現代文明的興起，少不了那些以各種不同方式轉換為可被利用形式的廣大能源的發明和開發。我們對於能源的需求越大，則愈能夠滿足我們在食物、服裝、住房、取暖、交通以及各種商品的需要。
2. Unfortunately the most convenient fuels – oil and natural gas – are now expensive and their current abundant supply cannot last very long. Alternative fuels all have serious handicaps of one kind or another and nuclear fusion, the ultimate energy source remains a technology of the future.
很遺憾的是，最為方便的燃料---石油和天然氣，現在價格昂貴而且眼下充足的供給情況也無法維持太長久了。各式各樣的替代能源都有它的缺陷所在，而核能源，這項所謂的極限能源也有待於未來科技的開發。
3. Our earliest ancestors had only food as their energy source and used energy at an average rate of around 90W per person. The mastery of fire and the harnessing of animal power brought this figure to up to perhaps 0.5 kw, where it remains for many people even now. For more than half the people of the world, the energy consumption today is less than 1 kw per person. However, in the United States the average is 11 kw per person and energy production involves one-third of its industrial plants.
我們最古老的祖先們，他們僅能夠將食物作為他們的體能來源，而平均每人所使用的體力和精力是大約90瓦的動力。掌握火的使用以及利用動物力量所帶給的動力數字也許在500瓦（即，0.5千瓦），甚至，至今為止仍有許多人沿用著這種方式。這世界上有超過壹半以上的人類，在當今每人平均的能源消耗是平均每人不到壹瓦的動力。然而，在美國卻是每人平均要用掉11瓦的能源動力，而且有三分之壹是用於工業的工廠。
以上屬於個人翻譯，請詳閱。