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If California were not already so famous for Silicon Valley and Hollywood, it might be renowned for the cluster of water-technology firms in its San Diego County. The reverse-osmosis (RO) spiral module, the trick that helps turn sea- and waste-water into drinkable stuff, was patented in San Diego in 1964. Today dozens of firms in the area supply many of the world's roughly 13,000 RO plants in places from Israel to Australia, Singapore and Spain.

Southern California itself, however, has not so far been a big user of its own technology. This is surprising, given that the whole American south-west confronts a water problem. But there is at least now a growing consensus that the existing infrastructure that carry water from the Sacramento Delta and the Colorado River, will not suffice as the climate gets warmer and the population increases. In places such as San Diego, which currently imports 90% of its water, the answer must be greater conservation, as much reuse as possible, with most of the rest coming from the sea.

The first part, conservation, is hardly controversial any more. San Diego today uses less water with a larger population than it did in 1989, the year water consumption peaked. The second part, water recycling, has been a harder sell, because of what the industry calls the yuck factor. It doesn't help that Americans still use the term "toilet-to-tap" for recycling, even though properly treated sewage is nowadays completely clean. Singapore made its programme acceptable in part by rebranding it as NEWater. But even the Singaporeans cannot recycle all their waste-water.

This is where desalination comes in. A firm appropriately called Poseidon Resources is now close to building the biggest desalination plant in America behind a power station. The power plant sucks in 304m gallons of seawater a day for cooling in any case, so Poseidon plans to divert 104m gallons a day through its osmotic membranes. From the 104m daily gallons, 50m gallons of pure H2O will come out at one end and salty water at the other, to be fed back into the power station's discharge, and then into the ocean.

Lots of people like the idea. Once fully running in 2015 the plant could produce 10% of the region's water. But a few people hate it a lot. Environmentalists are suing Poseidon every step of the way. Joe Geever of the Surfrider Foundation says desalination uses too much energy and that Poseidon's plant would kill too much marine life, including fish such as the goby and the garibaldi, which unfortunately happens to be California's state marine fish. He understands that there is a role for desalination, he says, but would rather not have it right there, right now, and on this scale.

11. We can learn from the first two paragraphs that California______.

[A] is more famous for its water technology than for Hollywood

[B] has exported their water-technology all over the world

[C] is ready to popularize the water-technology in local areas

[D] suffers severely from global warming and population explosion

12. Which of the following is true according to Paragraph 3?

[A] Water conservation was generally accepted in the past.

[B] Water consumption increases as the population grows.

[C] Water recycling is less popular in America than in Singapore.

[D] Water recycling can solve the water shortage in some countries.

13. According to Paragraph 4, the desalination plant of Poseidon Resources______.

[A] is America's biggest desalination plant in use

[B] draws 304m gallons of seawater every day

[C] produces 104m gallons of purified water daily

[D] can produce fresh water from seawater

14. Joe Geever would most probably agree that______.

[A] the water problem in California is still not urgent

[B] it's not environmentally friendly to desalinate seawater

[C] history in California proves the disadvantages of desalination

[D] the desalination technology is not rewarding at all

15. Which of the following would best summarize the text?

[A] California leads the world in desalination technology.

[B] Desalination becomes high on California's agenda.

[C] The situation of water use in California is not optimistic.

[D] Seawater desalination is not so eco-friendly at present.