阅读理解
Far more people in India have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet,according to a UN study.
India's mobile users totaled 563.73 million at the last count,enough to serve nearly half of the country's population.
But just 366 million people-around a third of the population-had access to proper sanitation (卫生设施) in 2008,said the study published by the UN University,a UN thinktank.
"It is a tragic irony (讽刺) to think in India,a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the
people own phones,so many people cannot afford the basic necessity and quality of a toilet," said UN
University director Zafar Adeel.
Adeel heads the UN University's Institute for Water,Environment and Health,based in the Canadian
city of Hamilton,which prepared the report.
Worldwide,an estimated 358 billion dollars is needed between now and 2015 to achieve the UN
Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people with inadequate (不充分的)
sanitation from 2000 levels.
"Proper sanitation could do more to save lives,especially those of young people,improve health and
help pull India and other countries in similar circumstances out of poverty than any alternative investment," Adeel said.
Poor sanitation is a major contributor to waterborne diseases (水传播疾病),which in the past three
years alone killed an estimated 4.5 million children under the age of five worldwide,according to the study.
The report gave a rough cost of 300 dollars to build a toilet,including labour,and materials.The world
could expect a return of up to 34 dollars for every dollar spent on sanitation through improved productivity and reduced poverty and health costs,said Adeel.He said improving sanitation was an economic and
humanitarian opportunity of historic proportions.
1. The population of India is about________.
A. less than 1 billion
B. about 1.2 billion
C. 900 million
D. 800 million
2. From Paragraph 4,we can draw a conclusion that________.
A. India is so poor that they can't afford the basic necessity and quality of a toilet
B. a mobile phone is more important than a toilet
C. it's normal in Indian that they can't attach importance to toilets
D. Zafar Adeel wasn't satisfied with the sanitary situation in India
3. Improving sanitation can play an important part in the following EXCEPT________.
A. preventing waterborne diseases
B. saving lives of young people
C. pulling developing countries out of poverty
D. improving the quality of mobile phone and getting more information
4. According to the last paragraph,if the government put into $10,000 on sanitation,they can get
a return of________.
A. $3,000,000
B. $10,000
C. $340,000
D. $10,200
