Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers (Reading) — practice #rmcma-008

The Dutch have spent centuries learning to live with water, and their flood defences are studied around the world. Much of the country lies below sea level, reclaimed from marsh and sea by an intricate network of dikes, pumps and barriers. After a catastrophic flood in 1953 killed nearly two thousand people, engineers launched a vast programme of storm-surge barriers designed to seal off vulnerable estuaries during the fiercest storms. In recent decades, thinking has shifted. Rather than simply building ever-higher walls, planners increasingly 'make room for the river', deliberately widening floodplains and creating areas that can flood safely when water levels rise. This approach, they argue, is more resilient against the heavier rainfall expected with climate change than rigid barriers alone.