陕西省学位英语考试阅读参考资料(1).doc

prehension:
Passage 1
Three scales of temperature, each of which permits a precise measurement, are in concurrent use: the Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin scales. These three different temperature scales were each developed by different people and e to be used in different situations.
    The scale that is most widely used by the general public in the United States is the Fahrenheit scale. In 1714, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, a German physicist who was living in Holland and operating an instrument business, developed a mercury-in-glass thermometer and the temperature scale that still carries his name. His original scale had two fixed points: 0o was the lowest temperature that he could achieve in a solution of ice, water, and salt, and 96o was what he believed was the normal temperature of the human body (though this was later determined to be ). Based on this scale, he calculated that the freezing point (or ice point) of water was 32o; in later studies, it was determined that the boiling point of water (the steam point) was 212o. The Fahrenheit scale came to be accepted as the standard measure of temperature in a number of countries, including Great Britain, and from there it was spread to British colonies throughout the world. Today, however, the United States is the only major country in the world that still uses the Fahrenheit scale.
    The scale that is in use in many other countries is the Celsius scale. Anders Celsius (1701–1744), a Swedish astronomer, developed a thermometer in 1741 that based temperatures on the freezing and boiling temperatures of water. On the thermometer that Celsius developed, however, 0o was used to indicate the boiling temperature of water, and 100o was used to indicate the freezing temperature of water. After his death, the scale was reversed by a friend, the biologist Carl von Linne (1707–1748), who achieved acclaim for his development of the Linnean classification system for plants and animals. On the new scale after the