6（1）Powering the Industrial Revolution

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In Britain one of the most dramatic changes of the Industrial Revolution was the harnessing of power. Until the reign of George Ⅲ(1760-1820), available sources of power for work and travel had not increased since the Middle Ages. There were three sources of power: animal or human muscles; the wind, operating on sail or windmill; and running water. Only the last of these was suited at all to the continuous operating of machines, and although waterpower abounded in Lancashire and Scotland and ran grain mills as well as textile mills, it had one great disadvantage: streams flowed where nature intended them to, and water-driven factories had to be located on their banks whether 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 both movable and constant power.

The source had long been known but not exploited. Early in the eighteenth century, a pump had come into use in which expanding steam raised a piston in a cylinder, and atmospheric pressure brought it down again when the steam condensed inside the cylinder to form a vacuum. This “atmospheric engine,” invented by Thomas Savery and vastly improved by his partner, Thomas Newcomen, embodied revolutionary principles, but it was so slow and wasteful of fuel that it could not be employed outside the coal mines for which it had been designed. In the 1760s, James Watt perfected a separate condenser for the steam, so that the cylinder did not have to be cooled at every stroke; then he devised a way to make the piston turn a wheel and thus convert reciprocating (back and forth) motion into rotary motion. He thereby transformed an inefficient pump of limited use into a steam engine of a thousand uses. The final step came when steam was introduced into the cylinder to drive the piston backward as well as forward, thereby increasing the speed of the engine and cutting its fuel consumption.

Watt's steam engine soon showed what it could do. It liberated industry from dependence on running water. The engine eliminated water in the mines by driving efficient pumps, which made possible deeper and deeper mining. The ready availability of coal inspired William Murdoch during the 1790s to develop the first new form of nighttime illumination to be discovered in a millennium and a half. Coal gas rivaled smoky oil lamps and flickering candles, and early in the new century, well-to-do Londoners grew accustomed to gaslit houses and even streets. Iron manufacturers, which had starved for fuel while depending on charcoal, also benefited from ever-increasing supplies of coal: blast furnaces with steam-powered bellows turned out more iron and steel for the new machinery. Steam became the motive force of the Industrial Revolution as coal and iron ore were the raw materials.

By 1800 more than a thousand steam engines were in use in the British Isles, and Britain retained a virtual monopoly on steam engine production until the 1830s. Steam power did not merely spin cotton and roll iron; early in the new century, it also multiplied ten times over the amount of paper that a single worker could produce in a day. At the same time, operators of the first printing presses run by steam rather than by hand found it possible to produce a thousand pages in an hour rather than thirty. Steam also promised to eliminate a transportation problem not fully solved by either canal boats or turnpikes. Boats could carry heavy weights, but canals could not cross hilly terrain; turnpikes could cross the hills, but the roadbeds could not 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 along metal rails; and the stationary steam engine was puffing in the factory and mine. Another generation passed before inventors succeeded in combining these ingredients, by putting the engine on wheels and the wheels on the rails, so as to provide a machine to take the place of the horse. Thus the railroad age sprang from what had already happened in the eighteenth century.

题目

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雷哥托福原创答案解析

1. 句子简化题

解析：原句结构为并列，在后半部分又有一个让步状语。A用了绝对化的词best, only（只在L和S两个地区充裕），原文没说。B没有说到原句前半部分。C同A，所说的only（只在水充裕的地方才能持续运作）原文没说。选D，but也是表示并列结构，且原文有转折的意味。

2. 段落关系题

解析：第1段说明水能的缺点，最后一句提出要有新能源，才能有机械新时代。而第2段第一句就提出大家一直就知道这种能源。所以选B

3. 词汇题

解析：exploit开采，与A利用最接近

4. 词汇题

解析：vast巨大的，最接近的是C greatly

5. 事实信息题

解析：读atmospheric engine这句话说明这个引擎太慢，浪费燃料，不能够在煤矿之外使用。而这句话并没有说明引擎慢的原因，往下看，JW完善了蒸汽冷凝器，所以汽缸不需要在每个桨被冷却了。那就说明之前的引擎汽缸必须冷却，选B

6. 排除题

解析：BC对应最后一句，D对应倒数第二句a steam engine of a thousand uses.A原文中只说到他发明了一种使活塞转动轮子的方法，并没有说是用蒸汽来推动活塞。选A

7. 修辞目的题

解析：这个例子前面说明Watt的蒸汽引擎使更深的采矿成为可能，于是（采矿带来的）可以利用的煤激发了WM发展了nighttime illumination，选A

8. 词汇题

解析：accustom to 使习惯于，get /become used to 也有习惯于的意思，所以选C

9. 词汇题

解析：retain保持，与D maintain近义

10. 事实信息题

解析：哪项有关蒸汽引擎为真，而第4段都在说蒸汽引擎，所以只有每一项进行对比选择。

A根据production of paper, printing定位到early in the new century以及at the same time这两句，说明steam engines也用于printing，A错。B根据by 1800定位到首句，这句话说明steam engines在不列颠群岛使用，没有说到outside of Britain，B错。C根据factories和trains定位到and the stationary steam engine之后，对。D根据canal boats, turnpikes定位到Steam also promised to eliminate...这句话说steam解决了canal boats, turnpikes都没有解决的问题，没有提到选项中说的修建这两者。D错

11. 事实信息题

解析：根据horse, ingredients定位到倒数2-3句，倒数第2句in combining these ingredients说明ingredients是前句提到的内容，而前句说由马拉的wagon马车（带凸缘轮），并且提到工厂和矿场的steam engine，应该是联合了这两者，所以选B

12. 句子插入题

解析：插入句说到factories, streams, power, 对应本段2-3句中的industry, water，而B中It指代前句steam engine，联系紧密，所以不选B，选C

13. 段落小结题

解析：A是第二段中的一个细节，不选

B对应原文第三段，正确

C对应第四段第一句，但这句话不是中心句，是细节，不选

D对应原文第二段后三句，正确

E是第三段中的一个细节，不选

F对应原文第四段后三句，正确

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