蒸汽机用碳

　　【段落大意】

　　第一段：

　　传统观点。机器消耗煤。传统观点认为，蒸汽机或高效蒸汽机的发明能节省煤，就象高效节能汽车的出现能节省汽油一样(Q2)。(The main consumer of fuel (coal) is engine. The traditional view is that the more efficient engines are, the less consumption of coal will be.)

　　第二段：

　　J反驳传统观点，说虽然刚开始更节能的蒸汽机/瓦特蒸汽机的使用减少了煤的使用量，但由于成本下降，鼓励了更多的行业开始使用节能蒸汽机，更多的煤被消耗掉了(Q6)。(A person，however，argues that Watt engine improved the efficiency in some proportion so that the price of engine was lowered by the decrease of the cost. As a result, a larger amount of people came to use engines, which largely increased the consumption of coal instead.)

　　第三段：

　　举例说明。举了Scotland的例子，Scotland采用了瓦特的蒸汽机增加了烧煤的效率，但用煤量反而飙升。

　　【题目】

　　Q1：主旨题Q2：oil 和automobile 说明coal和stream什么关系?/ 作者提到汽车与汽油关系的目的Q3：watt也是考点。

　　Q4：一开始英国人主张什么?

　　Q5：苏格兰的事情说明什么?

　　Q6：文章IMPLY 对多数学家持反对意见的人，例如N，ignore了什么?

　　【参考阅读】

　　The Jevons paradox was first identified by William Stanley Jevons in his 1865 book The Coal Question. Jevons argued that improvements in fuel efficiency tend to increase, rather than decrease, fuel use: "It is a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth."

　　Jevons observed that England's consumption of coal soared after James Watt introduced his coal-fired steam engine, which greatly improved the efficiency of Thomas Newcomen's earlier design. Watt's innovations made coal a more cost-effective power source, leading to the increased use of the steam engine in a wide range of industries. This in turn increased total coal consumption, even as the amount of coal required for any particular application fell.

　　At that time, many in Britain worried that coal reserves were rapidly dwindling, but some experts advised that increasing efficiency would reduce coal consumption. Jevons argued that this view was incorrect, as further increases in efficiency would tend to increase the use of coal. Hence, increasing efficiency would tend to increase, rather than reduce, the rate at which England's coal deposits were being depleted.