练习10

练习十 简短问题回答

Directions: In this part there is a short passage with five questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words

Perhaps it is significant that the automobile was not invented until there was a suitable fuel-gasoline-to drive. Automobile have now been around for more than 100 years， and gasoline is still the best power source to drive them. Millions of hours-and a great deal of money-have gone into research for alternative fuels， but nothing practical has yet been discovered.

The problem is that gasoline usually has to be refined from crude oil. And this is one of the world’s limited natural resources. It took hundreds of thousands of years for oil to be created under the earth’s surface， the supply is not inexhaustible， and it now looks as if all easily recoverable sources will have been used up sometime in the twenty-first century.

But what to use instead of petrol? Not diesel fuel， which comes from the same source. Steam power? Electric energy? Solar power? Atomic power?

Steam， electricity， and solar power can all provide power， but none of them give cost-effective energy. In short， they are not practical. Gasoline and diesel fuels offer a number of advantages， which any alternative has to beat. They are a compact ， cost-effective for the customer. Cheap to extract， easy to transport and safe in operation. At the moment， nothing else can match them.

Although cars have， indeed， been powered by steam or by electricity， they have never been economical to run on practical machines. Time and time again， electric cars have been built， tested and abandoned. If it was possible to produce electrically powered cars with smaller， more compact and more efficient batteries， this might become an acceptable alternative.

Atomic power is never likely to be available from generators small enough to fit into a car， or even into a large truck， so that alternative can also be struck off the list.

So there it is. After 100 years of the automobile， your modern car still runs best on the same fuel provided in 1885. Will a better way ever be found?

Questions: （注意：答题尽量简短，超过10个词要扣分。每条短横线限写一个英语单词，标点符号不占格。）

1. Why do people spend time and money to research for alternative fuels?

2. Gasoline， as well as diesel fuel， comes from.

3. Which of the alternative fuels mentioned in the passage might become acceptable?

4. Why isn’t atomic power a likely alternative?

5. When was automobile first invented?

Anwsers:

1. Because crude oil is limited.或：Because crude oil is exhaustible.或：Because crude oil from which gasoline comes from is limited.或：Because crude oil will be used up very soon.

2. crude oil

3. Electricity.或：Electricity might become acceptable.或：Electricity might.

4. Because atomic power generators are too big.或：Because such generators are not small enough.或：Generators are too big to fit into a car.

5. In 1885.或：It was in 1885.It was in the year 1885.或：Automobile was first invented in 1885.