新托福考试：为您整理托福阅读考题
Geothermal Energy
Paragraph 1: 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. 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. The water is brought to the surface, as a liquid or steam, through holes drilled for the purpose.
1. According to the processes described in paragraph 1, what is the relationship between radioactivity and the steam produced by geothermal heat?
○Geothermally heated steam is produced when water is exposed to radioactivity deep underground.
○ When water is introduced into holes drilled thousands of feet in the ground, it becomes radioactive and turns to steam.
○ Radioactivity heats Earth's interior rock, which in turn can heat water to the point it becomes steam.
○ When a reservoir of steam in subsurface rock is produced by radioactivity, it is said to be geothermally heated.
题型：细节题
定位词： relationship between radioactivity and the steam
解题思路： 关于定位词中的 radioactivity，只有文章开头提到其功能为为地球内部的热能提供燃料，只有选项C中提到了这一功能，所以C为正确选项。
重点句子翻译：
Earth's internal heat, fueled by radioactivity, provides the energy for plate tectonics and continental drift, mountain building, and earthquakes.
地球内部的热量，通过辐射带动，为板块构造和大陆漂移，造山运动，地震提供了能量。
2. The word “practical” in the passage is closest in meaning to
○Usable
○Plentiful
○Economical
○Familiar
题型：词汇题
解题思路： “practical”是一个简单词汇，意为“实用的；实际的”，所以A项正确。
Paragraph 2：By far the most abundant form of geothermal energy occurs at the relatively low temperatures of 80oto 180o centigrade. 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.
3. The word “abundant” in the passage is closest in meaning to
○Economical
○Familiar
○Plentiful
○Usable
题型：词汇题
解题思路： “relatively low temperatures” 说明在这种温度范围内地热能量的形成是最丰富的，所以
