English Through Reading for EFL Learners
INSTRUCTOR: DR. H. GHAEMI 44
flourished, and millions of settlers moved into the region, establishing towns and cities that
put further pressure on the area's scarce water resources.
5.
Now serious problems are arising; the level of the region's main underground water table,
the Ogallala Aquifer, is falling, and its salinity is increasing; tens of thousands of acres of land
have already been taken out of agriculture, and the deserts are once again spreading
out. Today, the remains of the Great American Desert cover an area of some 227,000 km2,
mostly in California, Arizona and Nevada; this is the land of cacti and yuccas, "Joshua Trees"
creosote bushes, and the other drought-resistant plants that can survive in this hot arid
region; but the "sage brush desert" stretches much further, and sand dunes and "bad lands"
are found as far north as South Dakota.
6.
At the head of a now fertile valley in Colorado, Great Sand Dunes National Monument, the
largest area of dunes in the USA, stands as a very visible reminder that it will not take much to
bring back the deserts that once covered a large part of the American West. A six degree rise
in average temperatures could be more than enough to do just that.
WORDS
alfalfa: Lucerne - dam: barrage - drought: dryness - forecast : predict - get used to: become
accustomed to - heed: respect - inhospitality: quality of being unsuitable for human
habitation - seems liable to : may perhaps - sage brush: a low bush that covers large arid areas
of the American west - scarce: rare - sheer: total - stifle: stop - taming: domestication - vested
interests: personal interests - wilderness: desert -
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