Salt Lakes of the World
The most famous salt lake in the world is the Dead Sea, in the Middle Eart. Water is lost into the air because of the heat of the sun, and the salt stays in the lake. It is also very lowlying, at around 395 metres below sea level. However, it is not the saltiest lake in the world. The Great Salt Lake in the USA, with 270 parts of salt per thousand, is even saltier.
The water of the Dead Sea contains about 250 parts of salt to every thousand parts of water, or 25% by weight. It is so salty that it is difficult to swim or dive, as your body floats on the surface. What has made this lake so salty? The minerals are partly supplied by hundreds of natural springs which flow into the Dead Sea, and partly by the River Jordan. It is called the Dead Sea because very few things can live in such salty water. There is very little rain here, merely 60mm in a year on average. The minerals stay in the lake, because there is no river flowing out of the lake.
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此文描述了世界兩大鹽湖形成的原因，以及鹽湖中所含的成份，是一篇非常好的背景材料，可供讀者在寫有關文章時引用。
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世界上的鹹水湖
世界上最有名的鹹水湖是中東的死海。由于太陽酷熱，水變成了水蒸汽，而鹽分仍留在湖中。這裏的地勢也很低，約低于海平面395米。然而死海並不是世界上最鹹的鹹水湖。美國大鹽湖的水還要鹹一些，每千份水中含有270份鹽。
死海中的水每千份水裏含有250份鹽，或者說按重量計佔25%。湖水太鹹了，很難遊泳或潛水，因為你的身體會浮在水面上。是什麽東西使得湖水這樣鹹呢?是各種礦物質。它的部分來自眾多的流入死海的天然泉水，部分來自約旦河。這個鹹水湖之所以稱作死海，是因為在這樣鹹的水中幾乎沒有什麽東西能夠生存。這兒雨水極少，平均每年隻有60毫米。因為湖水不能通過江河流出去，所以礦物質就沉積在湖中了。