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 Wind Farms

Wind Farms
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.22

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    computer-controlled, conventional, converter, ranks, nuclear, electrical, turbine, germany, generator, machinery, greenhouse, directly, power, mechanical, fuel, pump
     content words:    Altamont Pass, United States

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Wind Farms
By Cindy Grigg 		  
1     Caption: Some of the over 4000 wind turbines at Altamont Pass, in California
 
2     A windmill is a machine that uses wind energy to make mechanical energy. People have used windmills to do work for more than a thousand years. Early windmills often had four or five blades covered with cloth sails to catch the wind. Windmills were used to pump water, grind corn, and saw lumber.
 
3     In 1890, a windmill pumped water to make electricity for the first time. Soon, nearly six million windmills made electricity in the United States. Then large power companies began using oil to make less costly electricity. The windmills were taken down.
 
4     In the 1970s, supplies of oil ran short. The cost of oil and other types of fuel went up. People had to find a way to make electricity and run machines without using oil. Scientists and engineers began to work on the problem of energy.
 
5     Windmills seemed to be a part of the answer. New kinds of windmills were designed. These have metal blades that spin easily when the wind is blowing in any direction. They can spin even when the wind is not blowing very hard.

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
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