Have you ever heard of “a ball of energy”? People often use it to describe very active children. But today we tell about an invention called the socket, that is a real soccer ball of energy. Julia Silverman explains that in fact the soccket is a portable generator (便携式发电机).
Julia Silverman and Jessica Matthews developed the soccket as part of a group project for an engineering class at Harvard University. There are mechanisms (装置) in a soccket. When you kick, hit or throw it, energy is then kept in it by these mechanisms instead of disappearing into the environment. Then the user can put something directly into the ball, like a lamp, or a mobile phone charger so that they can get energy from it. For every fifteen minutes of the game play, the soccket can provide enough electricity (电) for an LED lamp for three hours, and the ball can store (储藏) up to 24 hours’ electricity.
The International Energy Association reported last year that nearly one and a half billion people in the world had no electricity to use, and most of them live in sub-Saharan. Africa and in India and other countries in Asia. Julia Silverman and Jessica Matthews both had experiences in developing countries before they began the project. They knew that power shortage are a serious problem in these areas. There’s an energy crisis in the world. One out of every five people in the world don’t have any electricity. And besides that, there are a lot of health problems because what people use instead of the electricity are harmful choices like kerosene (煤油) lamps, which produce a lot of smoke.
Julia Silverman says the soccket ball is one small solution (解决方法) to a big problem. Jessica Matthews and Julia Silverman hope their soccket ball will shine more light on the problem of power shortages. It offers people a chance to put their energy into the world’s most popular sport and get some energy in return.
【小题1】From the passage, we know the soccket is ________.
| A．an active child | B．an invention | C．a lamp | D．a mobile phones |
【小题2】Playing the soccket for half an hour can provide an LED lamp with electricity for ________.
| A．fifteen minutes | B．half an hour | C．six hours | D．three hours |
【小题3】The underlined word “crisis” in the passage means ________.
| A．a time of safety | B．a time of difficulty | C．a time of success | D．a time of pride |
【小题4】According to the passage, we can know that ________.
| A．Julia Silverman has never been to developing countries before |
| B．only active children like to play soccket |
| C．kicking a soccket can let the energy disappear into the environment |
| D．people can get some energy by playing soccket |
【小题5】The best title for the passage should be “________”.
| A．The Only Way to Produce Electricity | B．The Best Way to Solve Energy Crisis |
| C．A Soccer Bell that Gives Energy | D．An Invention Changing the Universe |
