Ancient Egyptian“ air conditioning”古埃及的“空调”

胡金莹

主題语境：科学研究 篇幅：370词 建议用时：7

1 While the planet continues to endure hightemperatures， a 60squarefootshipping containeris serving as a testing ground for passive， sustainablecooling solutions. An engineering team is utilizingthe space to find and improve upon ancientcooling methods that don't generate any forms ofgreenhouse gas.

2 Buildings require roughly 60 percent of the entire world's electricity， almost 20 percentof which is annually used to keep those structures cool and comfortable. As societydeals with climate changes most severe effects， air conditioning systems' requirementsare only expected to rise in the coming years—potentially generating a feedback loopthat could worsen carbon emission levels. Finding green ways to lower businesses' andhomes' internal temperatures will therefore need solutions other than simply boosting wastefulAC units.

3 This is especially vital as rising global populations require new construction， particularlywithin the developing world. According to Omar AlHassawi，lead author and assistantprofessor in WSU's school of design and construction， this push will be a major issue if designers continue to rely on mechanical systems—such as traditional， electric AC units.There's going to be a lot more air conditioning that's needed， especially with the populationrise in the hotter regions of the world.

4 By improving their shipping container test chamber with offthegrid，solarpoweredbattery storage， the team can heat their chamber upwards of 130 degrees Fahrenheit to testout their solutions while measuring factors such as temperature and humidity. The team particularlyfocused on using a passive cooling method involving large towers and evaporativecooling that dates as far back as 2500 BCE in ancient Egypt. In these designs， moistureevaporates at the tower's top， which turns into cool， heavier air that then sinks down to thehabitable space below.

5 It's an older technology， but theres been an attempt to innovate and use a mix ofnew and existing technologies to improve performance and the cooling capacity of these systems，”explained AlHassawi，who also envisions changing smokestacks in older buildingsto work as new cooling towers.

6 Research like this would really help. How can we address building design， revivesome of these more ancient strategies， and include them in contemporary building construction？The test chamber becomes a platform to do this.

Reading

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1. What's the main advantage of the ancient cooling methods？

A. It can save much electricity.

B. It doesn't produce greenhouse gas.

C. It can ensure the building to be comfortable.

D. It can help to innovate buildings' structures.

2. What effect can air conditioning systems bring？

A. They can increase carbon emission levels.

B. They can cause serious wasteful behaviour.

C. They can bring great challenges to new constructions.

D. They can affect people's life in the changing world.

3. What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about？

A. The rise of the world population.

B. The working procedure of AC units.

C. The major issue in the current world.

D. The necessity of innovating cooling solutions.

4. What's the author's attitude towards the ancient cooling methods？

A. Hopeful.B. Resistant.

C. Ambiguous. D. Astonished.

Language

Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

As society deals with climate changes most severe effects， air conditioning systems'requirements are only expected to rise in the coming years—potentially generating a feedbackloop that could worsen carbon emission levels. 在社會应对气候变化（带来的）最严重的影响的过程中，空调系统的需求预计在未来几年只会上升——这可能会产生一个反馈回路，使碳排放水平进一步提高。

【点石成金】本句中，As引导时间状语从句，potentially generating a feedback loopthat could worsen carbon emission levels为现在分词作伴随状语；that could worsen carbonemission levels为that引导的定语从句。

Ⅱ. Fill in the blanks with the phrases in the box in proper forms.

focus on serve as rely on sink down deal with other than test out

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2. For the little boy， he had no social life or interests__________skating.

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4. His new job is to__________new designs of cars before they are put on the market.

5. It is generally accepted that we should__________finding methods of making efficient use of limited resources.

6. The fish jumped happily on the surface of the water and then__________ .

7. The local government is taking emergency action to__________a housing crisis.