To use your example of "in the room":
"In the room the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo".
The definite article tells the listener that the speaker has a particular room in mind, not just any room.
In English, the speaker might have said:
In a room the women come and go...
but it would mean "in some room, one which I do not recognize or one whose particular identity is not relevant to what I am saying at this moment..."
In English, we cannot say:
In roomungrammatical the women come and go...
English listeners expect the speaker to indicate whether he or she is talking about a particular room or not.
In the room on the third floor... a particular room on the third floor. The speaker would expect the listener to know which room, perhaps from the speech context or from being generally familiar with the house, or from some other context.
In a room on the third floor... one of several rooms on the third floor, and which one is either not known, or irrelevant, or both unknown and irrelevant:
Your precious painting is in a room on the third floor. Don't worry,
the flood waters will not reach it.
Although in general we precede a singular, uncountable noun with a determiner such as the indefinite article a(n) or the definite article the, there are many instances in which we use the zero article (which means no article at all) before such a noun.
We use the zero article when the noun expresses a reference to a general class of things. The most common examples of this usage are phrases which use the expressions kind of, type of, and sort of:
- I like that kind of pickle
- He plays a special type of guitar.
- What sort of car is it?
It is not only after kind of, type of, and sort of that the zero article is used. There are many times when we use a noun to represent a class of things:
- What brand of cracker do you like?
- Ford is my favorite make of automobile.
- Cherry is the best flavor of pie.
In your examples, the nouns kiln and attraction do not refer to specfic, individual things. Instead, they represent kilns and attractions in general:
- The old model of traditional kiln
Kiln here refers not to a specific individual kiln, but to all kilns of the traditonal type (or model.)
- A new paradigm of tourist attraction
Attraction here refers not to a specific individual attraction, but to attractions as a concept.
Best Answer
"Prison" is one of a number of place names where the usage of the article depends on the situation described.
"He went to prison" means the person was sentenced and imprisoned. "He went to a/the prison" refers to someone who is not a prisoner, but visits the prison building for any other reason (e.g. a lawyer visiting a client, or a prison warden going to work). In this context "go to prison" does not just mean physically entering a building, but rather being imprisoned.
The same applies to some other place names, such as "school" or "church", that are both physical building and institutions: someone who is going "to church" intends to take part in a service, while another person can be going "to a/the church" for example as a tourist, but not to take part in church activities.