重庆师范大学考研真题 英语专业
重庆师范大学
2010年招收攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试试题（初试）
招收专业：英语语言文学、外国语言学及应用语言学
研究方向：英语语言学、文体学、英美文学、英语国家文化研究、
英语教学理论及应用、现代英语研究、社会语言学、翻译理论
考试科目：基础英语 科目代码：618
Section A: Identify one of the four choices A, B, C or D which would best keep the meaning of the underlined word or phrase.Write your answer on your Answer Sheet.
1.The formulation of the writer’s idea took half an hour.
A. exact statement B. detailed description
C. general interpretation D. brief generalization
2.Unable to sleep, the patient thrashed about in bed.
A. twisted B. twitched C. tossed about D. tossed off
3.In the Pacific Northwest, as climate and topography vary, so do the species prevail in the forests.
A. coexist B. invade C. dominate D. gather
4.The unjust peace agreement set the scene for another war.
A. set off B. resulted in C. started with D. made ready for
5.My chief objection to the book is that the characters are stereotyped.
A. overdone B. lack in individuality C. poorly drawn D. incomplete
6.He staked all his money on the result of the card game.
A.. bet B. put C. risk D. issued
7.All his attempts to argue to save the business were futile.
A. valuable B. worthwhile C. useless D. unnecessary
8.When Frank had found a movie he liked, what others said cut no ice with him.
A. had much effect on B. had no effect on
C. made a deep impression on D. made a slight impression on
9.Nothing on earth can countervail the loss of one’s health.
A. counterturn B. compensate for C. prevail D. counteract
10.They accorded due praise to him for exceeding his fellow-workers in production.
A. matched B. sublimed C. revealed D. awarded
Section B (1 point each)
Directions: There are ten sentences in this section. Each sentence has something omitted. Choose the word or words from the four choices given to best complete each sentence. Write your answer on your Answer Sheet.
11.Good motion pictures create ___________ .reality.
A. delusion B. allusion C. illusion D. illustration
12.Civilized people ought to be able to find some ways of settling their disputes _______ by fighting.
A. instead B. rather C. unless D. other than
13.__________ , I don’t know what we should have done without him.
A. In principle B. in general C. In theory D. In point of fact
14.The loss in that fire disaster amounts to ¥ 14 billion ______________ .
A. in the aggregate B. all in all C. in the total D. all in one
15.Being a stranger, he took his _________ from the actions of the natives.
A. notice B. cue C. opinion D. sign
16.I can’t understand the ___________ of anyone who would do a terrible thing like that.
A. mentality B. power C. intelligence D.function
17.Stronger pressures have been __________ on the national character.
A. at work B. affecting C. in play D. running
18.A cigar-shaped body of gas was raised and eventually ___________ from the surface of the sun.
A. descended B. abstracted C. outrun D. reflected
19.Condemned to death, Socrates could have escaped but chose to die by drinking _______ poison ------ seeking truth even to death.
A. strong B. dead C. dying D. lethal
20.The scientists have made a new plan for widespread _________ of antibiotics for non-medical use.
A. exploration B. expedition C. extension D. exploitation
II. Proofreading and error correction. (10 points)
The following passage contains TEN errors. Each indicated line contains a maximum of ONE error. In each case, only ONE word is involved. You should proofread the passage and correct it in the following way. Write your answer on the Answer Sheet.
Example
When∧art museum wants a new exhibit, [1] 在When后面加an
it never buys things in finished form and hangs them on the wall. [2]去掉never
When a natural history museum wants an exhibition, it must [3]将exhibition改为 exhibit
often build it.
Good Manners, Good Business
Nobody actually wants to cause offence, but as business becomes ever
more international, it’s increasing easy to get it wrong. There may (1). ___________
be a single European market but it does not mean that managers behave
the same in Greece as they do in Denmark.
In many European countries the handshaking is an automatic gesture. In (2). __________
France good manners require on arriving at a business meeting a (3). __________
manager shakes hands with everyone present. This can be demanding task (4). __________
and, in a crowded room, may require gymnastic ability if the furthest hand is (5). __________
to be reached.
Handshaking is almost as popular as other countries — including Germany, (6). __________
Belgium and Italy. But for Northern Europeans, such as the British and (7). __________
Scandinavians, are not quite so fond of physical demonstrations of friendliness.
In Europe the most common challenge is not the content of the food, but in the (8). __________
way you behave as you eat. Some things are just not done. In France it is not
good manners to raise trick questions of business over the main course. (9). __________
Business has its place: after the cheese course. Except you are prepared to eat (10). __________
in silence you have to talk about something — something, that is, other than the
business deal which you are continually chewing over in your head.
III. Reading comprehension. (30 points)
In this section there are three reading passages followed by a total of fifteen multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then write your answers on your answer sheet.
Passage One
In the past few years, discoveries about Mars have indicated that evidence of life will eventually be found there. But visits to the Red Planet may confound the ability to tell the true origin of Martian life. Did humans bring it, or did it arise on Mars before humans arrived?
Patterns in the Martian soil suggest past water flow, and scientists are fairly certain that there are vast frozen ice caps at the planet’s poles. Water is, as far as scientists know, the essential ingredient for life. Astrobiologists are concerned with the origin, distribution, and destiny of life in the universe. As earthbound humans in a pre-intergalactic travel era, they must look for places on Earth having conditions similar to those existing on other planets. But that’s tough on life-abundant Earth. Mars is a great place for red soil, but it’s not too hospitable to life.
For one, Mars’ average temperature is -60° Celsius (C) [-76° Fahrenheit (F)]. The atmospheric pressure is less than one-hundredth that on Earth’s surface, and Mars’ very thin atmosphere is almost entirely carbon dioxide (CO2), with a pinch of nitrogen (N) and very little water (H2O) vapor or oxygen (O2). In addition, Mars doesn’t have an ozone (O3) layer and thus is bombarded by three times the amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation as on Earth. This UV pounding effectively shreds any of the basic carbon-based building blocks of life, preventing their aggregation into the increasingly complex molecules associated with even such single-celled prokaryotes as bacteria.
Yet, just as Earth has experienced major climatic changes through geologic time, so has Mars. At brief periods of its history, Mars has been comparatively warm and humid, and astrobiologists believe that these periods may have been conducive to life. Interestingly, scientists have found two very different earthly environments that may be analogous to Mars during a warm period and the frozen Mars of today: The hot-vent systems of YellowstoneNational Park in Wyoming and the icy deserts of Antarctica.
Yellowstone’s steaming vents are 90°C (193°F) and provide an extremely acidic environment for any life-forms hardy enough to survive there. The pH, which is 1, can dissolve metals. The primary organisms living there are a bacterium associated with diseases such as leprosy and a photosynthetic alga that is one of the most acid-tolerant organisms of its kind. The alga probably obtains energy through photosynthesis, but the bacterium may get its energy from the surrounding metal-rich environment. Astrobiologists believe that this hot-vent ecosystem may be a good model of Mars during its warmer period: acidic, metallic, and hot. In addition, these organisms fossilize, holding a hope that even if life on Mars has died out, evidence in the form of fossils might remain.
But during the more-prevalent cool periods, Mars is more like the icy deserts of Antarctica, where the very salty environments, averaging about -32°C (-25°F), harbor a common type of Penicillium bacterium, as well as a fungus that usually thrives on insects not present in Antarctica’s dry valleys. How these organisms arrived is a mystery, as is how they survive. The extreme saltiness of the environment lowers the freezing point of the water to as low as -56°C (-69°F), so that these organisms are in liquid water even in the extreme cold. This environment may be similar to the habitat under the Martian ice caps.
Everyone must be aware of the possibility that the rovers and probes have already inadvertently brought earthly life to Mars. A scientific committee recently reported that there are some organisms capable of surviving the flight to Mars in the rovers’ circuitry. Once there, these organisms might even be able to survive the extreme UV pounding if concealed under as little as 1 millimeter of soil. Thus, scientists must be extremely careful both in sterilization techniques here at home and in interpretations of any signs of life found on the Red Planet.
1. Which of the following shows that there may be life on Mars?
A.Past water flow.
B.Ozone layer.
C.Atmosphere.
D.Temperature.
2. Which of the following is true?
A. “Astrobiologists” are scientists who study life beyond Earth,
B.Astrobiologists go to other planets to study life there.
C.The life astrobiologists have in mind is completely different from the life we know on earth.
D.Astrobiologists find the conditions on Mars conducive to life.
3. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A. The bacterium and alga found in hot-vent Yellowstone show that there may have been life on Mars.
B.The study of Yellowstone ecosystem shows that it is possible to find signs of past life on Mars.
C. The Antarctic environment is similar to that under the ice caps of Mars.
D. The astrobiologists study the ecosystem in Yellowstone and the Antarctica in order to learn whether it is possible to find life on Mars.
4. The purpose of this article is to
A. explain why we believe life can be found on Mars.
B. call for people to protect the origins of life on Mars.
C. show the evidence of life on Mars.
D. prove the similarities between the earth and the Mars.
Passage Two
Someday someone – perhaps a composer is already at work on it – will write a great operatic cycle on the rise and fall of oil. In Wagner’s Ring it was gold that was taken from the Rhinemaidens, to the curse of all who possessed it until the commodity could be returned to the river whence it came.
In the case of oil, it is “black gold” that has been wrested from the earth where it has lain for millions of years, to bring wealth and misery in equal measure upon those who find it, those who own it and those who consume it. Only when the world can move away from the corrosive and corrupting substance can society be at ease with itself.
That is one narrative as the world faces the prospect that the peak of oil production is being reached and that, from now on, output will fall, prices will rocket and the industrialized and industrializing nations will find themselves in a fierce scrabble to ensure available supplies.
Then there is a different narrative, in which oil has been the great liberator of the past century; the fuel that has enabled hundreds of millions of ordinary people to embrace travel and an industrializing world to gain the energy to fuel its power and drive its manufacture.
Without it the citizen would have remained trapped and economies would have been unable to prosper. Look only to New Orleans, a city emptied, to see what happens when you have no electricity and no transport.
And on to this narrative. Of course, there is the tale of the industry that made it happen, the global oil giants that prefigured the worldwide companies of today, the “seven sisters” (half of them, the bastard children of John D. Rockefeller’s dismembered Standard Oil) that controlled for so long the supply and distribution of the fuel and which gave rise, in its turn, to a countercartel of oil exporting countries in OPEC.
It is no accident that Roman Abramovich, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other Russian oligarchs have virtually all made their money out of the privatization of the Soviet hydrocarbons industry, nor that three of the top 10 companies in the world are oil giants.
Oil is unique in the extent to which it relies not on manpower but on knowledge and technical investment to find it, get it out, process it and refine it. Money is what it takes to develop it, and money is what you make from it. It is also unique in the extent to which it is found not where it is needed but in the most isolated and most inhospitable parts of the world. It’s not that oil, and natural gas, don’t exist elsewhere. In traces and small quantities they crop up almost everywhere.
But only in certain parts are the oil and gas caught in reservoirs big and porous enough to “gush” out in the volumes that make it worthwhile. These, by a quirk of fate, lie largely in the deserts of Arabia and the Middle East, and the offshore waters of the continental shelves.
Oil is politics and politics is oil. For the producer it brings revenues beyond measure but few jobs and little local direct benefit – a sure recipe for corruption and conspicuous government consumption. Which is exactly what has happened in Nigeria and Kuwait. To the producing country, at least, oil is a curse. Even Saudi Arabia has found its finances wrecked and its society pulled apart by it, while no one could argue that it has been the savior of either Iran or Indonesia.
For the consumer, oil brings endless concerns about security of supply and foreign dependence. A sure recipe for political meddling and unholy alliances between Western states and foreign tyrants. Not for nothing has America, which once had plentiful supplies of its own and now depends on imports for half its consumption, forged special links with Saudi Arabia and other producers.
Nor can oil be excluded – to put it mildly – from President Bush’s calculations when he invaded Iraq and instructed his troops to direct themselves first to guarding the oil installations. Iraq, with the greatest untapped reserves of the Middle East, was meant to provide a new, securer source of oil for America to counterbalance an ever more volatile Saudi Arabia. Saddam Hussein’s greatest sin in Western eyes … was to take over Kuwait and then threaten Saudi Arabia’s oil.
And so it is that the invasion of Iraq to unseat him has helped bring about a further oil crisis, the third in 30 years in which the price of oil has doubled, strategic reserves have been broken into and oil supplies overstretched. The first crisis, in 1973, was brought about by the Arab imposition of selective cutbacks in the wake of the Arab-Israeli war. The second was caused by the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1978. The latest has been engendered by rising demand in China, falling supply because of Iraq and Hurricane Katrina, and a shortage of refining capacity. One crisis could be regarded as a warning; two as shock treatment. A third can only be viewed (by many of the experts, at least) as the beginning of the end.
Is it?
5. According to Paragraphs 1-7,
A.a group of oil exporting countries formed OPEC to protect their legitimate rights in international oil market.
B.oil has always been regarded as both a blessing and a curse.
C.the “seven sisters” multinational companies monopolize the world oil market.
D.Russia’s oil industry belongs to the state.
6. Which of the following CANNOT be in the omitted part?
A.Oil.
B.Stone.
C.Gold and silver.
D.Coal.
7. It can be inferred from the last paragraph but two that
A.the United States intended to control Iraq for its oil.
B.Saudi Arabia has been a major supplier of oil for the United States.
C.the United States wanted to replace Saudi Arabia with Iraq for oil supply.
D.disagreement between Saudi Arabia and the United States was growing.
8. Which of the following is NOT true according to the author?
A.Oil is the real motivation behind the US attack of Iraq.
B.Saddam Hussein’s sins are only excuses for the western nations to secure their own oil supply.
C.Oil has saved Iran but brought war to Iraq.
D.Many western nations have given up their moral principles in face of oil.
9 All the three oil crises in 30 years are NOT related to
A.political changes.
B.the war.
C.the Middle East.
D.international conflict.
10. Which of the following would be the most likely ending of this article?
A.But it is as well to remember that in Wagner’s epic the gods who had built a great new home through labor bought by the gold destroyed themselves.
B.The question now is whether this third shock is a replay of 1973 or 1978 or perhaps different and more frightening than either.
C.If we are to use more oil at the present rate of growth, most of it will have to come from OPEC, which may not be able or want to provide it.
D.The end of the oil era is upon us.
Passage Three
It was 2 a.m – the universal cue for closing time. Claude Willis III, overruled the signal. He would linger as long as necessary to address concerns and calm nerves.
His marathon day had just begun. Since GM put the plant on death watch in November and pitched early retirement and buyout enticements to its work force nationwide, Shop Chairman Willis and other union heads have tried to shepherd 2,700 hourly employees through a maze of information toward what many label a life-altering decision.
It’s your call, Willis tells them, whether to take General Motors’ money and run into retirement or to a fresh pursuit. Or, to keep punching a GM clock and count on the gods of global business to find way that spares the choking company from further retrenchment.
Consensus at the union hall holds that the offers are fair, even generous. Workers with up to 10 years of service can walk with $70,000. The next level of seniority, ranging to 27 years, can pocket $140,000 apiece. The 30-plus gang, already eligible for retirement benefits, can sail away with an extra $35,000. Those within three years of 30 qualify for a slightly smaller inducement.
As of a week ago, 714 had signed on to GM’s attrition program. Willis forecasts the final count at between 800 and 850, Doraville doing its share to advance the company toward its goal of shaving 30,000 manufacturing jobs by 2008.
For many, especially the graybeards, it’s a “duh” decision. Many have socked away enough earnings to kick back while still in their 50s. Some welcome the nudge into second careers.
For others, an exit strategy has not come easily. Departing workers shy of 27 years’ experience would forfeit all benefits other than vested pension, a scary proposition in a period of mounting health costs.
And the hangers-on cannot be certain when the plant will get unplugged. GM will not confirm the commonly accepted summer-of-2008 projection for closing. Once the facility goes dark, workers would face transfers to other cities.
Assessing the tense times, Willis cites two heart attacks and a stroke, none fatal, among workers. Another turns violently ill at the mention of the topic.
“Stress,” he explains. “Some are so fraught with anxiety on the choices, it’s taking a heavy emotional toll on them.”
At the workplace, “There’s lots of tension, lots of distraction” says team leader Harold Marshall, 51, determined to reach his 30th anniversary on the plant floor in 2008, then bolt to coach basketball for a living. “People are doing well to keep it down, but it’s underneath the surface.”
Ron Lockhart, 55, a preventative management coordinator, hears in almost every conversation “the big question: ‘What are you gonna do?’” Lockhart’s stock answer: “I’m straddling the fence, with one foot on the ground.” Meaning he’s tilted toward the retirement camp after 33 years, so he can turn a moonlighting gig, photographing weddings and sports, into full-time.
Some workers hold out hope for a plant life beyond mid-2008, but the poorly performing GM minivan segment makes for iffy prospects. On May 22, Willis reports, assembly will scale back from 54 to 42 vehicles per hour, a consequence of diminished market demands.
“No surprise; the competition is crushing them,” says auto industry analyst Catherine Madden of Global Insight, listing Toyota, Honda and Daimler-Chrysler as the sector’s heavyweights. “They’re not expected to turn upward anytime soon.”
The slowdown was to have triggered 490 layoffs of indefinite length, Willis says, but the early retirements and buyouts should render those unneeded.
Some workers were spooked last week by rumors that an entire shift would be eliminated. Gloomy gossip is integral to auto plants. “The rumor that seems to stick,” Willis says, “is always the darkest.”
Pamela Kyle, 38, has made her choice. “I’m gonna hang in there,” says the sixth-year utility operator, a single mother with three kids. “I do believe General Motors will compete [again]. I want to be there for that day.”
Worker worries seep out in several areas. Yet Willis detects an inner peace among those who view the closing as an opportunity, particularly the 800 or so are headed for the door. It’s a peace that he senses is spreading. “The positive attitude,” he says, “is greater than the doom and gloom.”
11. GM offers several ways for the workers to choose EXCEPT
A.shepherding 2,700 employees.
B.running into retirement.
C.switching to a new career.
D.keeping work with GM.
12. As to the offers from GM, which one is NOT right?
A.Workers with no more than 10 years of service can get $70,000.
B.Workers with 10-27 years of service can get $140,000.
C.Workers with more than 30 years can get $35,000.
D.Workers with 27-30 years of service can get more than $140,000
13. In addition to cash, what can departing workers with a working experience shorter than 27 years get?
A.Medical benefit.
B.Retirement benefit.
C.Social security benefit.
D.Nothing.
14. What can we know from Lockhart’s words?
A.He has no idea where to go.
B.He will do a night shift.
C.He is not worried about the future.
D.He is anxious about the future.
15. Which of the following is optimistic about the future of GM?
A.Claude Willis III.
B.Pamela Kyle.
C.Harold Marshall.
D.Catherine Madden.
IV. Cloze. (20 points)
Read the passage through and choose one suitable word or phrase marked A, B, C or D for each blank in the passage. Write your answer on your Answer Sheet.
Since the invention of electronic digital computers in the 1940s, experts have speculated on how these machines might be programmed to model human thought processes. Early 1 the development of computers, researchers programmed machines to 2 various mathematical and clerical tasks. However, scientists also worked to develop computers that could attack more intellectually 3 problems, 4 the technology advanced, scientists created computer programs that contained problem-solving strategies 5 “heuristics.” 6 these heuristics, computers could respond 7 new tasks in ways that were not entirely preprogrammed. Heuristics 8 computers to divide complex problems into 9 subunits and identify potential routes to solutions. 10 could decide which subproblems to attack first, use models and analogies, and make educated guesses at solutions 11 necessary. 12 , computer scientists claimed that these heuristic based programs possessed an “artificial 13 .”
Today, powerful computers use sophisticated heuristics along with vast information 14 to solve problems in ways that appear very 15 . For example, 16 computer systems provide advice to doctors who practice in remote locations and thus cannot 17 specialists in particular medical fields. 18 “expert” computers help forecast the weather, locate oil reserves and 19 business trends. Indeed, some computer scientists argue that machines will one day equal or surpass humans in all 20 of decision making.
1. [A]. under [B]. over [C]. in [D]. along
2. [A] perform [B]. complicate [C]. accept [D]. impose
3. [A]. forbidding [B]. challenging [C]. pleasing [D]. menacing
4. [A]. Before [B]. Since [C]. Until [D]. As
5. [A]. been called [B]. having called [C]. calling [D]. called
6. [A]. Armed with [B]. Devoted to [C]. Endorsed by [D]. Interested by
7. [A]. at [B]. to [C]. against [D]. with
8. [A]. agreed [B]. authoring [C]. allowed [D]. let
9. [A]. managing [B]. manageable [C]. managed [D]. managerial
10. [A]. They [B]. It [C]. These [D]. Those
11. [A]. why [B]. whether [C]. how [D]. when
12.[A]. Inherently [B]. Essentially [C]. Invariably [D]. Eventually
13. [A]. integrity [B]. personality [C]. intelligence [D]. instinct
14. [A]. banks [B]. places [C]. establishments [D]. locations
15. [A]. humanitarian [B]. humanistic [C]. humane [D]. humanlike
16. [A]. medical [B]. spatial [C]. financial [D]. educational
17. [A]. covert [B]. control [C]. consult [D]. contradict
18. [A]. Alike [B]. Similar [C]. Akin [D]. Simulated
19. [A]. reverse [B]. follow [C].manipulate [D]. predict
20. [A]. areas [B]. portions [C]. ranges [D]. parts
V. Paraphrase. (30 points)
Paraphrase the following underlined parts in English. Write your answer on your Answer Sheet.
1. As with all his great novels, Tess of the D’Urbervilles reflects Hardy’s love of the Wessex
countryside and he describes its geography and people clearly and faithfully. However, while writing Tess, Hardy wrote that he “ was powerfully impressed by the massive evidence of the decay in agricultural life ” and he could not help reflecting and regretting this in the novel.
2.With the collapse of the medieval structure, and the emerging of the modern mode of production, the meaning and function of work changed fundamentally, especially in the protestant countries. Man, being afraid of his newly won freedom, was obsessed by the need to subdue his doubts and fears by developing a feverish activity.
3.Someday, there may well be a similar memorial to the unfulfilled prophecies of the creators of the latest breakthrough--- interactivity. Will it really change the world? With so much big money and so many big dreams pinned to an idea that is still largely on the drawing boards, there’s no limit to the hype. Simply put, the ultimate promise is this: a huge amount of information available to anyone at the touch of a button, everything from airline schedules to esoteric scientific journals to video versions of off-off-off Broadway.
4.Modern linguistics gets its charter from Leonard Bloomfield’s Language (1933). Bloomfield, for thirteen years professor of Germanic philology at the University of Chicago and for nine years professor of linguistics at Yale, was one of those inseminating scholars who can’t be relegated to any department and don’t dream of accepting established categories and procedures just because they’re established. He was as much an anthropologist as a linguist, and his concepts of language were shaped not by Strunk’s Elements of Style but by his knowledge of Cree Indian dialects.
VI. Summery writing. (40 points)
Instruction: write a summery of the following article in your own words after you have read it. The summery should include the main ideas of the article and be written in 150-200 words.
Where's the next boom? Maybe in `cleantech'
∙
SAN FRANCISCO -
Our economy sure could use the Next Big Thing. Something on the scale of railroads, automobiles or the Internet — the kind of breakthrough that emerges every so often and builds industries, generates jobs and mints fortunes.
Silicon Valley investors are pointing to something called cleantech — alternative energy, more efficient power distribution and new ways to store electricity, all with minimal impact to the environment — as a candidate for the next boom.
And while no two booms are exactly alike, some hallmarks are already showing up.
Despite last fall's financial meltdown, public and private investments are pouring in, fueling startups and reinvigorating established companies. The political and social climates are favorable. If it takes off, cleantech could seep into every part of the economy and our lives.
Some of the biggest booms first blossomed during recessions. The telephone and phonograph were developed during the depression of the 1870s. The integrated circuit, a milestone in electronics, was invented in the recessionary year of 1958. Personal computers went mainstream, spawning a huge industry, in the slumping early 1980s.
A year into the Great Recession, innovation isn't slowing. This time, it's better batteries, more efficient solar cells, smarter appliances and electric cars, not to mention all the infrastructure needed to support the new ways energy will be generated and the new ways we'll be using it.
Yet for all the benefits that might be spawned by cleantech breakthroughs, no one knows how many jobs might be created — or how many old jobs might be cannibalized. It also remains to be seen whether Americans will clamor for any of its products.
Still, big bets are being placed. The Obama administration is pledging to invest $150 billion over the next decade on energy technology and says that could create 5 million jobs. This recession has wiped out 7.2 million.
And cleantech is on track to be the dominant force in venture capital investments over the next few years, supplanting biotechnology and software. Venture capitalists have poured $8.7 billion into energy-related startups in the U.S. since 2006.
That pales in comparison with the dot-com boom, when venture cash sometimes topped $10 billion in a single quarter. But the momentum surrounding clean energy is reminiscent of the Internet's early days. Among the similarities: Although big projects are still dominated by large companies, the scale of the challenges requires innovation by smaller firms that hope to be tomorrow's giants.
"Ultimately IBM and AT&T didn't build the Internet. It was built by Silicon Valley startups," says Bob Metcalfe, an Internet pioneer who now invests in energy projects with Polaris Venture Partners. "And energy is going to be solved by entrepreneurial activity."
The action is happening at companies like GreatPoint Energy in Cambridge, Mass., which has developed a technique for turning coal into natural gas more cheaply and efficiently than previous methods.
GreatPoint plans to break ground next year on a power plant in Houston that will cost $800 million and create thousands of construction jobs, says its CEO, Andrew Perlman. Dow Chemical Co. and energy giants AES Corp., Suncor Energy Inc. and Peabody Energy are all GreatPoint investors.
"The opportunities," Perlman says, "are staggering."
A123 Systems, a Watertown, Mass., maker of lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, had one of the most lucrative public stock offerings this year, raising $437.5 million. Its stock price jumped more than 50 percent on the first day of trading in September, with investors willing to overlook that the company has yet to make money.
The Obama administration's promises about cleantech funding have galvanized the industry, reassuring entrepreneurs that they will have paying customers. The administration has said it will focus on putting more hybrid cars on the road, boosting the amount of electricity from renewable sources and investing in ways to cut pollution from coal.
One target is "smart grids." As utilities install digital meters in homes and Americans buy appliances that can communicate with the electric system, individual power consumption can be monitored more closely. People could be cued to dial down appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners when electricity is in highest demand. Such fine-tuning in millions of homes can reduce the need for new power plants.
At Tendril Networks Inc. of Boulder, Colo., which makes software that links utilities to smart-grid devices in homes, the staff has tripled over the past five months to 90. CEO Adrian Tuck says Tendril could grow even more if some of the $4.5 billion earmarked for smart grids in this year's federal stimulus goes to Tendril's clients.
"What we're about to see is every bit as big as the telecom revolution that gave birth to the Internet and cell phones," Tuck says. "It's going to create as many jobs and as much wealth for this country, if they get it right. Big, Google-sized companies are going to be born in this era, and we hope to be one of them."
The government's push for these developments parallels the expansion of railroads in the 19th century, when the government granted blocks of land to companies laying track, says Jack Brown, an associate professor in the University of Virginia's Department of Science, Technology and Society.
One difference, Brown points out, is that clean energy is such a vast field that government could make the wrong choice in backing one type of technology over another.
It's not just startups getting in the game. General Electric Co. plans to string transmission lines to deliver solar or wind power. Hewlett-Packard Co. is adapting techniques for printer cartridge chips so digital sensors can send data to smart grids.
But how much of an economic boost does all this add up to? It's hard to tell — at least at this stage, without products people actually want to buy.
The laser, for instance, was a big innovation, but it wasn't clear at first what it could be used for. That's why there wasn't an economic boom in the 1960s from the advent of lasers, even though they ended up driving everything from medical devices to CD players for four decades.
Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University, Channel Islands, believes upgrading electric grids and finding new sources of power will provide steady job growth — but won't be an economic powder keg.
Clean energy projects could simply replace old jobs and functions, like meter-readers. And there's no guarantee new jobs won't shift to countries with cheaper labor.
Some innovations take longer to reveal their economic effects. There are big booms based on specific innovations — along the lines of railroads, automobiles and the Internet — and then there are technologies that grow slowly, spawning offshoot industries for entrepreneurs to exploit over decades.
For example, the emergence of the integrated circuit led to the development of computer microprocessors, which enabled the PC revolution and in turn the Internet age. There's every reason to believe energy technology will fall into the same category, Brown says, but he adds: "It depends on how the bets actually play out."
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