我們知道人類的生存發展離不開淡水資源，但是淡水資源是有限的，現在有人提議可以從冰山中得到淡水資源，你認爲呢?下面，我們一起來看這篇公共英語五級閱讀文章。
Obtaining Fresh Water from Icebergs
The concept of obtaining fresh water from icebergs that are towed to populated areas and arid regions of the world was once treated as a joke more appropriate to cartoons than real life. But now it is being considered quite seriously by many nations, especially since scientists have warned that the human race will outgrow its fresh water supply faster than it runs out of food.
Glaciers are a possible source of fresh water that has been overlooked until recently. Three-quarters of the Earth's fresh water supply is still tied up in glacial ice, a reservoir of untapped fresh water so immense that it could sustain all the rivers of the world for 1,000 years. Floating on the oceans every year are 7,659 trillion metric tons of ice encased in 10,000 icebergs that break away from the polar ice caps, more than ninety percent of them from Antarctica.
Huge glaciers that stretch over the shallow continental shelf give birth to icebergs throughout the year. Icebergs are not like sea ice, which is formed when the sea itself freezes, rather, they are formed entirely on land, breaking off when glaciers spread over the sea. As they drift away from the polar region, icebergs sometimes move mysteriously in a direction opposite to the wind, pulled by subsurface currents. Because they melt more slowly than smaller pieces of ice, icebergs have been known to drift as far north as 35 degrees south of the equator in the Atlantic Ocean. To corral them and steer them to parts of the world where they are needed would not be too difficult.
The difficulty arises in other technical matters, such as the prevention of rapid melting in warmer climates and the funneling of fresh water to shore in great volume. But even if the icebergs lost half of their volume in towing, the water they could provide would be far cheaper than that produced by desalinization, or removing salt from water.
附：公共英語五級的閱讀技巧
(1)回答有關文章細節的問題時可採取查讀法。在查讀的同時，要默默地重複所尋找的細節。這種重複可加強視覺感知效果，更快捷、有效地找到所尋求的信息。
(2)回答推斷性問題時考生應依據文章所講的內容，利用推理的方法做出合理的選擇。這類問題難就難在考生無法直接從文章中找出考題的答案，而必須在完全理解文章的基礎上，悟出其中隱含的意思。
回答這類問題時，往往需要利用常識、經驗及文章中的觀點和內容進行邏輯推理。關聯詞、帶有感情色彩的形容詞或副詞常常是一些有助於考生進行推理的`語境線索。
(3)目的問題與主題問題關係密切。但應試時，回答目的類問題的難度更大一些。原因在於考生必須選取一個通常在文章中找不到的答案。
作者的寫作目的多種多樣，常見的有提供信息、描述事件、陳述問題、講述故事、進行規勸等。
(4)語氣問題所指的語氣是指作者在文章中直接表達的或者暗中流露出來的，對文章涉及的對象所持的態度和傾向性意見。無論是直接表達還是間接流露，作者不是運用帶有感情色彩的詞彙或褒貶強烈的語句，就是依靠直接在文中插入作者的評語，甚至是一些譏諷嘲弄的口吻，來取得傳達語氣的預期效果。回答這類問題，關鍵在於掌握一些語氣詞。
