I am in Chile. I sit in a Jeep. The air is cold and thin. The sun is very strong. We drive to a salt flat. It is called the Atacama. It is white and very large. It is the third biggest in the world. It is high in the mountains. Flamingos live here. But the flamingos are in trouble.
Under the salt is a metal. It is called lithium. Lithium is very important. It is used in batteries. Batteries help the world make less carbon. The water under the ground is very salty. It has lithium in it. Rain falls on the mountains. The water runs down to the flat. The water cannot leave the basin. Only the sun can dry it out.
Companies pump the salty water out. They push it into big pools. The sun dries the water. The lithium gets stronger in the pools. One round can take 10 to 24 months. Many flamingos live here. Local people live here too. Mining can hurt them. Helping the planet can hurt local nature. The water here is easy to harm.
Sources: theguardian.com
The words in bold are from the article.
| 1. trouble | a. hurt |
| 2. large | b. aid |
| 3. important | c. drops |
| 4. very | d. danger |
| 5. harm | e. also |
| 6. help | f. push |
| 7. strong | g. big |
| 8. falls | h. powerful |
| 9. pump | i. extremely |
| 10. too | j. key |
1.d 2.g 3.j 4.i 5.a 6.b 7.h 8.c 9.f 10.e