阅读理解。
"Have you ever been out on a boat and felt it lifted up by a wave? Or have you jumped in the water and felt
the rush of energy as waves came over you.'?" asked Jamie Taylor of the Wave Energy Group at the University of Edinburgh. "There is certainly a lot of energy in waves," he said.
Scientists are working to use that energy to make electricity. Most waves are created when winds blow
across the ocean. "The wind starts out by making little ripples (涟漪), but if they keep on blowing, those
ripples get bigger and bigger and turn into waves," Taylor said."Waves are one of nature's ways of picking up
energy and then sending it off on a journey."
When waves come toward the shore, people can set up darns to block the water and send it through a large wheel called a turbine (涡轮机). The turbine can then power an electrical generator to produce electricity.
"The resource is huge," said Janet Swain of the Worldwatch Institute. "We will never run out of wave
power." Besides, wave energy does not create the same pollution as other energy sources, such as oil or coal.
Oceans cover three-quarters of the Earth's surface-that would make wave power seem ideal for creating energy throughout the world, though there are some weak points yet to overcome.
Swain said that wave power still costs too much money. She also said that its effects on sea animals are still
unknown. What is more, wave power could affect fishing and boat traffic.
Traditional sources of energy like oil and gas may someday run out. "Demand for energy to power our TVs
and computers, drive our cars, and heat and cool our homes is rising rapidly throughout the world," Swain said. In the future when you turn on a light, an ocean wave could be providing the electricity!
1. The writer uses the two questions at the beginning of the passage to ______.
A. test the readers' knowledge about waves
B. draw the readers' attention to the topic
C. show Jamie Taylor's importance
D. invite the readers to answer them
2. The underlined phrase "picking up" (paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to ______.
A. starting again
B. speeding up
C. gathering
D. improving
3. We can make better use of wave energy if we ______.
A. shorten its journey to thousands of homes
B. build more small power stations on the oceans
C. reduce the cost of turning it into electric power
D. quicken the steps of producing electricity
4. It can be inferred that some day we might not worry about ______.
A. air pollution
B. our boat traffic
C. our power supply
D. our supply of sea fish
