English for environmental engineering

BEFORE YOU READ Before reading the text make sure that you understand the following words and expressions.. These Ventures, along with many others, are beginning to draw the outlines of

MAEGORZATA GRZEGOZEK

IWONA STARMACH

ENGLISH

FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

KRAKOW 2004

© Malgorzata Grzegozek, Iwona Starmach

Wwdawca: Studium Praktycznej Nauki Jezykéw Obcych Politechniki Krakowskiej

ul Warszawska 24, 31-155 Krakow

tel (12) 628-28-82; fax (12) 628-28-80

e-mail: o-3@pk.usk.edu.pL

DTP © FALL, ul Garezynskiego 2, 31-524 Krakow, tel (12) 413-35-00 www.fall.pl ISBN 83-919536-1-0

INTRODUCTION

his book has been written for students of Environmental Engineering at interme- iate or upper-intermediate level of English who seek to improve their language skills Its primary goal is to present technical language in authentic texts selected from a variety of sources

The book can be divided broadly into two parts: the first one includes texts which deal with environmental issues and can be used at any stage of the language course, while the other consists of specialised texts intended for students who have already chosen their specialisations Each unit of the book consists of three parts: pre-reading activities, reading comprehension and vocabulary section Each part provides students with ample practice

through numerous exercises which can be used selectively or adapted by the teacher to the

needs of particular groups of students

The authors hope that this book will be both stimulating and enjoyable for students, and that teachers will find it a useful companion to introducing their students into the realm of technical language

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

drhab inz Jacek Schnotale, dr inz Hanna Witkowska, dr hab inz Bogdan Wolski,

prof PK for their invaluable assistance as far as technical vocabulary is concerned The authors also wish to thank mgr Elzbieta Han-Wiercifiska for her guidance and advice,

which proved to be very constructive and greatly contributed to the improvement of our work

Ts authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to dr inz Malgorzata Krytow,

CONTENTS

1 NUMBERS AND SHAPES

2 HOW TO PREVENT A MELTDOWN

3 HAZY DAYS

4 SWEET DREAMS

5 SUN IN THE FORECAST

6 WIND POWER

7 FLYING OVER VENICE

8 BORN AGAIN WATERWAYS

9 THE POLLUTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES

10 SLIPPERY SLOPES OF KNOWLEDGE

11 GEOTECHNICAL MONITORING

12 HEAT TRANSFER IN A BUILDING

13, AIR CONDITIONING

14 SIGNIFICANT FLOODS IN THE UNITED STATES DURING

THE 20TH CENTURY — USGS MEASURES A CENTURY OF FLOODS 100

15 HUDSON RIVER DREDGING PLAN SET TO ENTER

DESIGN PHASE

16 LOOKING PEAKY

17 HYDRODYNAMIC MODELLING

18 THE COLLECTION AND TRANSPORT OF WASTEWATER

19 THE TRICKLE DOWN THEORY OF CLEANER AIR

1,721 seventeen hundred and twenty-one

1,000 a thousand / one thousand

3,000 three thousand

3,020 three thousand and twenty

3,722 three thousand, seven hundred and twenty-two

1,551,862 one million, five hundred and fifty-one thousand, eight

hundred and sixty-two

734407 seven, three, double four, 0, seven (telephone number,

le a half / one half

a quarter / one quarter

a third / one third

an eighth / one eighth three-quarters / three fourths

two thirds

three eighths five sevenths

0.3 nought point three / point three / zero point three (AmE)

2.201 two point two nought one / two point two zero one

315 three point one five

25.25 twenty five point two five

x squared / x to the second power / x to the power of two

x cubed / x to the third power / x to the power of three

x to the power (of).n/x to the n

x to the power (of) n minus one / x to the n minus one

x to the power (of) minus n/ x to the minus n

the square root of x

the cube root of x

the fifth root of x the nth root of x

x is not equal to |

x is approximately equal to 10

x tends to nought

x tends to infinity

is less than five

xis greater than five

xis less than or equal to 10 xis greater than or equal to 10

R subscript x, R sub x sixteen degrees

sixteen degrees centigrade / Celsius twenty-five per cent (Water consumption has risen by 10%.)

a:b=c a divided by b equals c

In conversational style with smaller numbers you can say:

6+5=1l six and five is/ are eleven

3-1=2 one from three is/ leaves two

3x4=12 three times four is twelve

three fours are twelve

12:4=3 four into twelve is three

EQUATIONS

(a—b)(a+b)=y a minus b in brackets multiplied by a

plus b in brackets equals y

a(8—b)=x a open brackets 8 minus b close brackets

x[(a-b)(a+b)-8]=0

HOW TO DESCRIBE LINES

HOW TO DESCRIBE ANGLES

ABC is a thirty degree angle

A

AB is at an angle of thirty degrees to BC

An angle of 90° is a right angle

An angle of 180° is a straight angle

An angle of 360° is a full angle

An angle < 90° is an acute angle

An angle > 90° but < 180° is an obtuse angle

Anangle > 180° is called a reflex angle or an external angle

HOW TO DESCRIBE SHAPES

ABC is an equilateral triangle

DEF is a right-angled triangle

It is rounded at one end

It is pointed at one end

Tt is convex

Tt is concave.

HOW TO DESCRIBE DIMENSIONS

How wide is the block?

What's the width of the block?

The rectangle is 4 em long and

pàe 14

HOW TO PREVENT A MELTDOWN

1 Work in pairs and decide where the following terms should go

is produced as greenhouse gases, that are 2 natural part of the atmosphere, trap the sun's warmth on and maintain the earth’s surface temperature at a level necessary to support life Human activities like the burning of fossil fuels and land clearing are increasing the concentration of these gases Most scientists are convinced that this will trap more heat and raise the earth surface temperature

absorb heat in the atmosphere Some occur naturally while others result from

human activities If they occur naturally, they include water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone Certain human activities add to the levels of their occurrence

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) generated in a variety of industrial processes

do not naturally occur in the atmosphere

BEFORE YOU READ

Before reading the text make sure that you understand the following words and expressions

ipour, hydrogen, carbo

CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING

1 Read the text quickly and find out which paragraph(s) is / are about:

anew ecological fuel cell car

dovetail’ ominously well with the theory that carbon dioxide (CO,), released by burning

coal, oil and gasoline for heat, electricity and transportation, is trapping excess energy from the sun Global warming is real — and will probably get worse

B The only way to slow it down, almost every scientist agrees, is to restructure the way we produce energy Such stopgap measures as insulation, carpooling and energy- -efficient light bulbs are all useful ways to begin curbing the burning of carbon-rich fossil fuels But in the long run, as the world’s population continues to increase and living standards rise, 2, „That's why experiments now going on in laboratories around the world are

so important Ata research center outside Stuttgart, Germany, engineers at DaimlerChrysler have created a high-performance car whose tail pipe emits nothing but water vapor In

a giant wind tunnel at NASA's Ames Research Center in California engineers are set to analyze air turbulence in order to make superefficient wind-power turbines In Japan scientists are perfecting paper-thin solar cells that will be cheap to produce and could turn every house into its own electricity supplier These Ventures, along with many others, are beginning to draw the outlines of a world in which energy use keeps rising and, though

fossil fuels remain an important power source, CO, levels in the atmosphere actually begin

€, Cars like the NECAR4, housed in a lab near Stuttgart, could help make that happen This experimental vehicle, being jointly developed by Ford, Daimler Chrysler and Canada’s

Ballard Power Systems, gets its energy from hydrogen — the most abundant fuel in the

entire universe Hydrogen, unlike fossil fuels, contains no carbon atoms and thus generates

zero carbon dioxide.

D Fuel cells were invented in 1800s but only in the last decade have they been made small enough to fit inside a car The NECAR4, based on a Mercedes-Benz A-class compact sedan, 3 Teaches speeds of 90 m.p.h (145 km/h) and goes about 280 miles (450km) between fill-ups The first major field test of fuel-cell vehicles will take place this year in California And by 2004, DaimlerChrysler and Ford — as well as GM, Toyota and other companies — expect to be selling fuel-cell cars directly to consumers

E Ideally, the hydrogen would be produced sustainably with renewable electricity

from the sun or wind But even under the most optimistic predictions for improvements in renewable technology, the electricity required to split H,O into H and O would be prohibitively expensive So the first large-scale plants will probably wrest hydrogen from old-fashioned fossil fuels

The one danger in pulling hydrogen from fossil fuels is that it leaves carbon dioxide behind

If the CO, is simply vented into the atmosphere, 4 There is an alternative though: pump it into the ground In Norway, for example, the energy company Norsk Hydro is building a power plant that will be fueled with hydrogen drawn from natural gas The CO, that’s left over will be reinjected into an oil field on the continental shelf Not only will this take the carbon dioxide out of circulation but it will also pressurize the field and make the remaining oil easier to pump out In Europe and the U.S., pumping CO, into underground aquifers has proved an effective way of keeping it out of the atmosphere

F Fossil fuels will remain an important energy source for the foreseeable future, but they will eventually run out and the world will have to switch to what environmental visionaries have been dreaming about: endlessly renewable power from wind and sun Wind is fast catching up with oil and gas in cost efficiency with the help of experiments such as the one at Ames Research Center By comparing what they learn from the wind tunnel’s smooth airflow with data from the turbulent breezes at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s test range near Golden, Colorado, engineers expect to build a new generation of superefficient wind turbines with blades well over 200ft (60m) across Efficiency doesn’t help when the wind isn’t blowing; you need to store energy generated during gales for use when the air is still The best way to do that, says Robert Williams, of Princeton University’s Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, is to use the excess

to compress air and force it into subterranean aquifers or caves

Then, when the wind dies, the compressed air can be pulled out to help drive the turbines The technology could permit countries rich in wind resources — including China, the U.S., Denmark and Germany — to take advantage of a free, unlimited and nearly pollution-less source of electric

G On the solar-power front, the visions of 1970s-era environmentalists can still be realized, at least in part, if manufacturers could find a way to produce silicon-based photovoltaic cells more efficiently and thus drive down their high cost One strategy is to reduce the thickness of a solar cell from the current standard — about that of a piece of cardboard — to one-hundredth of that size Such thin-film cells, whose development is furthest along in Japan, will use less raw material and will be far easier to manufacture with the extraordinary purity required to make them efficient enough to be economical Beyond that, their light weight will make installation easy, permitting them to be applied

as building facades or even over windows

Since the sun doesn’t shine with equal power everywhere, even a building slathered with

solar cells will need another source of electricity One possibility: 5 During daylight, when the solar cells are operating, excess electricity could be run through a fuel cell to produce hydrogen from water At night, the fuel cell could use the hydrogen to produce electricity again

H Ideally, every factory, building, home and vehicle would have its own clean renewable power source, eliminating oil wells, coal mines, power plants and power lines — and all the environmental disruption they cause For now, though, the world has a more

urgent mission: 6 and do it in a hurry Thanks to the fuel-cell cars and more

advanced wind turbines and solar cells that are close to fruition, the global-warming

challenge seems a little less daunting than it did just a few years ago

abridged from Time, April — May 2000

I Read the text carefully and put the sentences below into the gaps The first one has

been done for you

the past decade has been by far the hottest on record

a system that uses both solar cells and a two-way fuel cell

to stop the planet from overheating

these measures will not be enough

global warming will be as big a problem as ever

accommodates five people plus luggage

ELECTRICITY SOURCE DISADVANTAGES SOLUTION

Hydrogen tom CO: ïs vented into the atmosphere

fossil fuels use of sun and wind as alternative

IV Answer the following questions

1 What experiments are being carried out in different countries to reduce fossil fuels consumption?

What is NECAR4 powered with and why is it safe for the environment?

Ts the author of the article optimistic? Does he think that we are able to slow down the global warming?

INCREASE YOUR VOCABULARY

IT Match the highlighted words in the text with their definitions below

6 covered with a thick layer of

If Put some of the words from exercise J into the sentences below

1 Myholiday plans perfectly with yours so we can go away together

2 Don’t worry We have supplies of food and water so we can last here for months until some ship arrives to rescue us

3 There wasa debate about whether the student should be expelled

4 She is very successful in her career All her ideas come to =

5 When he went bankrupt he had to face the prospect of living in

poverty

6 Mary was so angry that she her fury smashing the vase

Ill Replace the expressions in bold with words from the box changing their form if necessary

All their actions seem to be chaotic as if they had no plan at all

Unfortunately we have no influence on what will happen All we can do is wait and see It’s impossible for a three-year-old to sit not moving for 15 minutes

Few people would question the fact that travel broadens your mind

If the government does not introduce measures to control the spread of the virus we

are bound to face an epidemic

The politician presented the main points of his plan to remedy the health care system

efficiency aquifers

Nouns can be formed from different parts of speech by adding suffixes Add the suffixes

below to the words in the table to make new nouns (all the nouns can be found in the

text, the numbers of paragraphs are given)

predict para.E supply para.B active para.A warm para.A

-ment, -ion, ation,

ing, -ness, -ity,

This product is the result of a of many different technologies

A good should always be objective and fair in his judgement Four new were erected in the city centre

He had been out of work for a year before he found in a local factory

Good can save you a lot of money on heating bills

We spent a lot of time analysing the team’s strengths and

Leaving the child unattended was sheer on her part

VII Complete each sentence with a noun made from the word given

1 When I was a student it was difficult to find suitable

4, The President declared that health and will become the priorities

in the policy of his government

2 gradually stop working

escape

Our cat was run by a car and died instantly

I think Julie is jealous of her sister She is always running her

When he was 14, he ran from home

Tf you leave the headlights on for the night, the battery will run

Could you run 50 copies of this document for all the Đi bạn of the meeting?

The dog ran the cyclist barking noisily

Tm afraid we've run of coffee so I can’t offer you any

Tran John yesterday I could barely recognise him as we hadn’t seen each other for 7 years

Translate the following expressions from the text into your language

a handful of the most doctrinaire diehards (para A) —

in the long run (para B) —

large-scale plants will wrest oxygen from old-fashioned fossil fuels (para E) —

wind is fast catching up with oil and gas (para F) —

when the air is still (para F) —

drive down their costs (para G)—

HAZY DAYS

haze /heiz/n (a) thin fog caused by water, smoke

or dust, or an effect of heat which prevents things

being seen clearly @ A haze of dust hung over the

field (C) @ The road shimmered with heat haze (U)

1 Work in pairs Read the dictionary entry, the title of the article and discuss the following questions:

1 What kind of days are “hazy days”?

2 What may be the reasons for “hazy days”?

3 Has there ever been a problem of “hazy days” in your area?

Traffic congestion on a highway

BEFORE YOU READ

Before reading the text make sure that you understand the following words and expressions

CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING

I Read the text and match the titles to the paragraphs The first one has been done for you

[a]

Nature provided its own punctuation mark at the end of the Earth Summit in South Africa It took the form of a cloud of dense smog which reduced Moscow to a state of disruption Visibility was down to 100 min some areas and health warnings were issued to protect vulnerable citizens A state of emergency was declared in the Moscow region and troops were called out to help fight the forest fires which created the pollution This was a symbolic finale, for the Summit had opened with the newspaper images of Indonesian school children wearing face masks to prevent them inhaling windbome smoke emanating

from the forest and scrub fires

This year, the pollution cloud, dignified by the name “brown haze”, has smothered Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei for several weeks Scientists identified a pollution cloud

up to 3 km deep stretching from India across south east Asia to southern China and covering

10 million square miles The “brown haze” blocks up to 15% of sunlight and will add its

lethal contribution to the estimated 3 million deaths a year worldwide attributed to atmospheric pollution

The worst decline in UK air quality was recorded in 1998 Friends of the Earth reported that the number of days when urban pollution exceeded official health standards rose by 20% in urban areas and by 53% in rural areas The following year, pollution levels were above health standards on average one day in every eight at rural monitoring sites and only one day in every 13 at urban sites The Department of Health estimated that up to 24,000 people a year might die prematurely because of air pollution An accusing finger was pointed at road transport and, by 1992, it was acknowledged that introducing catalytic converters and improved engine and fuel technology had led to a reduction in toxic vehicle emissions

illness costs the National Health Service £850 million a year and an estimated 1,500 people

die from the disease There has been a significant increase in the number of children affected, with one in seven suffering from the disease This is a sixfold increase in less than three

years The UK currently has the highest incidence of asthma in Europe

This year’s US study made the link to vehicle emissions as contributory factor by identifying ozone as a cause Ozone is not emitted directly by vehicles but is produced by the action of sunlight on the polluting chemicals that constitute smog It irritates the respiratory system, causing impaired lung function

Reducing the number of motor vehicles on the road that are powered by conventional fuels is the key to the environmental improvement According to figures produced by the Department of Transport this year, traffic levels in 2000/01 rose by 1.3% The trend is everupwards, an indicator of a healthy economy but not of a healthy environment UK Government policy is to reduce traffic congestion but there are no plans to curb car use

[4L j

In Italy, which is beset by similar problems to the UK, a smog emergency earlier this year has led to some radical thinking Italy has one of the highest ratios of vehicles to people in the world: 32 million vehicles tor 57.5 million people Milan, situated in the country’s industrial heartland, is particularly prone to winter smog when vehicle emissions create pollution which is trapped by the surrounding mountains The city has already banned the use of cars at weekends and legislated for restricted use during weekdays Other Italian

cities, including Rome, Turin and Bologna have also imposed restrictions

In February this year, atmospheric pollution in the Lombardy region reached crisis point with levels that were five times the official limit This lasted for several weeks during

a period when there was no rainfall to disperse the smog As a result, the regional government

plans to ban the use of new petrol and diesel-fuelled cars within three years This is part of

an air quality improvement plan which aims to replace traditional fuels with clean energy such as electric power, gas and hydrogen This initiative will also include promotion of public transport and car pooling While “zero carbon” vehicles are being tried out in various countries, Italy has thrown down the gauntlet to the motor manufacturing industry to produce

viable “green” vehicles by 2005

[5

Meanwhile, London is gearing up for congestion charging in February next year Road traffic in central London is expected to fall by between 10% and 15% Bus capacity has been increased to cope with an additional 14 000 passengers a day and there will be added passenger volumes on the underground and rail networks While congestion in the capital may be relieved, there will be little abatement of vehicle emissions as public transport services are expanded A development with more long-term potential is the trial operation

of hydrogen-powered buses in London next year Other countries are also experimenting with low carbon vehicles and, Italy in particular, has an aggressive agenda

Meanwhile, in other parts of the globe, health is being endangered by another form of atmospheric pollution caused by fires started to clear land and by burning wood as a fuel While we struggle with the problems created by motor transport, two billion people in the developing world are condemned to an unhealthy existence because they do not have access to modern forms of energy Reliance on burning wood and animal dung for cooking generates toxic pollutants estimated to kill two million people a year Renewable energy, power from the sun and wind, is a product of nature and has the potential to save forests, protect soil from erosion and lift people out of poverty and into a healthier environment A pity then that proposals to agree targets to increase renewable energy were blocked at the Earth Summit by the USA and OPEC It seems that the oil barons were unmoved either by the plight of the poor or by the prospect of their own cities becoming permanently congested, smog-filled and hazardous to health,

abndged from Water and Environment Manager, November 2002

IT What do the following numbers or expressions in the text refer to?

1 100m (para 1)

2 £850 million (para 3)

one in seven (para 3)

1.3% (para 3)

32 million vehicles (para 4)

between 10% and 15% (para 5)

How did the smog in Moscow affect the city?

How big was “the brown haze” in Asia and what will be its effects?

How did the air quality in the UK deteriorate in 1998 and 1999? What was the cause

of this decline?

What was the death toll estimated by the Department of Health?

How were toxic vehicle emissions reduced in the UK?

How is ozone present in urban air?

Tn what way is the situation in Italy similar to the one in the UK?

What steps were taken by some Italian cities to improve the situation?

What does an “air quality improvement plan” created by regional governments in Italy aim at?

10, How is London going to deal with the problem of road congestion?

11 What is “another form of atmospheric pollution” mentioned in the text caused by?

12 Why do you think “oil barons” from OPEC are reluctant to deal with the problem of

urban pollution?

INCREASE YOUR VOCABULARY

I Find the highlighted words in the text, match them with their definitions below and

complete the crossword (use their base forms) What are the hidden words?

1 to limit or control something in order to prevent it from having a harmful effect

2 the situation or experience of being poor

to forbid, not to allow

to prepare for something

too early

to introduce something such as a new law or rule

decrease, reduction

to make up, to form

thick, difficult to see through

) to be more than a number or amount of something

to spread over the area and disappear

bad or serious situation or condition

Because of difficult situation on the market our company is experiencing a sharp

profits In other words we earn less money

During the dry season in Africa many animals starvation

These plants are very delicate and diseases

Numerous problems her hasty decision

The fall in the number of deaths caused by air pollution is areduction

in toxic vehicle emissions

We have no the data as it is severely restricted

lung function (para 3) the gauntlet (para 4)

Scientists were surprised to discover that pollution in was higher

than in urban areas

When the situation was under control the was lifted

Toxic chemicals that irritate respiratory system may cause

The survey proved a in the number of children suffering tầm dyslexia

The company to its competitors by introducing a new

environmentally friendly type of fuel

Compound words can be a combination of two nouns or an adjective and a noun Make compounds using words from boxes A and B and put them in the table All the compounds appear in the text

A

face, sun, health, monitoring, pollution, vehicle, catalytic, atmospheric,

‘traffic, crisis, public, trial, respiratory, renewable:

B

transport, converters, mask, light, standard, never pollution,

system, energy congestion, sites, point, emissions =

The change from fossil fuels to is necessary if people want to prevent the greenhouse effect

in our city is excellent You can get quickly anywhere you want using the underground or buses

Ozone is produced by the action of on chemicals present in atmospheric air

VIII What is meant in the text by “unhealthy existence” (para 6)? What is the function of the prefix un- in the adjective healthy?

Look at prefixes in the box below and circle the ones that give adjectives the opposite meaning Then add the appropriate prefix to the adjectives below

Translate the following expressions into your language

a state of disruption (para 1) —

an accusing finger was pointed at (para 2) —

a study in the USA sought to demonstrate the link between (para 3) —

contributory factor (para 3) —

bus capacity (para 5) —

added passenger volumes (para 5) —

reliance on burning wood (para 6) —

SWEET DREAMS

Read the definition of the word ‘by-pass’ and answer the questions below

by-pass - 2 [C] @ A by -pass is a road

£ it rather than around a city to

take traffic around the edge

Is there a problem of too much traffic in your town or city? Are there any by-passes ?

Do you think that traffic congestion could be a problem outside the city?

Work in pairs Imagine the authorities are planning to build a highway in your

neighbourhood How would you react? Present your arguments

BEFORE YOU READ

Before reading the text make sure that you understand the following words and expressions

CHECK YOUR UNDRESTANDING

1 Read the text quickly and explain the title Sweet Dreams

A A by-pass for Broome and Ellingham has been on the cards for over thirty years Residents had campaigned long and hard to gain relief from the stress caused by constant traffic passing through their villages What is now an old section of the Al43 twisted through the villages, creating a severe bottleneck and an accident black spot at the bridge over Broom Beck

B The preferred route for the by-pass ran through the flood plain of the Waveney

Valley, part of which is designated as a Broads Authority area with equal status to that of

a National Park The route involved sensitive environmental and health issues including

the landscape of the Waveney Valley itself and the local ecology The safety of water

supplies was a major concern as the road would impinge on the catchment area from

which Essex and Suffolk Water draw water to serve Bungay and the surrounding area

2

C A public enquiry backed the route proposed by Norfolk County Council subject to protective measures detailed in a comprehensive environmental statement Ninety-eight percent of local residents were in favour and the Broads Authority lent its weight to the proposal providing that environmental requirements were met The residents could see an end to their misery and for Norfolk County Council, the by-pass represented the missing link in the chain to complete the A143

D To protect the inner zone of the water catchment, an impermeable membrane was

laid under the road Covering an area of approximately 16,000m* this ensured that no polluting surface run-off would enter the ground This protection was simply christened

“the nappy” by site engineers The water company was particularly concerned about possible pollution affecting borehole supplies during construction work Water quality was monitored continuously at 15 boreholes for 18 months prior to the start of the construction

E Additional protection measures included five lagoons designed as a part of a road surface water drainage system These are lined pits with a capacity of 50, 000 litres equipped with a shut-off valve to contain any Contaminants arising from hazardous spills on the road

The environmental plan was to replace anything that was lost due to construction work Consequently, areas of natural woodland were reinstated with planting of willow,

beech, alder, oak and hazel

H Similar attention was paid to disturbing the natural geology of the area The road was constructed by removing peat and replacing it with naturally occurring sand and gravel (class 6A material), Baffles were installed at 100 m intervals to prevent it becoming a huge filter drain that might affect the water table The policy was to recycle all soil and to source materials locally Extracted peat was used to create the roadside bunds and was replaced with sandy gravel dug from a “borrow pit” north of the site By this type of agricultural regrading, some 13,000 truck movements were saved by not having to import aggregate materials

I Once construction of the by-pass started, Jackson Civil Engineering, with help from County Council site staff, involved people from the local communities of Broome and Ellingham in the scheme Parties of children from the schools at Ellingham and Ditchingham

visited the site and worked on school projects, including posters depicting the benefits of

the new road

BE]

J When the completed by-pass was opened in February of this year, the public turned

out in their hundreds to celebrate the event Apart from the quiet returned to the two villages

gy by re-routing the road, the requirement of the planning approval to use a “low noise” surface material, further reduces noise levels

TL ]

K Overall, the by-pass cost between 6 and 7 million pounds, with some 10% of that spent on environmental measures This is the largest percentage of expenditure on a scheme related to overall cost undertaken by Norfolk County Council It represents a good investment not only in terms of road improvement and alleviation of public concerns about traffic but there is the added value of road associated with environmental amenity

abridged from Water & Environment Manager, November 2002

Il Read the text carefully and answer the following questions

1 Why did the residents of Broom and Ellingham fight for a by-pass to be built in their area?

What important issues were considered when planning the route for the by-pass?

| What was the attitude of local people?

What was “the nappy”?

How often was water quality monitored and why?

What additional protection measures were taken?

How was the otter population protected?

What is the role of trees planted on roadside bunding?

How was the soil used in road construction “recycled”? What was the benefit resulting from such policy?

10 How were the local people involved in the construction of the by-pass?

11 What were the costs of the by-pass construction? Do the benefits resulting from the by-pass outweigh the costs incurred?

MIL Read the text again and put the following sentences into the gaps The first one has

been done for you

a Wetland areas are recreated and over 16 hectares of planting, included 28 000 trees and shrubs

b The protection of wildlife under the provisions of UK and European legislation was also an important consideration

c The lagoons create a natural feature with plants to echo the surrounding landscape

d The road carried 9000 vehicles during the working day, 13 to 14% of which were

heavy goods vehicles

e So the children got their wish.

ga

Acceptable parameters were agreed with Essex & Suffolk Water and monitoring

continued during construction

A noticeable feature of the posters was the emphasis on noise reduction, with pictures

of children asleep in their beds

INCREASE YOUR VOCABULARY

Unscramble the following words from the text

IL KN (para C) missing element

AV VEL (para E) a part of device that opens and shuts to control the flow of water passing through it

A PET (para H) a substance formed from decaying plants under the surface of the ground

BAHAITT (para F) natural surroundings, home of animals or plants

ALEIVATIN OL (para K) relief, comfort

ABC K( para C) support

LA PIN (para B) an area of flat land

ARO M (para F) walk around freely

Find the highlighted words in the text, match them with their definitions and complete

the crossword What is the hidden word?

describing or showing in pictures

a place in a road where traffic cannot pass easily

followed obeyed

an amount of something that can be put into a container

dangerous to human health and environment

the way along which vehicles are to travel

toxic substances

8 not allowing liquid or gases to pass through

9 official actions taken to deal with a particular problem

10 an area of land considered in terms of how attractive it is to look at

11 the area that a river or lake gets water from

IIT Put the words from exercises I and HM into the following sentences changing their form

if necessary

1 The tank has a total of 60 litres

2 The scientists proved that there is a between smoking and lung cancer

3 chemicals that got out of the sunken tanker polluted the sea water and may cause damage to the environment

4 He wrote another book everyday life in Medieval Europe

5 Because of many construction works being carried out in the city, the crossing of the two main streets has become a real

6 The scientists are monitoring all rivers from the lake's to prevent the pollution of water in the lake

7 This device has got a(n) membrane, so the water cannot get inside

8 The new bill has been by environmentalists They are strongly in favour of passing it

9 The inlet and exhaust in this engine are located in the cylinder head

10 can be used as burning material instead of coal, or mixed with soil

to help plants grow well

11 The beauty of the island’s was breathtaking

12 Stronger are needed to combat crime in our city

IV Complete the gaps with correct prepositions

1s the cards (para A)

2 impinge (para B)

3 subject (para C)

4 prior (para D)

5 due (para F)

V_ Complete the sentences with the expressions from exercise IV

1 The architect's new city plan must be review by local council

2 In view of the political scandal more resignations are

3 The plants died lack of water

4 Because of recent bomb threats every parcel should be examined its entering the building

5 The change of government did not ordinary people’s lives

VI Prefixes often change the meaning of a word For example the prefix re- means once

again in the verb re-locate Can you find any other words with prefix re- in the text? Look at the list of prefixes below and complete the table Give your own examples

VII Complete the sentences below with prefixes from exercise VI

My alarm clock is out of order, and so I slept this morning

My teacher told me to write my homework as I had made too many mistakes

If you don’t understand the word in a foreign language you can look it up in a _ lingual dictionary

He works too much He is definitely worked

5 Have you read his biography? It’s very interesting

6 This is a -purpose tool You can use it for all kinds of repair

7 Economic conditions in war Europe were very difficult

8 Ferrero beat Gonzales in five sets in the quarter-finals and got to the — finals

9 The building was divided into two major parts and each part was further

divided into smaller ones

10 You have to go to the national airport to catch a plane to a foreign country

VIII The verb lend occurs in many idiomatic expressions Find one of them in the text

(para C) and try to figure out its meaning from the context Then complete the expressions below with the words given

lend — help someone do something

—listen to someone, especially in a sympathetic way lend — let someone borrow it from you

lend — be suitable to be used in a particular way

Put the expressions from exercise VIII into the following sentences

None of her books really being made into a film

T can’t carry all these bags by myself Could you 3

The Prime Minister’s opinion presented yesterday their plans It's always nice to have a friend who is willing to and hear all about your problems

Tam reluctant to as people often forget to give it back

Translate the following expressions from the text into your language

an accident black spot (para A) —

heavy goods vehicles (para A) —

under the provisions of UK and European legislation (para B) —

otters, owls, bats, snakes and lizards (para F) —

the valley floor (para G) —

willow, beech, alder, oak and hazel (para F) —

parties of children (para I) —

turned out in their hundreds to celebrate the event (para J) —

SUN IN THE FORECAST

Discuss the following questions in pairs

1 Do you think that solar technology plays an important role in the world’s economy?

Try to justify your answer

iv Look at the list of factors below and tick the ones that you consider important for the use of solar technologies Why are they important?

geographical location

climate

landscape

environmental policy of a country

cost of building a solar plant

cost of energy produced

country’s economic situation

3 Whatis the future of solar technology? In which situation are its prospects better?

a when the solar facilities are big and are used for mass production of heat and energy

b when the solar facilities are small and are used in an individual household, a farm

or a small enterprise

BEFORE YOU READ

Before reading the text make sure that you understand the following words and SXUTSSBHS

{Solar ‘power ‘plant, electricity | grid, photovoltaic panels, rows of ‘parabolic mirrors,

trough technology, steam, molten salt, eos ]

CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING

Read the text quickly and answer the following questions

What kind of problems do renewable energy companies encounter?

What is the difference between the Mojave plant and the Solar Tres plant?

In which countries is solar research carried out?

A High in the Mojave Desert, 130 miles northeast of Los Angeles, lies a vast field of mirrors Crisscrossing rows of glass and metal, glinting in the sunlight, cover a full square mile of dirt It’s not some bizarre fun-house experiment or a grotesque exhibit of Hollywood

Vanity; It’s a fully operational array of power plants churning out an average of 180

megawatts of electricity, and offering a glimpse of a world in which the grid’s electricity comes from the sun

B Most people think of solar power as a flat panel on every rooftop But photovoltaic panels, which conyert sunlight to electricity, have limitations They work fine when the sun is strong, but when the clouds roll in you'd better have batteries to run the TV and dishwasher And even on the sunniest days the panels aren’t very well suited for cities, where roof space is limited For decades, engineers have been working on ways to catch

the sun over a broad area, concentrating it and using it to produce electricity on the same

scale as centralized coal, hydro or nuclear power plants — hundreds of megawatts at a time Several pilot plants have been operating in California, some for decades, but so far they

haven’t had enough volume to force costs down to competitive levels

C That may soon change Spain is drawing up plans for a pioneering 15-megawatt

plant South Africa, Italy, Australia and India are expected to follow with much larger

plants Capable of generating more than 100 megawatts each If at least some of these

projects are completed, costs could come down from the current 15 cents a kilowatt-hour

for the Mojave plant to 8 cents per kWh in the next eight to ten years, says Bill Gould,

project manager for energy systems at Nexant, a renewable-energy firm That would goa long way toward closing the gap with gas and oil, which now cost as little as 4 cents per

kWh “The first plants will be expensive.” says Craig Tyner of Sandia National Laboratories

“But as we build them the costs will come down.”

D The Mojave plant, owned by Kramer Junction Company (KIC), is one of the world’s

first commercial solar power plants, with five Solar Electric Generating Systems (SEGS)

supplying electricity to southern California The basic component of a SEGS plant is a row of parabolic mirrors that reflect sunlight onto a pipe filled with oil The oil heats up and is used to produce steam, which turns an electrical turbine Assemble a few dozen rows of these trough-mirrors, and you've gol capacity to generate 30 megawatts of power, enough for half a small town, The 180 megawatts from the five SEGS plants came in handy during California's energy crisis last summer, when oil and gas price shot up to 50

cents per kWh “Suddenly, we were quite the deal,” says Scott Frier, KIC’s general manager The problem with trough technology, though, is that the oil loses its heat too quickly

When the sun goes down, so does the power SEGS require supplementary generators that run on natural gas at night and when it gets cloudy

E Within the next two years an international consortium, including the Spanish company Ghersa and Saint-Gobain of France, will break ground on a new plant called Solar Tres Its design uses molten salt instead of oil Since salt holds more heat longer than

oil, it can drive turbines through the night The technology has been demonstrated in a 10-

-megawatt pilot plant in the Mojave Desert Concentric rings of mirrors direct sunlight up

to a tank of molten salt When the stuff is hot enough, some goes straight to a generator to produce steam, while the rest is stored for use at night The 15-megawatt Solar Tres plant would be the first long-term commercial power production project that uses the tower

design Since the electricity is expected to be costly — close to 20 cents per KWh — the

Spanish government plans to subsidize the plant

F The next big thing — dish systems — is already in the works The building block of such a plant is a parabolic mirror, shaped like a satellite dish, that reflects sunlight onto asmall generator suspended in front The heat drives a turbine Demonstration projects for dish systems are slated! to go up later this year in both Arizona and South Africa Theoretically a dish configuration would produce more energy per acre than other solar concentrating plants — that is, if engineers could figure out a good way of linking many dishes together

G, Although the United States still sponsors most solar research, the biggest potential market is in dry, equatorial climates Italy is spending €120 million to study how best to

mine the Mediterranean sun The World Bank has been putting up $50 million for hybrid

plants that use solar trough technology and natural gas in Egypt, India, Mexico and Morocco What would really give solar plants a kick in the pants is a rise in oil and gas prices and

a shortage of fossil fuels Should that happen, it’s a safe bet the sun will still be shining

abridged from Newsweek, April 8 / April 15, 2002

Il Read the text carefully and mark the sentences as true or false

1 The stereotype of solar power is a flat panel on the roof of a house

2 Panels are capable of providing enough energy for a household irrespective of weather conditions

3 The production of solar energy is still much more expensive than the production of gas and oil energy

4 There are no prospects in the immediate future to lower the costs of solar energy

5 A few dozens rows of parabolic mirrors have got the capacity to produce enough power for a small town

6 During California's energy crisis solar energy became less expensive than energy from oil and gas

7 Oil holds heat longer than salt

8 To be able to produce energy on a larger scale engineers are looking for a way to link many parabolic mirrors together

9, Countries with dry equatorial climates have the best potential for solar energy production

10 A decrease in oil and gas prices and shortage of fossil fuels would contribute to the development of solar power production

INCREASE YOUR VOCABULARY

costs could come down (para C)

a costs could increase

b costs could decrease

came in handy (para D)

a were extremely useful

b were completely useless

prices shot up (para D)

a prices became suddenly higher

b prices were lowered

were quite the deal (para D)

a, were a bargain

b were too expensive

will break ground (para E)

a will start something completely new

b will damage something so it cannot be used

figure out a good way (para F)

a change the method

b invent a good method

hybrid plants (para G)

a old-fashioned types of plants

b plants producing power from both the sun and gas

give a kick in the pants to (para G)

a slow down the development of

b speed up the development of

Match the highlighted words in the text with their definitions

to make something change from one form to a different one

= to gather a large number of things in one place

very unusual or strange

provided in addition to something that already exists something that you put in a public place for everybody to see

to produce large quantities of something taking too much pride in yourself

a big difference between two things