2016SHSAT_English

51015202530354045Anyone who has watched TV news coverageof a hurricane has seen how destructivewind energy can be. But the power of thewind can also be put to constructive use.From sailboats to old-fashioned windmillsto the high-tech, modern wind machinescalled turbines, people have devised ways toharness wind energy for thousands of years.The first known attempt to use wind powerwas the sailboat. Ancient shipbuildersunderstood how to use forces like lift andmomentum, even if they could not explainthose forces scientifically. The principlesbehind sailing led to the development ofthe windmill. The first known windmillsoriginated in Persia, an area that is nowIran, as early as a.d. 500. They were createdto help with the demanding chores of grindinggrain and pumping water. By the tenthcentury, windmills were used throughoutcentral Asia; they were used in China asearly as the thirteenth century.In Europe, windmills came into widespreaduse during the twelfth century. As in otherparts of the world, they were used formilling grain and pumping water. Windmillsreplaced the water wheel, which was turnedby the movement of running water overpaddles mounted around a wheel. Thewindmill was more adaptable and efficientthan the water wheel and quickly becamepopular. For example, Holland, famousfor its windmills, used the machines topump seawater away from low-lying coastalbogs. This allowed the Dutch to reclaimlarge areas of land from the sea. Windmillseventually became sophisticated enough foruse in a broad range of work, from sawmillsand drainage pumping to processing goodssuch as dyes, tobacco, cocoa, and spices.510152025303540455055606570In the 1700s, as steam engines gained inpopularity, the use of wind machines formany types of work declined. However,windmills still played an essential role inpumping water on farms throughout theAmerican West and Midwest. Between 1850and 1970, over six million small windmillswere installed on American farms for wateringlivestock and meeting other water needs.In many remote areas even today, livestockproduction would be impossible without theuse of windmills to provide water.Beginning in the late nineteenth century,windmills were adapted to generateelectricity. During the 1930s and ’40s,thin-bladed windmills provided electricityfor hundreds of thousands of farms acrossthe United States. By the 1950s, however,power lines connected almost every householdin America to a central power source,such as a utility company. After that, therewas little need for wind turbines until theenergy crisis of the 1970s. At that time,interest in wind turbines was renewed dueto rising energy costs and concern aboutthe future availability of fossil fuels such asoil, coal, and natural gas. The last severaldecades have seen the development of“wind farms,” clusters of wind turbines thatgenerate electricity. Efficient, clean, andfairly inexpensive to operate, wind farmsmay prove to be as important in the futureas earlier windmills were in the past.45. Which of the following best tells what thispassage is about? P05-023BA. the destructive power of wind energyB. the ways people have harnessed windpower throughout historyC. reasons for developing wind farms togenerate electricityD. how windmills are used in the UnitedStatesE. the use of the windmill in the present day46. Where were the first known windmills built?F. Persia P05-024AG. North AmericaH. EuropeJ. ChinaK. Holland5055606570FORM A48CONTINUE ON TO THE NEXT PAGE 1