Exercise 1: sample answer

A falling weight gives a steady pull, but left to itself it would simply accelerate and drop to the ground in a short time. An escapement is a mechanism that holds back a toothed wheel and lets it advance one tooth at a time, each release tied to the swing of a regulating part such as the foliot or, later, a pendulum. This turns the continuous pull of the weight into a series of small, equal steps, and those steps can drive the hands or strike a bell. Without it there would be no way to make the power last all day or to link it to the passing of time.