For centuries Dutch engineers have been fighting a war against water. Their main enemy is the sea. A large part of the country i

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问题     For centuries Dutch engineers have been fighting a war against water. Their main enemy is the sea. A large part of the country is below sea level. In fact, Holland is also called the "Netherlands," which means "low lands. " Very tall and strong walls, called dykes, have been built to keep out the sea. But in very rough weather the sea may suddenly burst through a dyke, great damage can be caused by floods when this happens.
    Three large rivers are also part of the problem. These rivers are the Rhine, the Maas and the Scheldt. They flow through Holland into the North Sea. They have cut many passages across the country. At low tide, the rivers flow into the sea as usual. But at high tide the sea can flow into the rivers. This is because the land is so low.
    The battles against water never end, but they have made Holland a bigger and better country. In order to prevent floods, the engineers take, or reclaim (开垦,改造) land that was under water. The Dutch have been reclaiming land for seven hundred years.
    Land is usually reclaimed from a passage between two islands. Two dykes are built across the passage, so they block the water between them. Then the engineers dig long canals and pump the water into them. At low tide, the canals empty the water into the sea.
    Because the land is so low, water from the sea and rivers can rise up through the ground. For this reason, the pumps continue working even when the land has been drained (that is, when the water has been pumped away). The dykes contain gates, and through these the water is pumped out. In many parts of Holland, pumps must be working all the time. If they stopped, there would be very bad floods.
    A piece of reclaimed land is called a polder (新辟的低地), and Holland has thousands of polders. Some are very large, but others are quite small. There are farms on many of the polders. Corn and other crops grow well on the drained land, and it gives good grass for cattle. Many small towns and villages stand on polders. Even Amsterdam’s great airport, Schiphol, was built on reclaimed land. This land used to be under the old Lake Haarlem.
The engineers in Holland reclaim land from the sea in order to______.

选项 A、prevent floods
B、make the country larger
C、make Holland better
D、build farm land

答案A

解析 本题是一道具体细节题。问荷兰的工程师从海洋里来开垦土地的目的是为了什么。利用查阅式阅读法,我们可以在文章的第三段中找到相关的内容。这段指出,同水的斗争没有止境,但却使荷兰的国土变得更广更好。为了阻止洪水,工程师们从水底开发土地,或者说开垦土地。荷兰人这样开垦土地已经有700多年了。因此,本题的正确答案应是A“为了阻止洪水”。
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