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阅读理解
It has shined and steamed at the lowest point on Earth since the ancient time．Its silence and curing powers have attracted people from biblical(圣经的)mystics to modern tourists．But the Dead Sea has been quietly dying for years．
And the two states next to its shrinking shoreline, Israel and Jordan, face serious economic and ecological challenges in considering how to save a unique natural wonder of the world．
They have begun to consider a“Red－Dead”solution－a canal to pump water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea．But huge costs, and the risk both of damaging the Red's famous coral reefs and weakening the Dead's medicinal minerals, stand in the way．
Known as the Dead Sea because nothing can live in it, the world's saltiest body of water has fallen from 390 metres to 417 metres below sea level in the last 50 years．The drop has sped up to a metre a year recently, making a third of its ancient 950 square km size lost．Modern economics are to blame－taking too much Jordan River water that feeds the Dead Sea to rain－starved farmland．
Hotels and health spas(旅游胜地)built along the beach below desert cliffs, as well as sites holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, are now a kilometre or more from the water's edge．Retired Swiss couple Jean and Esther Haensenberger have been spending their yearly“Kur”－a Central European tradition of taking medicinal baths to treat skin illness and stress－at Israel's flagship Dead Sea resort of Ein Gedi since the 1980s．At first, they could walk a few paces from the Ein Gedi Spa to the beach for a float in windless waters so floating that one can read a book while lying on one's back．Now visitors board a tractor－drawn trolley that takes them a kilometre to the water．
“It's over twice the distance out today．It's sad that another rare preserve of nature is disappearing．”said Jean Haensenberger as he and his wife rode to the shore,“If the sea keeps going down, will people like us keep coming?”
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