Interactive Reading

Read the passage and answer the question.

Venice has long fought rising water, but a newer threat moves in the opposite direction: the city is slowly sinking. Built on wooden piles driven into soft mud, Venice settles a few millimeters each year as the ground beneath it compacts. For centuries this was barely noticeable, but combined with rising sea levels, even tiny drops now bring flooding to once-dry squares. Engineers have installed mobile barriers that rise during high tides to hold back the sea. Yet barriers cannot stop the sinking itself. Some scientists suggest pumping water deep underground to gently lift the city, an idea that remains controversial and untested at full scale.