Reading Test 1
SECTION 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Section 1
below.
History of Refrigeration
A.
Refrigeration is a process of removing heat, which means cooling an area or a
substance below the environmental temperature. Mechanical refrigeration makes use
of the evaporation of a liquid refrigerant, which goes through a cycle so that it can be
reused. The main cycles include vapour-compression, absorption steam-jet or steamejector,
and airing. The term ‘refrigerator’ was first introduced by a Maryland farmer
Thomas Moore in 1803, but it is in the 20th century that the appliance we know today
first appeared.
B.
People used to find various ways to preserve their food before the advent of
mechanical refrigeration systems. Some preferred using cooling systems of ice or
snow, which meant that diets would have consisted of very little fresh food or fruits and
vegetables, but mostly of bread, cheese and salted meals. For milk and cheeses, it was
very difficult to keep them fresh, so such foods were usually stored in a cellar or
window box. In spite of those measures, they could not survive rapid spoilage. Later
on, people discovered that adding such chemical as sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate
to water could lead to a lower temperature. In 1550 when this technique was first
recorded, people used it to cool wine, as was the term ‘to refrigerate’. Cooling drinks
grew very popular in Europe by 1600, particularly in Spain, France, and Italy. Instead of
cooling water at night, people used a new technique: rotating long-necked bottles of
water which held dissolved saltpeter. The solution was intended to create very low
temperatures and even to make ice. By the end of the 17th century, iced drink including
frozen juices and liquors had become extremely fashionable in France.
C.
People’s demand for ice soon became strong. Consumers’ soaring requirement for
fresh food, especially for green vegetables, resulted in reform in people’s dieting habits
between 1830 and the American Civil War, accelerated by a drastic expansion of the
urban areas and the rapid amelioration in an economy of the populace. With the growth
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of the cities and towns, the distance between the consumer and the source of food was
enlarged. In the 1799s as a commercial product, ice was first transported out of Canal
Street in New York City to Charleston, South Carolina. Unfortunately, this
transportation was not successful because when the ship reached the destination, little
ice left. Frederick Tudor and Nathaniel Wyeth, two New England’ businessmen,
grasped the great potential opportunities for ice business and managed to improve the
storage method of ice in the process of shipment. The acknowledged ‘Ice King’ in that
time, Tudor concentrated his efforts on bringing the ice to the tropical areas. In order to
achieve his goal and guarantee the ice to arrive at the destination safely he tried many
insulating materials in an experiment and successfully constructed the ice containers,
which reduced the ice loss from 66 per cent to less than 8 per cent drastically. Wyeth
invented an economical and speedy method to cut the ice into uniform blocks, which
had a tremendous positive influence on the ice industry. Also, he improved the
processing techniques for storing, transporting and distributing ice with less waste.
D.
When people realised that the ice transported from the distance was not as clean as
previously thought and gradually caused many health problems, it was more
demanding to seek the clean natural sources of ice. To make it worse, by the 1890s
water pollution and sewage dumping made clean ice even more unavailable. The
adverse effect first appeared in the blowing industry, and then seriously spread to such
sectors as meat packing and dairy industries. As a result, the clean, mechanical
refrigeration was considerately in need.
E.
Many inventors with creative ideas took part in the process of inventing refrigeration,
and each version was built on the previous discoveries. Dr William Cullen initiated to
study the evaporation of liquid under the vacuum conditions in 1720. He soon invented
the first man-made refrigerator at the University of Glasgow in 1748 with the
employment of ethyl ether boiling into a partial vacuum. American inventor Oliver
Evans designed the refrigerator firstly using vapour rather than liquid in 1805. Although
his conception was not put into practice in the end the mechanism was adopted by an
American physician John Gorrie, who made one cooling machine similar to Evans’ in
1842 with the purpose of reducing the temperature of the patient with yellow fever in a
Florida hospital. Until 1851, Evans obtained the first patent for mechanical refrigeration
in the USA. In 1820, Michael Faraday, a Londoner, first liquefied ammonia to cause
cooling. In 1859, Ferdinand Carre from France invented the first version of the
ammonia water cooling machine. In 1873, Carl von Linde designed the first practical
and portable compressor refrigerator in Munich, and in 1876 he abandoned the methyl
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ether system and began using an ammonia cycle. Linde later created a new method
(‘Linde technique’) for liquefying large amounts of air in 1894. Nearly a decade later,
this mechanical refrigerating method was adopted subsequently by the meat packing
industry in Chicago.
F.
Since 1840, cars with the refrigerating system had been utilised to deliver and distribute
milk and butter. Until 1860, most seafood and dairy products were transported with
cold-chain logistics. In 1867, refrigerated, railroad cars are patented to J.B, Sutherland
from Detroit, Michigan, who invented insulated cars by installing the ice bunkers at the
end of the cars: air came in from the top, passed through the bunkers, circulated
through the cars by gravity and controlled by different quantities of hanging flaps which
caused different air temperatures. Depending on the cargo (such as meat, fruits etc.)
transported by the cars, different car designs came into existence. In 1867, the first
refrigerated car to carry fresh fruit was manufactured by Parker Earle of Illinois, who
shipped strawberries on the Illinois Central Railroad. Each chest was freighted with 100
pounds of ice and 200 quarts of strawberries. Until 1949, the trucking industry began to
be equipped with the refrigeration system with a roof-mounted cooling device, invented
by Fred Jones.
G.
From the late 1800s to 1929, the refrigerators employed toxic gases – methyl chloride,
ammonia, and sulfur dioxide – as refrigerants. But in the 1920s, a great number of
lethal accidents took place due to the leakage of methyl chloride out of refrigerators.
Therefore, some American companies started to seek some secure methods of
refrigeration. Frigidaire detected a new class of synthetic refrigerants called
halocarbons or CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) in 1928. This research led to the discovery
of chlorofluorocarbons (Freon), which quickly became the prevailing material in
compressor refrigerators. Freon was safer for the people in the vicinity, but in 1973 it
was discovered to have detrimental effects on the ozone layer. After that, new
improvements were made, and Hydrofluorocarbons, with no known harmful effects,
was used in the cooling system. Simultaneously, nowadays, Chlorofluorocarbons
(CFS) are no longer used; they are announced illegal in several places, making the
refrigeration far safer than before.
Questions 1-5
Look at the following events (Questions 1-5) and the list of dates below.
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Match each event with the correct date, A-F.
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
List of Dates
A.1550
B.1799
C.1803
D.1840
E.1949
F.1973
1. Vehicles with refrigerators were used to transport on the road.
2. Ice was sold around the United States for the first time.
3. Some kind of chemical refrigerant was found harmful to the atmosphere.
4. The term ‘refrigerator’ was firstly introduced.
5. Some chemicals were added to refrigerate wine.
Questions 6-10
Look at the following opinions or deeds (Questions 6-10) and the list of people below.
Match each opinion or deed with the correct person, A-G.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 6-10 on your answer sheet.
List of People
A. Thomas Moore
B. Frederick Tudor
C. Carl Von Linde
D. Nathaniel Wyeth
E. J.B. Sutherland
F. Fred Jones
G. Parker Earle
6. patented the idea that refrigerating system can be installed on tramcars
7. invented an ice-cutting technical method that could save money and time
8. enabled the cold storage technology to be applied in fruit
9. invented a cooling device applied into the trucking industry
10. created a new technique to liquefy the air
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Questions 11-13
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-E, below.
Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 11-14 on your answer sheet.
11. A healthy dietary change between 1830 and the American Civil War was greatly
associated with………………………………………..
12. The development of urbanisation was likely to cause…………………
13. Problems due to water treatment contributed to…………………….
A. new developments, such as the application of Hydrofluorocarbons.
B. consumers’ demand for fresh food, especially for vegetables.
C. the discovery of chlorofluorocarbons (Freon).
D. regional transportation system for refrigeration for a long distance.
E. extensive spread of the refrigeration method
Answer Key 1F 2D 3B 4E 5C 6A 7F 8D 9G 10D 11C 12B 13E
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