Sea Change for Salinity
Read Sea Change for Salinity, an IELTS Reading practice passage. Beneath the flat, impassive surface of Australia lie hidden mountains, valleys and gorges - ancient traps and channels for the deadly salt that is stealthily killing so much of the Australian landscape. The war on salt is calling fort…
Passage preview
Beneath the flat, impassive surface of Australia lie hidden mountains, valleys and gorges - ancient traps and channels for the deadly salt that is stealthily killing so much of the Australian landscape. The war on salt is calling forth new weapons. A suite of high technologies used by geologists to see underground and prospect for gold and minerals is now being used to pinpoint the presence of salt beneath the landscape, and to predict where it might move.
Vocabulary from this passage
10 words worth learning before you sit the test, each with the sentence it appears in.
- delineate verb
To describe, portray, or outline the precise boundaries, features, or exact characteristics of a specific area.
Radiometric analysis allows researchers to delineate distinct landforms across the agricultural region.
- eclipse verb
To obscure, diminish, surpass, or outshine something else in importance, fame, or total significance.
Initial conservation successes were completely eclipsed by a sudden surge of fresh ecological disasters.
- encroach verb
To gradually advance, intrude, or infringe beyond acceptable or established limits, taking over territory.
The desert began to encroach upon productive agricultural fields due to severe ongoing drought.
- prospect verb
To search, explore, or survey a geographic region for valuable hidden minerals, gold, or oil deposits.
Geologists use advanced radar systems to prospect for precious metals deep underground.
- regolith noun
The layer of loose, heterogeneous superficial material covering solid bedrock, including dust, soil, and broken rock.
Analyzing the composition of the regolith helps geologists understand subterranean water movement paths.
- rendered ineffective alternative
Caused to become completely useless, invalid, or devoid of any practical value or success.
Surface tree-planting efforts may be rendered ineffective if underlying salt channels are ignored.
- salinity noun
The total concentration of dissolved salts present within a specific soil sample or body of water.
High soil salinity prevents crops from absorbing essential nutrients, leading to agricultural failure.
- stealthily adverb
Performing an action in a cautious, secretive, or quiet manner to avoid detection or notice.
The environmental crisis is stealthily destroying farmland without showing obvious surface signs.
- sterilise verb
To render land or soil completely unproductive and incapable of sustaining plant life or crop cultivation.
Rising salt levels threaten to sterilise millions of hectares of valuable farming country by next decade.
- subterranean adjective
Existing, occurring, operating, or situated completely beneath the visible surface of the earth.
Scientists mapped the subterranean channels to track how contaminated water moves beneath the valleys.