Moving water was one of the earliest energy sources to be harnessed to reduce the workload of people and animals. No one knows exactly when the waterwheel was invented, but irrigation systems existed at least 5,000 years ago, and it seems probable that the earliest waterpower device was the noria, a waterwheel that raised water for irrigation in attached jars. The device appears to have evolved no later than the fifth century B.C., perhaps independently in different regions of the Middle and Far East.
The earliest waterpower mills were probably vertical-axis mills for grinding corn, known as Norse or Greek mills, which seem to have appeared during the first or second century B.C. in the Middle East and a few centuries later in Scandinavia. In the following centuries, increasingly sophisticated waterpower mills were built throughout the Roman Empire and beyond its boundaries in the Middle East and northern Europe. In England, the Saxons are thought to have used both horizontal0 and vertical-axis wheels. The first documented English mill was in the eighth century, but three centuries later about 5,000 were recorded, suggesting that every settlement of any size had its mill.
Raising water and grinding corn were by no means the only uses of the waterpower mill, and during the following centuries, the applications of waterpower kept pace with the developing technologies of mining, iron working, paper making, and the wool and cotton industries. Water was the main source of mechanical power, and by the end of the seventeenth century, England alone is thought to have had some 20,000 working mill. There was much debate on the relative efficiencies of different types of waterwheels. The period from about 1650 until 1800 saw some excellent scientific and technical investigations of different designs. They revealed output powers ranging from about 1 horsepower to perhaps 60 for the largest wheels and confirmed that for maximum efficiency, the water should pass across the blades as smoothly as possible and fall away with minimum speed, having given up almost all of its kinetic energy. (They also proved that, in principle, the overshot wheel, a type of wheel in which an overhead stream of water powers the wheel, should win the efficiency competition.)
But then steam power entered the scene, putting the whole future of waterpower in doubt. An energy analyst writing in the year 1800 would have painted a very pessimistic picture of the future for waterpower. The coal-fired steam engine was taking over, and the waterwheel was fast becoming obsolete. However, like many later experts, this one would have suffered from an inability to see into the future. A century later the picture was completely different: by then, the world had an electric industry, and a quarter of its generating capacity was water powered.
The growth of the electric-power industry was the result of a remarkable series of scientific discoveries and development in electrotechnology during the nineteenth century, but significant changes in what we might now call hydro (water) technology also played their part. In 1832, the year of Michael Faraday’s discovery that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field, a young French engineer patented a new and more efficient waterwheel. His name was Nenoit Fourneyron, and his device was the first successful water turbine. (The word turbine comes form the Latin turbo: something that spins). The waterwheel, unaltered for nearly 2,000 years, had finally been superseded.
Half a century of development was needed before Faraday’s discoveries in electricity were translated into full-scale power stations. In 1881 the Godalming power station in Surrey, England, on the banks of the Wey River, created the world’s first public electricity supply. The power source of this most modern technology was a traditional waterwheel. Unfortunately this early plant experienced the problem common to many forms of renewable energy: the flow in the Wey River was unreliable, and the waterwheel was soon replaced by a steam engine.
From this primitive start, the electric industry grew during the final 20 years of the nineteenth century at a rate seldom if ever exceeded by any technology. The capacity of individual power stations, many of them hydro plants, rose from a few kilowatts to over a megawatt in less than a decade.
Paragraph 1: Moving water was one of the earliest energy sources to be harnessed to reduce the workload of people and animals. No one knows exactly when the waterwheel was invented, but irrigation systems existed at least 5,000 years ago, and it seems probable that the earliest waterpower device was the noria, a waterwheel that raised water for irrigation in attached jars. The device appears to have evolved no later than the fifth century B.C., perhaps independently in different regions of the Middle and Far East.
1. The word “harnessed” in the passage is closest in meaning to
O known
O depended on
O recognized
O utilized
2.In paragraph 1, uncertainty is expressed about all of the following aspects of the early development of waterpower EXCEPT
O when exactly the very first waterpower devices were invented
O when exactly the very first waterpower devices were developed
O whether water was one of the earliest sources of power to be used by humans
O whether the very earliest waterpower devices arose independently
Paragraph 2: The earliest waterpower mills were probably vertical-axis mills for grinding corn, known as Norse or Greek mills, which seem to have appeared during the first or second century B.C. in the Middle East and a few centuries later in Scandinavia. In the following centuries, increasingly sophisticated waterpower mills were built throughout the Roman Empire and beyond its boundaries in the Middle East and northern Europe. In England, the Saxons are thought to have used both horizontal0 and vertical-axis wheels. The first documented English mill was in the eighth century, but three centuries later about 5,000 were recorded, suggesting that every settlement of any size had its mill.
3.According to paragraph 2, what was true of the waterpower mills built throughout the Roman Empire?
O Most had horizontal-axis wheels
O Their design was based on mills that had long been used in Scandinavia
O Their design was more popular beyond the Empire’s boundaries than it was within the Empire.
O They are more advanced than the mills used in the Middle East at an earlier time.
Paragraph 3: Raising water and grinding corn were by no means the only uses of the waterpower mill, and during the following centuries, the applications of waterpower kept pace with the developing technologies of mining, iron working, paper making, and the wool and cotton industries. Water was the main source of mechanical power, and by the end of the seventeenth century, England alone is thought to have had some 20,000 working mill. There was much debate on the relative efficiencies of different types of waterwheels. The period from about 1650 until 1800 saw some excellent scientific and technical investigations of different designs. They revealed output powers ranging from about 1 horsepower to perhaps 60 for the largest wheels and confirmed that for maximum efficiency, the water should pass across the blades as smoothly as possible and fall away with minimum speed, having given up almost all of its kinetic energy. (They also proved that, in principle, the overshot wheel, a type of wheel in which an overhead stream of water powers the wheel, should win the efficiency competition.)
4. The phrase “the application of waterpower” in the passage is closest in meaning to
O the uses to which waterpower was put
O the improvement made to waterpower
O the method by which waterpower was supplied
O the source of waterpower available
Paragraph 4: But then steam power entered the scene, putting the whole future of waterpower in doubt. An energy analyst writing in the year 1800 would have painted a very pessimistic picture of the future for waterpower. The coal-fired steam engine was taking over, and the waterwheel was fast becoming obsolete. However, like many later experts, this one would have suffered from an inability to see into the future. A century later the picture was completely different: by then, the world had an electric industry, and a quarter of its generating capacity was water powered.
5.According to paragraph 4, which of the following was discovered as a result of scientific and technical investigations of waterpower conducted between 1650 and 1800?
O Some types of small waterwheel can produce as much horsepower as the very largest wheels.
O Waterwheels operate more efficiently when water falls away from their blades slowly than when water falls away quickly.
O Waterwheel efficiency can be improved by increasing the amount of kinetic energy water contains as it passes over a waterwheel’s blades.
O Unlike other types of waterwheels, the overshot wheel is capable of producing more than 60 horsepower units of energy.
6.The word “pessimistic” in the passage is closest in meaning to
O negative
O unlikely
O surprising
O incomplete
7.The term “by then” in the passage refers to
O by the time steam power entered the scene
O by the year 1800
O by the year 1900
O by the time waterwheel was becoming obsolete
Paragraph 5: The growth of the electric-power industry was the result of a remarkable series of scientific discoveries and development in electrotechnology during the nineteenth century, but significant changes in what we might now call hydro (water) technology also played their part. In 1832, the year of Michael Faraday’s discovery that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field, a young French engineer patented a new and more efficient waterwheel. His name was Nenoit Fourneyron, and his device was the first successful water turbine. (The word turbine comes form the Latin turbo: something that spins). The waterwheel, unaltered for nearly 2,000 years, had finally been superseded.
8.According to paragraph 5, why did waterpower become more importantly by 1900?
O Better waterwheel designs improved the efficiency of waterpower.
O Waterpower was needed to operate steam engines.
O Waterpower was used to generate electricity.
O Waterwheels became more efficient than coal-powered engines.
9. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
O The growth of the electric-power industry stimulated significant changes in hydro technology and scientific progress in electrotechnology in the nineteenth century.
O The changes in hydro technology that led to the growth of the electric-power industry also led to discoveries and developments in electrotechnology in the nineteenth century.
O Advances in electrotechnology in the nineteenth century and changes in hydro technology were responsible for the growth of the electric-power industry.
O In the nineteenth century, the scientific study of electrotechnology and hydro technology benefited greatly from the growth of the electric-power industry.
10.The word “unaltered” in the passage is closest in meaning to
O unimproved
O unequaled
O unchanged
O unsatisfactory
Paragraph 6: Half a century of development was needed before Faraday’s discoveries in electricity were translated into full-scale power stations. In 1881 the Godalming power station in Surrey, England, on the banks of the Wey River, created the world’s first public electricity supply. The power source of this most modern technology was a traditional waterwheel. Unfortunately this early plant experienced the problem common to many forms of renewable energy: the flow in the Wey River was unreliable, and the waterwheel was soon replaced by a steam engine.
11.The discussion of the history of electric power production in paragraph 6 supports which of the following?
O 1832 marked the beginning of the industrial production of electric power.
O Turbines using Benoit Fourneyron’s design were eventually used to generate electric power.
O benoit Fourneyron quickly applied Michael Faraday’s discovery about electric fields to acquire a pattern for a new and more efficient waterwheel.
O Practical advances in hydro technology were more important to the development of electric power than were advances in the theoretical understanding of electricity.
Paragraph 7: From this primitive start, the electric industry grew during the final 20 years of the nineteenth century at a rate seldom if ever exceeded by any technology. The capacity of individual power stations, many of them hydro plants, rose from a few kilowatts to over a megawatt in less than a decade.
12.According to paragraph 7, what problem did the early power station in the town of Godalming in Surrey, United Kingdom, face in providing electricity?
O The traditional waterwheel is used was not large enough to meet the demand for energy.
O The flow of the River Wey, on which the power station depended, was unreliable.
O The operators of the Godalming power station had little experience with hydro technology.
O The steam engine that turned the waterwheel was faulty and needed to be replaced.
Paragraph 3: Raising water and grinding corn were by no means the only uses of the waterpower mill, and during the following centuries, the applications of waterpower kept pace with the developing technologies of mining, iron working, paper making, and the wool and cotton industries. Water was the main source of mechanical power, and by the end of the seventeenth century, England alone is thought to have had some 20,000 working mill. There was much debate on the relative efficiencies of different types of waterwheels. ■The period from about 1650 until 1800 saw some excellent scientific and technical investigations of different designs. ■They revealed output powers ranging from about 1 horsepower to perhaps 60 for the largest wheels and confirmed that for maximum efficiency, the water should pass across the blades as smoothly as possible and fall away with minimum speed, having given up almost all of its kinetic energy. ■(They also proved that, in principle, the overshot wheel, a type of wheel in which an overhead stream of water powers the wheel, should win the efficiency competition.) ■
13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.
The steam engine that turned the waterwheel was faulty and needed to be replaced.
Where would the sentence best fit?
14. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.
Ever since the development of waterwheel, which occurred no later than 500 B.C., people have used moving water as a source of power.
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Answer Choices
O The first water-powered machines were probably used to grind corn, and as technology advanced, waterwheels were used as the main source of power in many industries.
O In the late nineteenth century an electric power station in England began using water power from a nearby river, creating a dependable source of power that quickly replaced the steam engine.
O In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, design improvements I waterwheels led to discoveries of how to increase their efficiency and power output.
O Almost every large town in England had a waterpower mill, allowing England to become the world’s leader in industries that depended on water for their power.
O Waterpower mills were probably invented about the same time in the Middle East and Scandinavia and then spread to England by about the second century B.C.
O After declining in importance in the early 1800’s, waterpower came back into demand by the end of the century as a means to power electric plants and water turbines.
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14. The first water-powered machines…
Waterpower mills were probably…
After declining in importance in…
流水是人類最早利用的能量來(lái)源，以減少人和牲畜的工作負(fù)擔(dān)。無(wú)法知曉水輪是什么時(shí)候發(fā)明的，但灌溉系統(tǒng)至少在五千年前就已存在。最早的水力設(shè)施很可能是戽水車(chē)，一種通過(guò)附帶的瓦罐將水舉起以便灌溉的水輪。這種設(shè)備在公元前十五世紀(jì)就可能獨(dú)立的出現(xiàn)在中東和遠(yuǎn)東的一些地區(qū)了。
最早用于研磨谷物的水力磨可能都是垂直軸的，比如可能在公元前一到二世紀(jì)出現(xiàn)在中東的希臘磨以及幾個(gè)世紀(jì)之后出現(xiàn)在斯堪的納維亞的斯堪的納維亞磨。后來(lái)的幾個(gè)世紀(jì)里，更加先進(jìn)的水磨在整個(gè)羅馬帝國(guó)及其邊界以外的中東和北歐各地興建起來(lái)。在英國(guó)，撒克遜人可能既有水平軸的也有垂直軸的水磨。有記錄的最早的英國(guó)磨出現(xiàn)在八世紀(jì)，但三百年后大約有5000口水磨記錄再案，也就是說(shuō)幾乎每一處居民聚集地，無(wú)論規(guī)模大小如何都有自己的水磨。
舉升水和研磨谷物絕不是水力磨的唯一用途，在后來(lái)幾個(gè)世紀(jì)中，對(duì)水力的利用與采礦、煉鐵、造紙以及棉毛紡織工業(yè)的技術(shù)進(jìn)步同步。水力是機(jī)械能的主要來(lái)源，在十七世紀(jì)末，光英國(guó)就有約兩萬(wàn)座水磨。不類型水輪的效率的高低向來(lái)爭(zhēng)議很多。從1650到1800年間，人們?cè)O(shè)計(jì)了一些在科學(xué)和技術(shù)上都很先進(jìn)的水輪。它們的輸出功率從1馬力到最大的60馬力，并且人們確信要想產(chǎn)生最高效率，水應(yīng)該從葉輪上盡可能光滑的流過(guò)，并以最小的速度落下，以便輸出其幾乎所有動(dòng)能。（已經(jīng)證明從原則上，上射水輪，一種利用從頂部?jī)A瀉的水流驅(qū)動(dòng)葉輪的水輪，的效率最高。）
但當(dāng)蒸汽動(dòng)力進(jìn)入歷史舞臺(tái)，水力的前途就備受懷疑了。一位能源分析者在1800年寫(xiě)的一篇論文給水力的前途鋪上了一層悲觀的色調(diào)。燃煤蒸汽動(dòng)力正在普及，而水輪則被迅速遺棄。然而，正如后來(lái)很多專家所言，這位分析者對(duì)未來(lái)過(guò)于短視。一個(gè)世紀(jì)之后，情況完全不同：那時(shí)世界已經(jīng)有了電力工業(yè)，而四分之一的發(fā)電能力都來(lái)自水力。
十九世紀(jì)電力工業(yè)的崛起源自一系列的科學(xué)發(fā)現(xiàn)和電工業(yè)的發(fā)展，但我們現(xiàn)在目睹的水力技術(shù)的重大進(jìn)步也發(fā)揮了重要作用。在1832年，當(dāng)Michael Faraday發(fā)現(xiàn)了變化的磁場(chǎng)能夠產(chǎn)生電場(chǎng)理論時(shí)，一位年輕的法國(guó)工程師申請(qǐng)了一種新型的更有效率的水輪專利。他的名字叫Nenoit Fourneyron，而他的設(shè)備是最早的成功的水力渦輪。水輪在保持了近2000年的原始模樣后終于被超越了。
在半個(gè)世紀(jì)里的時(shí)間里，法拉第的電學(xué)理論終于發(fā)展成了設(shè)施齊備的發(fā)電廠。1881年在英國(guó)的薩里，在衛(wèi)河河畔建成了世界上第一座公用水力發(fā)電站----Godalming 發(fā)電站。這種現(xiàn)代化的發(fā)電站所用的仍是傳統(tǒng)的水輪。不幸的是，這座早起的水力發(fā)電站也遭受了所有可再生能源的共同弊端：衛(wèi)河的水流極不穩(wěn)定，而水輪很快被蒸汽機(jī)代替了。
從這次原始的嘗試開(kāi)始，電工業(yè)在十九世紀(jì)最后的二十年中以比任何其它技術(shù)都快得多的速度發(fā)展起來(lái)。單個(gè)發(fā)電站，很多都是水力發(fā)電站，的發(fā)電能力從幾千瓦在不到十年時(shí)間內(nèi)就發(fā)展到了幾兆瓦。
