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TPO 34—2 水电的发展
原文：
The Development of Steam Power
【1】By the eighteenth century, Britain was experiencing a vere shortage of energy. Becau of the growth of population, most of the great forests of medieval Britain had long ago been replaced by fields
玛氏招聘of grain and hay. Wood was in ever-shorter supply, yet it remained tremendously important. It rved as the primary source of heat for all homes and industries and as a basic raw material. Procesd wood (charcoal) was the fuel that was mixed with iron ore in the blast furnace to produce pig iron (raw iron). The iron industry’s appetite for wood was enormous, and by 1740 the British iron industry was stagnating. Vast forests enabled Russia to become the world’s leading producer of iron, much of which was exported to Britain. But Russia’s potential for growth was limited too, and in a few decades Russia would reach the barrier of inadequate energy that was already holding England back. 【2】As this early energy crisis grew wor, Britain looked toward its abundant and widely scattered rerves of coal as an alternative to its vanishing wood. Coal was first ud in Britain in the late Middle Ages as a source of heat. By 1640 most homes in London were heated with it, and it also provided heat for making beer, glass, soap, and other products. Coal was not ud, however, to produce mechanical energy or to power machinery. It was there that coal’s potential wad enormous.
【3】As more coal was produced, mines were dug deeper and deeper and were constantly filling with water. Mechanical pumps, usually powered by hundreds of hors waling in circles at the surface, had to be installed Such power was expensive and bothersome. In an attempt to overcome the disadvantages, Thomas Savery in 1698 and Thomas Newcomen in 1705 invented the first pri
mitive steam engines. Both engines were extremely inefficient. Both burned coal to produce steam, which was then ud to operate a pump. However, by the early 1770s, many of the Savery engines and hundreds of the Newcomen engines were operating successfully, though inefficiently, in English and Scottish mines.
【4】In the early 1760s, a gifted young Scot named James Watt was drawn to a critical study of the steam engine. Watt was employed at the time by the University of Glasgow as a skilled crafts worker making scientific instruments. In 1763: Watt was called on to repair a Newcomen engine being ud in a physics cour. After a ries of obrvations, Watt saw that the Newcomen’s waste of energy could be reduced by adding a parate condenr. This splendid invention, patented in 1769, greatly incread the efficiency of the steam engine. The steam engine of Watt and his followers was the technological advance that gave people, at least for a while, unlimited power and allowed the invention and u of all kinds of power equipment. 【5】The steam engine was quickly put to u in veral industries in Britain. It drained mines and made possible the production of ever more coal to feed steam engines elwhere. The steam power plant began to replace waterpower in the cotton-spinning mills as well as other industries during the 1780s, contributing to a
phenomenal ri in industrialization. The British iron industry was radically transformed. The u of p
owerful, steam-driven bellows in blast furnaces helped iron makers switch over rapidly from limited charcoal to unlimited coke (which is made from coal) in the smelting of pig iron (the process of refining impure iron) after 1770 in the 1780s, Henry Cort developed the puddling furnace, which allowed pig iron to be refined in turn with coke. Cort also developed heavy-duty, steam-powered rolling mills, which were capable of producing finished iron in every shape and form.centre翻译
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送老师的花【6】The economic conquence of the technical innovations in steam power was a great boom in the British iron industry. In 1740 annual British iron production was only 17:000 tons, but by 1844: with the spread of coke smelting and the impact of Cort’s inventions, it had incread to 3,000:000 tons. This was a truly amazing expansion. Once scarce and expensive, iron became cheap, basic, and indispensable to the economy.
题目：
1.What can be inferred from paragraph 1 about Britain's short supply of wood in the eighteenth century?
A.Wood from Britain’s great forests was being exported to other countries for profit.
B.A growing population had required cutting down forests to increa available land
for farming.
C.Larger families required the construction of larger homes made from wood.
天天日夜夜做D.What was left of the great forests after the medieval period was being strictly protected.快闪活动策划
2.Select TWO answer choices that, according to paragraph 1, are true statements about Ru ssia’s iron industry in the eighteenth century. To obtain credit, you must lect TWO answer choices.
A.Russia reached its maximum production of iron at the same time as Britain.
B.Russia exported much of its iron production to Britain.
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C.Russia’s appetite for iron incread rapidly after 1740.
D.Russia’s energy resources eventually became insufficient and limited the growth of its iron industry.
如懿传歌曲3.The word "abundant" in the passage is clost in meaning to
B.plentiful
C.well-prerved
4.Why are "beer, glass, soap, and other products" mentioned in the discussion of Britain’s energy?
A.T o help explain why the energy crisis was so vere
B.To show that despite the energy crisis and as early as 1640, London homes were advanced and well supplied
C.To emphasize that after 1640, British homes required energy for more than heat
