2010年12月英語四六級考試閱讀提高練習(xí)(33)

　　Remember the beach?

　　Remember the hot sand and the hot rocks?

　　Some materials take in heat energy from the sun and hold it. They absorb the heat. Sand and rocks do this. So do some other solid materials, such as metals. Water absorbs the sun's heat too.

　　Color can also be important. Dark, dull colors absorb heat. Light-colored, shiny surfaces reflect heat. They bounce it back. That's why dark clothes are warmer in the winter and light colored clothes are cooler in the summer.

　　The longer it takes something to heat up, the longer that thing holds the heat. Materials that heat up fast cool off fast.

　　If you go back to the beach in the evening after sunset, the sand and the rocks, which heated up fast, will be cool. But the water, which heated up slowly, will still be warm.

　　It takes a long time for the sun to heat the water in a big lake or ocean. But by the end of summer, a large body of water will have caught and stored enough heat from the sun to last for a good part of the winter. Water stores heat very well.

　　That's why land near a large body of water never gets quite as cold in the winter as land far away from the water. The stored heat in the water keeps the land around it warm.

　　Slowly, all winter long, heat from the water moves out into the cold air. Heat always moves that way—from a warmer place or thing to a cooler one. Once you know which way heat moves, you understand how things get hot and how they lose heat.

　　1. All the work in the world is done by energy coming from the sun in one form or another.

　　2. As we humans depend on plants for food, plants live on chemical energy converted from light energy.

　　3. Unless the sun dies, it will supply endless energy on earth.

　　4. It has been a long time since people began to use solar energy because sunshine can be stored in houses.

　　5. The advantage of the solar house is that it has hot water and heating.

　　6. A solar house doesn't have to use electricity when it makes a good use of solar energy.

　　7. The passage gives a brief account of how solar energy is employed.

　　8. We can understand how things get hot or lose heat as long as we know______.

　　9. Most of the energy the sun supplies to us is in the forms of______.

　　10. People like to use fossil fuels to get almost all kinds of energy because they are______.

　　I. Y 2. Y 3. Y 4. N 5. N 6. NG 7. N 8. which way heat moves 9. heat and light 10. easy to use