托福阅读作业：TPO6 Powering the Industrial Revolution Powering the Industrial Revolution In Britain one of the mostdramatic changes of the Industrial Revolution was the harnessing of power．Until the reign of George Ⅲ(1760-1820)，available sources of power forwork and travel had not increased since the Middle Ages．There were threesources of power：animal or human muscles；the wind,operatingon sail or windmill; and running water .Only the lastof these was suited at all to the continuous operating of machines, andalthough waterpower abounded in Lancashire and Scotland and ran grain mills aswell as textile mills, it had one great disadvantage：streams flowed where natureintended them to and water-driven factories had to be located on their bankswhether or not the location was desirable for other reasons．Furthermore even the most reliable waterpower varied with the seasons and disappeared in a drought．The new age of machinery, in short, could not have been born without a new source of bothmovable and constant power. The source had long been known butnot exploited．Early in the century, a pump hadcome into use in which expanding steam raised a piston in a cylinder, and atmospheric pressure brought it down again when thesteam condensed inside the cylinder to form a vacuum．This “atmospheric engine,” invented by Thomas Savery andvastly improved by his partner Thomas Newcomen,embodied revolutionary principles, but it was so slow and wasteful of fuel thatit could not be employed outside the coal mines for which it had been designed.In the 1760s, James Watt perfected a separatecondenser for the steam, so that the cylinderdid not have to be cooled at every stroke;then hedevised a way to make the piston turn a wheel and thus convert reciprocating (backand forth) motion into rotary motion．He thereby transformed an inefficientpump of limited use into a steam engine of a thousand uses．The final step camewhen steam was introduced into the cylinder to drive the piston backward as wellas forward thereby increasing the speed of the engine and cutting its fuelconsumption. Watt's steam engine soon showedwhat it could do．It liberated industry from dependence on running water．The engine eliminated water in the mines by drivingefficient pumps, which made possible deeper and deeper mining．The readyavailability of coal inspired William Murdoch during the 1790s to develop thefirst new form of nighttime illumination to be discovered in a millennium and ahalf．Coal gas rivaled smoky oil lamps and flickering candles, and early in the new century, well-to-do Londoners grewaccustomed to gaslit houses and even streets．Iron manufacturers which hadstarved for fuel while depending on charcoal also benefited fromever-increasing supplies of coal; blast furnaces with steam- powered bellowsturned out more iron and steel for the new machinery.Steambecame the motive force of the Industrial Revolution as coal and iron ore werethe raw materials． By 1800 more than a thousand steamengines were in use in the British Isles, and Britain retained a virtualmonopoly on steam engine production until the 1830s．Steam power did not merely spincotton and roll iron; early in the new century it also multiplied ten timesover the amount of paper that a single worker could produce in a day．At thesame time, operators of the first printing presses run by steam rather than byhand found it possible to produce a thousand pages in an hour rather thanthirty．Steam also promised to eliminate atransportation problem not fully solved by either canal boats of turnpikes．Boats could carry heavy weights, but canals could notcross hilly terrain; turnpikes could cross the hills, but the roadbeds couldnot stand up under great weights．These problems needed still another solution,and the ingredients for it lay close at hand．In some industrial regions,heavily laden wagons，with flanged wheels，were being hauled by horses alongmetal rails; and the stationary steam engine was puffing in the factory andmine．Another generation passed beforeInventors succeeded in combining these ingredients by putting the engine onwheels and the wheels on the rails, so as to provide a machine to take theplace of the horse．Thus the railroad age sprang from what had already happenedin the eighteenth century. Paragraph 1：In Britain one of the most dramatic changes of theIndustrial Revolution was the harnessingof power．Until the reign of George Ⅲ(1760-1820)，available sources of power forwork and travel had not increased since the Middle Ages．There were threesources of power：animal or human muscles；the wind, operating on sail orwindmill; and running water．Only the lastof these was suited at all to the continuous operating of machines, andalthough waterpower abounded in Lancashire and Scotland and ran grain mills aswell as textile mills, it had one great disadvantage:streams flowedwhere nature intended them to and water-driven factories had to be located ontheir banks whether or not the location was desirable for other reasons．Furthermore, even the mostreliable waterpower varied with the seasons and disappearedin a drought, the new age of machinery, in short, could not have been born without a new source of bothmovable and constant power. Paragraph 2: The source had longbeen known but not exploited.Early inthe century, a pump had come into use inwhich expanding steam raised a piston in a cylinder,andatmospheric pressure brought it down again when the steam condensed inside thecylinder to form a vacuum．This “atmosphericengine,” invented by Thomas Savery and vastly improved by hispartner．Thomas Newcomen, embodiedrevolutionary principles, but it was so slow and wasteful of fuel that it couldnot be employed outside the coal mines for which it had been designed．In the1760s, James Watt perfected a separate condenser for the steam, so that the cylinder did not have to be cooled at everystroke; then he devised a way to make thepiston turn a wheel and thus convert reciprocating (back and forth) motion intorotary motion．He thereby transformed an inefficient pump of limited use into asteam engine of a thousand uses．The final step came when steam was introduced intothe cylinder to drive the piston backward as well as forward thereby increasingthe speed of the engine and cutting its fuel consumption. 1．Which of the sentences belowbest expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in thepassage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave outessential information． ○ Running water was the best power source for factoriessince it could keep machines operating continuously but since it was abundantonly in Lancashire and Scotland, most mills andfactories that were located elsewhere could not be water driven． ○ The disadvantage ofusing waterpower is that streams do not necessarily flow in places that are the most suitable forfactories which explains why so many water—powered grain and textile mills werelocated in undesirable places ○ Since machines couldbe operated continuously only where running water was abundant, grain andtextile mills as well as other factories tended to be located only inLancashire and Scotland． ○ Running water was theonly source of power that was suitable for the continuous operation of machines, but to make use of it factories had to be located wherethe water was, regardless of whether such locations made sense otherwise. 2．Which of the following bestdescribes the relation of paragraph 2 to paragraph 1? ○Paragraph 2 shows howthe problem discussed in paragraph 1 arose. ○Paragraph 2 explainshow the problem presented in paragraph 1 came to be solved． ○Paragraph 2 provides amore technical discussion of the problem introduced in paragraph 1. ○Paragraph 2 shows whythe problem discussed in paragraph 1 was especially important to solve． 3．The word exploitedin the passage is closest in meaning to ○utilized ○recognized ○examined ○fully understood 4．The word vastlyin the passage is closet in meaning to ○quickly ○ultimately ○greatly ○initially 5．According to paragraph 2，the atmospheric enginewas slow because ○it had been designed to be used incoal mines ○the cylinder had to cool betweeneach stroke ○it made use of expanding steam toraise the piston in its cylinder ○it could be operated only when alarge supply of fuel was available
托福阅读作业：TPO6 Powering the Industrial Revolution的延伸阅读——托福阅读考试一次通关必看 一、大量阅读报刊文章，扩大词汇量 试题的大部分文章都是关于自然科学、社会科学、商务和艺术方面的，备考时应尽可能从报刊、杂志、教科书中多读这些题材方面的文章。建议上网到各个著名的杂志、报刊网站上阅读，比如 Newsweek，Time，New
Yorker等。可以先从自己喜爱的内容着手，学会培养兴趣，享受英文阅读的快乐。 二、速度是关键 快速阅读每篇文章，理解文章的主题和结构。重点读第一段的前两三句及其他段的第一句。注意篇中经常出现的关键词和词组。快速解答问题，如果无法即刻选出正确答案，使用排除法排除你认为错误的答案。排除法可大大提高你答对的机会。新托福考试对于错误答案不倒扣分。考试中要仔细监测计算机屏幕上的所剩时间，不要在一个问题上花很长时间。阅读考试在规定的时间内允许你返回前一个问题进行修改。此外，考前要通过模拟考试来熟悉鼠标的点击和拖拽功能以及新托福的机考屏幕, 要学会对
Next, Back及Review等这些操作词的熟练运用。 三、准确知道问题想问的是什么 看清楚每道题所问的是不是文中直接提到过的信息，是问一个单词的意思还是作者某一陈述的意图，或是文中的主要观点。当遇到问细节问题时，要学会扫描，找关键词和词组。新托福会标记加亮一部分帮你扫描，很快找到提及的词或短句，这样节省了考生在整段文章中找寻的时间。词汇问题的回答要学会看上下文。平时注意练习从语境中猜测不认识的词的意思，以常识、对文章的理解和句子中其它词为线索，分析并熟悉那些困扰你的错误答案。 对于推断题，审题要仔细，首先排除那些无法合理推断出来的选项。 |
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