▶ Your Answer :
In
this given set of materials, there is some discrepancy between the views of the
lecturer and the author over the issue of how to reduce the increasing salinity
of the Salton Sea. With three cogent explanations, the lecturer raises
objections to the alleged solution of reverse the trend presented in the
passage.
To
start with, the lecturer debunks the author’s first conjecture since if the
water is bumped into the desalination facilities and heated, it will evaporate
and leave behind solid material, which includes not only salt but also other
compositions. To elaborate in detail, the lecturer claims that some of these
chemicals are toxic, so when they get into the air and breathed by the humans,
it might be dangerous and poses health risk to the people. This view is in direct opposition to the
author’s claim that salt could be directly removed in special desalination
facilities.
In
addition, the lecturer also indicates dissent over the author’s idea on the
ways to reduce the increasing salinity of the Salton Sea. The lecturer sounds
convinced that the author is making a manifest error about the difficulty of
constructing pipelines or canals since it is unlikely for the local government
to have enough resource to pay for the construction. This is due to the fact that
the Pacific Ocean is 100km away from the Salton Sea, so it would be very
expensive to build pipelines or canals between them to bring ocean water into the
lake. However, the author clarifies that the lake’s salinity could be controlled
by diluting the lake with water from the ocean, which is less salty.
Thirdly,
the lecturer goes on to expound that the author’s final point on diving the
lake into several sections is flawed. The lecturer mentions that the
constructing of walls in the purpose of dividing the lake would only work for a
short time because these walls are vulnerable to the natural disasters such as
the earthquakes. In the vicinity of the Salton Sea, there exists many tense
geological activities, and they could destroy the walls by making them
collapse. As a result, the water with high salinity will flows back to the
water with low salinity. However, this counters the author’s theory that by
dividing the lake into many sections with walls, people can dilute water in the
main sections and thus solve the salinity problem.
Therefore, with these three convincing
explanations the lecturer points, the author’s assumptions are all rendered
groundless.
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