Table of Contents
BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 478
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 478 – PASSAGE – 3
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 478
READING PASSAGE – 3
A. A steam engine is a heat engine that accomplishes mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine practices the force formed by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force is changed, by a joining rod and flywheel, into rotational force for work. The term “steam engine” is usually applied only to reciprocating engines as just labeled, not to the steam turbine.
B. Steam engines are exterior combustion engines, where the working fluid is detached from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyse this process is called the Rankine cycle. In general usage, the term steam engine can denote to either complete steam plants (including boilers etc.) such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines or may denote to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine.
IELTS Academic Reading Test
C. Steam-driven devices were known as early as the aeolipile in the first century AD, with a few other uses logged in the 16th and 17th century. Thomas Savery’s dewatering pump used steam pressure operating straight on the water. The primary commercially successful engine that could transmit incessant power to a machine was established in 1712 by Thomas Newcomen. James Watt made a critical development by eliminating spent steam to a distinct vessel for condensation, greatly refining the amount of work obtained per unit of fuel consumed. By the 19th century, stationary steam engines powered the factories of the Industrial Revolution. Steam engines substituted sail for ships, and steam locomotives operated on the railways.
D. Reciprocating piston type steam engines were the leading source of power until the early 20th century, when advances in the design of electric motors and internal combustion engines slowly caused in the replacement of reciprocating (piston) steam engines in commercial usage. Steam turbines substituted reciprocating engines in power generation, due to inferior cost, higher operating speed, and advanced competence.
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E. There are two important components of a steam plant: the boiler or steam generator, and the “motor unit”, mentioned to itself as a “steam engine”. Stationary steam engines in fixed buildings may have the boiler and engine in distinct buildings some distance apart. For portable or mobile use, such as steam locomotives, the two are mounted together.
F. The extensively used reciprocating engine characteristically contained of a cast-iron cylinder, piston, connecting rod and beam or a crank and flywheel, and miscellaneous linkages. Steam is repeatedly supplied and exhausted by one or more valves. Speed control was either automatic, using a governor, or by a manual valve. The cylinder casting contained steam supply and exhaust ports. Engines armed with a condenser are a separate type than those that exhaust to the atmosphere.
IELTS Academic Reading Test
G. Other components are often present; pumps (such as an injector) to source water to the boiler during operation, condensers to recirculate the water and recuperate the latent heat of vaporisation, and superheaters to increase the temperature of the steam above its saturated vapour point, and various mechanisms to upsurge the draft for fireboxes. When coal is used, a chain or screw stoking mechanism and its drive engine or motor may be comprised to move the fuel from a supply bin (bunker) to the firebox.
H. For safety reasons, nearly all steam engines are fortified with mechanisms to monitor the boiler, such as a pressure gauge and a sight glass to monitor the water level. Many engines, stationary and mobile, are also snug with a governor to control the speed of the engine deprived of the necessity for human interference.
I. The most valuable instrument for analysing the performance of steam engines is the steam engine indicator. Initial versions were in use by 1851, but the most successful pointer was developed for the high-speed engine inventor and manufacturer Charles Porter by Charles Richard and displayed at London Exhibition in 1862. The steam engine indicator dashes on paper the pressure in the cylinder throughout the cycle, which can be used to spot numerous problems and compute developed horsepower. It was regularly used by engineers, mechanics and insurance inspectors. The engine indicator can also be used on internal combustion engines.
IELTS Academic Reading Test
Questions 28-36
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write correct letter A-I in your answer sheet
NB you may use any letter more than once
28. Equipment used for monitoring the water level and boiler for protection.
29. Using steam to move pistons mechanically.
30. Different equipment used to inject water, recirculate it and controlling the temperature of the steam.
31. A sequence used to analyse the procedure of steam engines.
32. An indicator used to measure the performance of a steam engine.
33. The most common used steam engine type and its features.
34. James watt improving the technology of the previous scientists in the field of steam engines.
35. Two main mechanisms of a steam plant.
36. Steam turbines replacing reciprocating engines in power generation.
IELTS Academic Reading Test
Questions 37-40
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
TRUE – If the statement agrees with the information
FALSE – If the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN – If there is no information on this
37. Immobile steam engines in fixed buildings may have the boiler and engine in separate buildings.
38. In reciprocating engines, steam is uninterruptedly supplied and exhausted by only one valve.
39. The most treasured instrument for monitoring the performance of steam engines is the steam engine indicator.
40. The engine indicator can’t be used on internal combustion engines.
IELTS Academic Reading Test
IELTS Academic Reading Test
ANSWERS
28. H
29. A
30. G
31. B
32. I
33. F
34. C
35. E
36. D
37. TRUE
38. FALSE
39. TRUE
40. FALSE
IELTS Academic Reading Test