戴爾美語練功坊 托福閱讀(01/10) - 英檢

戴爾美語練功坊 托福閱讀(01/10)

Geothermal Energy

Earth's internal heat, fueled by radioactivity, provides the energy for plate
tectonics and continental drift, mountain building, and earthquakes.
It can also be harnessed to drive electric generators and heat homes.
Geothermal energy becomes available in a practical form
when underground heat is transferred by water that is heated as it passes
through a subsurface region of hot rocks (a heat reservoir) that may be
hundreds or thousands of feet deep. (A)■ The water is usually naturally
occurring groundwater that seeps down along fractures in the rock;
less typically, the water is artificially introduced by being pumped down
from the surface. (B)■ The water is brought to the surface, as a liquid
or steam, through holes drilled for the purpose. (C)■

By far the most profuse form of geothermal energy occurs at the
relatively low temperatures of 80° to 180° centigrade. (D)■ Water
circulated through heat reservoirs in this temperature range is able to
extract enough heat to warm residential, commercial, and industrial spaces.
More than 20,000 apartments in France are now heated by warm
underground water drawn from a heat reservoir in a geologic structure near
Paris called the Paris Basin. Iceland sits on a volcanic structure known
as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, is entirely
heated by geothermal energy derived from volcanic heat.

Geothermal reservoirs with temperatures above 180° centigrade are useful
for generating electricity. They occur primarily in regions of recent
volcanic activity as hot, dry rock; natural hot water; or natural steam.
The latter two sources are limited to those few areas where surface water
seeps down through underground faults or fractures to reach deep rocks
heated by the recent activity of molten rock material. The world's largest
supply of natural steam occurs at The Geysers, 120 kilometers north of San
Francisco, California. In the 1990s enough electricity to meet about half
the needs of San Francisco was being generated there. This facility was
then in its third decade of production and was beginning to show signs of
decline, perhaps because of over development. By the late 1990s some
70 geothermal electric-generating plants were in operation in California,
Utah, Nevada, and Hawaii, generating enough power to supply about a
million people. Eighteen countries now generate electricity using
geothermal heat.

Extracting heat from very hot, dry rocks presents a more difficult problem:
the rocks must be fractured to permit the circulation of water, and the
water must be provided artificially. The rocks are fractured by water
pumped down at very high pressures. Experiments are under way to
develop technologies for exploiting this resource.

Like most other energy sources, geothermal energy presents some
environmental problems. The surface of the ground can sink if hot
groundwater is withdrawn without being replaced. In addition, water
heated geothermally can contain salts and toxic materials dissolved from
the hot rock. These waters present a disposal problem if they are not
returned to the ground from which they were removed.

The contribution of geothermal energy to the world's energy future is
difficult to estimate. Geothermal energy is in a sense not renewable,
because in most cases the heat would be drawn out of a reservoir much
more rapidly than it would be replaced by the very slow geological
processes by which heat flows through solid rock into a heat reservoir.
However, in many places (for example, California, Hawaii, the Philippines,
Japan, Mexico, the rift valleys of Africa) the resource is potentially so
large that its future will depend on the economics of production.
At present, we can make efficient use of only naturally occurring hot
water or steam deposits. Although the potential is enormous, it is likely
that in the near future geothermal energy can make important local
contributions only where the resource is close to the user and the economics
are favorable, as they are in California, New Zealand, and Iceland.
Geothermal energy probably will not make large-scale contributions to
the world energy budget until well into the twenty-first century, if ever.


1. According to the processes described in paragraph 1, what is the
relationship between radioactivity and the steam produced by geothermal
heat?
(A) Geothermally heated steam is produced when water is exposed to
radioactivity deep underground.
(B) When water is introduced into holes drilled thousands of feet in the
ground, it becomes radioactive and turns to steam.
(C) Radioactivity heats Earth's interior rock, which in turn can heat water
to the point it becomes steam.
(D) When a reservoir of steam in subsurface rock is produced by
radioactivity, it is said to be geothermally heated.


2. The word " profuse " in the passage is closest in meaning to
(A) economical
(B) grave
(C) plentiful
(D) futile


3. According to paragraph 2, which of the following is true about heat
reservoirs with a temperature in the range of 80° to 180° centigrade?
(A) They are under international control.
(B) They are more common than reservoirs that have a higher temperature.
(C) Few of them produce enough heat to warm large industrial spaces.
(D) They are used to generate electricity.


4. According to paragraph 3, what is the connection between underground
faults and naturally occurring steam?
(A) Underground faults enable the heat from molten-rock material to escape
upward to regions where it can heat surface water enough to produce steam.
(B) Underground faults are created by steam that is produced in geothermal
reservoirs deep inside Earth.
(C) Underground faults create spaces in which natural steam is sometimes
trapped.
(D) Underground faults allow surface water to reach deep rocks that are hot
enough to turn it into steam.


5. In paragraph 3, why does the author mention that in the 1990s The
Geysers was in its third decade of production?
(A) To provide the historical context of the geothermal production of
electricity in the United States
(B) To imply that The Geysers was the first geothermal site to be put into
production in California
(C) To help explain the signs of decline shown by The Geysers
(D) To explain why 70 new geothermal sites were put into electricity
production in the late 1990s


6. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraphs 2 and 3 about
geothermal reservoirs?
(A) Volcanic heat is associated only with geothermal reservoirs that have a
temperature over 180° centigrade.
(B) More countries produce power from geothermal reservoirs than use
them for heating buildings.
(C) Most geothermal reservoirs are suitable for producing electricity.
(D) A higher geothermal reservoir temperature is needed to generate
electricity than is needed to heat homes.


7. How is the problem that the surface may sink related to the problem that
water heated geothermally may contain toxic materials?
(A) Both problems could be solved by returning groundwater that is
removed from an underground heat reservoir back to the reservoir after
heat is extracted from it.
(B) The problem of sinking is more difficult to solve than is the problem
of toxic materials.
(C) Land at the surface sinks because the rock beneath the surface is
weakened when salts and toxic materials are removed from it in the
process of extracting geothermal energy.
(D) Both problems are caused by the fact that the hot groundwater in a heat
reservoir dissolves the rock, which weakens the rock and makes the
water toxic with salt.


Answers:
1.根據第一段, radioactivity (放射性)與由地熱產生之蒸汽之關係為何?
關鍵字詞 key words : radioactivity 與 steam , 返回原文進行定位--
Earth's internal heat, fueled by radioactivity, provides the energy for
plate tectonics and continental drift, mountain building, and earthquakes.
It can also be harnessed to drive electric generators and heat homes.
Geothermal energy becomes available in a practical form when
underground heat is transferred by water that is heated as it passes through
a subsurface region of hot rocks (a heat reservoir) that may be hundreds or
thousands of feet deep. (A)■ The water is usually naturally occurring
groundwater that seeps down along fractures in the rock; less typically,
the water is artificially introduced by being pumped down from the surface.
(B)■ The water is brought to the surface, as a liquid or steam, through
holes drilled for the purpose. (C)■
依 steam 所在之句中說明the water 水被帶回地表, 形成蒸汽;
由此處所指出這水尚須回溯前面所提之水所指為何. 地熱
( geothermal energy ) 乃由水流經數千呎深地底之放射性產生高熱之
岩石, 將熱從地底傳導至地表.
答案選擇為 C.

2.
profuse (adj.) 豐富的 ; 大量的
economical (adj.) 節約的 = thrifty = frugal = prudent = provident
grave (adj.) 嚴肅的 ; 重大的 = solemn
plentiful (adj.) 豐富的;大量的
= abundant = ample =bountiful = copious = lavish
futile (adj.) 徒勞無功的 = vain = useless
答案選為 C.


3. 第二段中, 關於介於攝氏80 至 180 度之熱庫區何者正確?
By far the most profuse form of geothermal energy occurs at the
relatively low temperatures of 80° to 180° centigrade. (D)■ Water
circulated through heat reservoirs in this temperature range is able to
extract enough heat to warm residential, commercial, and industrial spaces.
More than 20,000 apartments in France are now heated by warm
underground water drawn from a heat reservoir in a geologic structure near
Paris called the Paris Basin.
文中首句敘述介於攝氏80 至 180 度之地熱是最豐富之類型.
故而答案選為 B .


4. 根據第三段, 何者為地下之斷層與天然形成之蒸汽關聯?
定位關鍵字詞 natural steam 與 fault .
Geothermal reservoirs with temperatures above 180° centigrade are
useful for generating electricity. They occur primarily in regions of recent
volcanic activity as hot, dry rock; natural hot water; or natural steam.
The latter two sources are limited to those few areas where surface water
seeps down through underground faults or fractures to reach deep rocks
heated by the recent activity of molten rock material.
文中敘述"地熱"主要發生於最近之熱且乾的岩石火山活動, 或天然
熱水; 抑或天然水蒸汽. 其中後二者, 僅限於地表水滲入, 穿透岩石
裂縫到達至最近由熔解岩石物質所加熱之地底深處的岩石.
因此正確答案為D .


5. 第三段中, 為何作者提及 1990 年代 The Geysers 在經過第三個
十年的生產意義為何?
本題此題主要測驗"修辭目的" (Rhetorical Purpose) ; 必須就
關鍵字於段落中文意之連結進行剖析以瞭解作者之目的.
原文 --- The world's largest supply of natural steam occurs at The
Geysers, 120 kilometers north of San Francisco, California. In the 1990s
enough electricity to meet about half the needs of San Francisco was being
generated there. This facility was then in its third decade of production and
was beginning to show signs of decline, perhaps because of over development.
作者於文中說明 The Geysers 歷經第三個十年的開採生產地熱,
而現已出現衰退徵兆. 答案為 C.


6. 根據第二與三段, 可從地熱庫中推論出
此類型題為推論題 (Inference) --- 利用文中
(1) 轉折語 ; (2) 極致詞; (3) 強調 字等原則進行分析.
P2 : By far the most profuse form of geothermal energy occurs at the
relatively low temperatures of 80° to 180° centigrade. (D)■ Water
circulated through heat reservoirs in this temperature range is able to
extract enough heat to warm residential, commercial, and industrial spaces.
More than 20,000 apartments in France are now heated by warm
underground water drawn from a heat reservoir in a geologic structure near
Paris called the Paris Basin. Iceland sits on a volcanic structure known
as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, is entirely
heated by geothermal energy derived from volcanic heat.

P3 : Geothermal reservoirs with temperatures above 180° centigrade are
useful for generating electricity. They occur primarily in regions of recent
volcanic activity as hot, dry rock; natural hot water; or natural steam.
本文分別於段首談及地熱溫度介於攝氏80 至 180 度之地熱可以採集
熱源以供給住宅, 商業與工業使用. 另外, 第三段首說地熱溫度高於
180 度才得以用於發電.
答案選 D .


7. 以地熱之利用導致地層下陷, 與透過地熱加熱之水含有有毒物質
(toxic material)之問題?
核心關鍵字為 : sink 與 toxic material
Like most other energy sources, geothermal energy presents some
environmental problems. The surface of the ground can sink if hot
groundwater is withdrawn without being replaced. In addition, water
heated geothermally can contain salts and toxic materials dissolved from
the hot rock. These waters present a disposal problem if they are not
returned to the ground from which they were removed.
原文 --- 假如地下熱水抽取後無補充則將產生地層下陷; 再者, 抽取
之地熱水無法回到地下, 此時這些水將摻雜由岩石所溶出之有有毒
物質,而呈現出處理之問題.
段落訊息談到二個問題皆導源於地下水之抽取衍生之問題, 故而解決
此二問題當然須將水注入回地下. 答案選擇A.
(A) Both problems could be solved by returning groundwater that is
removed from an underground heat reservoir back to the reservoir
after heat is extracted from it.


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