or to be forced to use limited water!
On the other hand, perhaps capitalist economic principles would do a much better job of allocating water like other resources. In the US, the supply of electricity is largely in private hands, and it seems to work well, so rather than having governments make decisions based on something other than their warped theories, it might be letter to allow healthy competition to make these decisions. However, no government can control the weather.
But that is exactly what governments are now trying to do in response to global warming, one of the results of which will be changes in the supply of water to human beings around the world.
Which is the most serious of the listed water-related problems? That was actually hard to answer. All of them can be and are serious. I guess if forced to pick one, drought it the worst. In most cases, drought causes famine that can kill a lot of people when crops fail. Flooding on the other hand tends to be highly inconvenient, but less deadly than droughts can be. Water pollution is a worry, but I think it's generally less deadly, although there are some examples, such as Minimata Bay in Japan, where mercury poisoning was a serious problem many years ago. In today's world, water pollution is also so politically and socially unpopular that I think in most places it is improving. London's Thames River is now cleaner and more filled with life than it has been for at least a century.
This makes me think of water-diamon paradox. This paradox talks about the value. Since water is essential for live and we need it for stay alive, while diamond is useless and we can stay alive without it. Why diamon is way more expensive. Maybe diamond is quite rare so it is expensive.
DeleteI usually drink tap water that is filtered by an external-filter because the water bottle is quite expensive, while tap water is quite cheap and easy to get it. In Thailand, tap water cleanness varies from district to district because there are difference water stations that have difference standard. Still, I don't think it is safe enough to drink from tap water in Bangkok because all the river and cannel are dirty and people are throwing gabage into the river. Furthermore, the filters that Bangkok use are usually old and malfunction.
ReplyDeleteThere isn't enough water because of bad water management and distributuion. Looking at Thailand, in north-east part of Thailand, there is constantly drought;unlike, Bangkok where it rains all the time and flooded. Also, when there is to much water in dam, the governmnet start to release water and causes flood which also kills plants what farmers grow. Somethimes the problem isn't just human fault since the way wind blows and how the storm form is unpredictable. Still mostly, people don't have enought water is because bad water managements.
For me I would say that water pollution is most serious because water pollution can affect anyoun from human to plants that live near this river. Also, toxic fron the water could be transfer throught food chain, which one day will come back to us. Also, drought and flooding can be prevent by group in the government by having better water management like what I said in the previous paragraph. Unlike drought and flooding, water pollution needs a cooperation between arthories and people what i mean is that everybody has to involve in order to have river where is no toxic in it. So, it is harder for goverment to prevent water pollution.
1. Normally I buy bottled water but I prefer to buy it in discounted stores. In the past my family bought water from wholesaler of glass bottled water; however, we finally reckoned that it is cheaper to buy it in discounted stores when it is on sale than to buy from wholesalers. That was how drinking water in my house come from. Recently since I am studying in many cram schools, I also drink water in the institution in which I am studying. Moreover, sometimes I also drink water in a restaurant that provide water free of charge. I usually not drink filtered tap water at home, I believer that when I am outside I mostly drink tap water.
ReplyDelete2. This paradox reminds me of science class in high-school. As we know that one-third of area on the earth is covered by water. Nonetheless, most of water are salt water which is not potable. Although we human possess the technology to transform this water into drinking water, the cost is too high for many regions. They will do better by importing water than setting a desalinization plant.
3.In my opinion, water pollution is the most serious problem. Pollution not only affects human on that area but also ecology system. The consequences are far more grieve.