Wood and the technology of wood drying (Древесина и технологии сушки древесины). Учебно-методическое пособие

Section 2.

REVISION GRAMMAR EXERCISES

1. Change the word combinations according to the model and translate them.

Model: a smoking room – a room for smoking

magnifying power, boiling point, freezing point, driving energy, melting temperature, preventing measures, travelling tickets, launching equipment, testing device

2. State the function of the Infinitive and translate the sentences:

1.Specialists face many difficulties to solve the technical problems.

2.To communicate information of some sort must be transferred.

3.During the industrial revolution new communication techniques began to evolve.

4.It was decided to use a “bit” as a unit of information.

5.To obtain the necessary data was difficult.

6.There are many means of communication to meet the requirements of the national economy.

7.To measure information means to define the logarithm of the number of available choices.

8.To prove this law experimentally is very difficult.

9.The material to be used has been carefully examined.

10.The pressure in the boiler was too low for the engine to develop such revolutions.

3. Analyze the predicate of the sentences and translate them into Russian.

1.Some technological mistakes must have been made in assembling integrated circuits.

2.You should have tested the device more carefully considering its importance.

3.The new device must have been broken by accident.

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4.The specialists must have been trained perfectly.

5.The instrument may have been improved.

6.The effectiveness problem must have been concerned with the demands of the design.

4. Translate the following sentences paying attention to the forms of the Gerund:

1.Our having mastered a foreign language helps us in our work.

2.We suggested the plan being discussed at the conference.

3.He prevented the letter from being sent off.

4.He is proud of having been trusted with this task.

5.Everything depends on your being here in time.

6.Reading good books is always useful.

7.In passing from the solid to the liquid state water becomes in volume.

8.Oxydation led to the reaction taking another course.

9.He dried the precipitate on the paper without removing it from the funnel.

10.They worked very hard with a view to completing the experiments in time.

Section 3.

INTERNATIONAL WORDS

Due to the specific historical development of English it has adopted many words from other languages (Latin, French and others), which are often called “international words”. These words have some peculiarities in English in pronunciation, spelling, morphological and semantic structure. Many of such international words exist in Russian. That is why it is often possible to translate such words without a dictionary. But be always sure that you know the pronunciation and the meaning of such words well enough.

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EXERCISES

1. Pronounce the following international words and translate them into Russian without a dictionary.

chemical, experiment, mineral, element, problem, information, system, alternative, situation, semantic, France, metal, uranium, radioactivity, photographic, subject, function, process, fact, signal

2. Arrange antonyms in pairs:

a) written, connect, reasonable, transmit, desirable, broad, include, sense, accurate

b) exclude, narrow, nonsense, disconnect, inaccurate, unreasonable, oral, undesirable, receive

3. Translate the following word combinations:

in a broad sense; in a special sense; to include all of the procedures; one mind may affect another; to hold in mind, never mind; how accurately can the symbol be transmitted; how precisely do the symbols convey the meaning; two dimensional pattern; three dimensions; discrete signal; discrete units; to represent symbolically; information source; to select a message; to consist of elements; to consist of atoms; to consist of words; sequence of symbols; sequence of signals; to interrupt the current; to interrupt the speake; point of destination; it is unfortunately characteristic; it is unfortunately difficult to understand; to confuse with ordinary usage; to confuse the meaning; from my viewpoint; measure of freedom of choice; to apply to individual message; relative to the problem.

Section 4.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1.Which words are called “international words”?

2.What is the role of international words in text comprehension?

3.What have you learnt from the texts of this unit?

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Unit 8

Section 1.

PRE-TEXT EXERCISES 1. Check up if you read these words correctly:

derive [dɪˈraɪv], charcoal [ˈtʃɑː.kəʊl], sawdust [ˈsɔː.dʌst], chimney [ˈtʃɪm.ni], fume [fjuːm], irreversible [ˌɪr.ɪˈvɜː.sɪ.bl ̩], provoke [prəˈvəʊk], residue [ˈrez.ɪ.djuː], combustion [kəmˈbʌs.tʃən], vehicle [ˈviː.ɪ.kl ̩], catalytic [kætəˈ.l.ɪ.tɪk], chunk [tʃʌŋk], pollutant [pəˈluː.tənt], kerosene [ˈker.ə.siːn], earthquake [ˈɜːθ.kweɪk], seismic [ˈsaɪz.mɪk], oscillate [ˈɒs.ɪ.leɪt]

2. Give the initial forms of the following words:

clearly, largest, heating, developed, heights, needed, burnable, traditionally, oscillating, levees

3.State to what parts of speech the following words belong:

sheets, however, calculated, excellent, volatile, usually, several, twice, additive, intensity

4. Check up if you remember the following verbs:

she uses – she is using – she used – she has used; he can call – he could call – it can be called – it could be called; they named – they were named – they have been named; he measures – he is measuring

– he measured – he has measured

5. Translate the following word-groups into Russian:

the largest use of energy; the heating of wood; a fuel with a higher combustion temperature; the great reduction of maximum speed; the high fuel consumption; employing elastic joints; depending on species and moisture content

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6. Compare the following pairs of words and translate them:

vapor – to vaporize; oxygen – to oxidize; real – to realize; magnet – to magnetize; general – to generalize; character – to characterize; fraternal – to fraternize; critic – to criticize

TEXT A

USES OF WOOD

The burning of wood is currently the largest use of energy derived from a solid fuel biomass. Wood fuel may be available as firewood (e.g. logs, bolts, and blocks), charcoal, chips, sheets, pellets and sawdust. Wood fuel can be used for cooking and heating through stoves and fireplaces, and occasionally for fueling steam engines and steam turbines that generate electricity. From many centuries many types of traditional ovens were used in order to benefit from the heat generated by wood combustion. Now, more efficient and clean solutions have been developed: advanced fireplaces (with heat exchangers), wood-fired ovens, wood-burning stoves and pellet stoves that are able to filter and separate pollutants (centrifuging ashes with rotative filters), thus eliminating many emissions, also allowing to recover a higher quantity of heat that escaped with the chimney fumes.

Mean energy density of Wood, was calculated at around 6–17 Megajoule/Kilogram, depending on species and moisture content.

Combustion of wood is, however, linked to the production of micro-environmental pollutants, as carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO) (an invisible gas able to provoke irreversible saturation of blood's hemoglobine), as well as nanoparticles.

In Italy poplar has been proposed as a tree cultivated to be transformed into biofuels, because of the excellent ratio of energy extracted from its wood because of poplar's fast growing and capture of atmospheric carbon dioxide to the small amount of energy needed to cultivate, cut and transport the trees. Populus1 euroamericana clone

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"I-214", grows so fast that is able to reach 14 inches (36 cm)in diameter and heights of 100 feet (30 m) in ten years.

Charcoal

Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis2, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen. Charcoal can then be used as a fuel with a higher combustion temperature.

Wood Gasogen

Wood gas generator (gasogen): is a bulky and heavy device (but technically simple) that transforms burning wood in a mix of molecular hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), molecular nitrogen (N2) and water vapor (H2O). This gas mixture, known as "wood gas", "poor gas" or "syngas3" is obtained after the combustion of dry wood in a reductive environment (low in oxygen) with a limited amount of atmospheric air, at temperatures of

900° Celsius, and can fuel an internal combustion engine.

A car built in the forties by Ilario Bandini, with a wood gas generator device.

In the time between World War I and World War II included, because of the lack of oil, in many countries, like Italy, France, Great Britain and Sweden, several gasoline-powered cars were modified, with the addition of a wood gas generator (a "gasogen"), a device powered by wood, coal, or burnable waste, able to produce (and

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purify) gas that immediately, in the same vehicle, could power a slightly modified ICE engine of a standard car (low-compression engine). Carburetor had to be changed with an air-gas mixer). There were several setbacks, as the great reduction of maximum speed and the need to drive using low gears and wisely dosing the amount of air. In modern cars, modified with a wood gas generator, gas emissions (CO, CO2 and NOx) are lower to those of the same vehicle running with gasoline (keeping the same catalytic converter).

Methanol

Methanol (the simplest alcohol) behaves as a liquid at 25°C, is toxic and corrosive, and in organic chemistry basic books is often called "the spirit of wood", since it can be obtained from wood fermentation. Rarely, when unwise wine-makers mix small chunks of wood and leaves with grapes, methanol can be found as a pollutant of the blend of water, ethanol and other substances derived from grape's fermentation.

The best way to obtain methanol from wood is through syngas (CO, CO2, H2) produced by the anhydrous pyrolysis of wood, a method discovered by ancient Egyptians.

Methanol can be used as an oxygen-rich additive for gasoline. However, it is usually much cheaper to produce methanol from methane or from syngas. Methanol is the most important base material for industrial chemistry, where it is often used to make more complex molecules through reactions of halogenation and chemical addition reaction.

Gas Turbine

The American M1 Abrams main battle tank is powered by a gas turbine of 1,500 hp (1,100 kW), that it is able to function also with a mix at 50% of wood powder and biodiesel, diesel fuel or kerosene. Its advantages over turbo-diesel engine, are the small size and light weight, the lack of a radiator (which gives an advantage against the effect of gun and cannon shots and missile strikes suffered in battle). A setback is the high fuel consumption, since the turbine

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engine has not the ability to work at a low revolutions per minute rate, much lower than ideal, and during the march this engine consumes twice as much fuel as a modern turbo-diesel engine with intercooler and direct injection.

Bridges, Levees Mmicro Hydro, Piers

Wood is used to build bridges (as the Magere bridge in Amsterdam), as well as water and air mills, and micro hydro generators for electricity.

Housing

Hardwood is used as a material in wooden houses, and other structures with a broad range of dimensions. In traditional homes is preferred for ceilings, doors, floorings and windows. Wooden frames were traditionally used for home ceilings, but they risk collapse during fires.

The development of energy efficient houses including the "passive house" has revamped the importance of wood in construction, because wood provides acoustic and thermal insulation, with much better results than concrete.

Earthquake Resistant Buildings

In Japan, ancient buildings, of relatively high elevation, like pagodas, historically had shown to been able to resist earthquakes of high intensity, thanks to the traditional building techniques, employing elastic joints, and to the excellent ability of wooden frames to elastically deform and absorb severe accelerations and compressive shocks.

In 2006, Italian scientists from CNR patented a building system that they called "SOFIE", a seven-storey wooden building, 24 meters high. In 2007 it was tested with the hardest Japanese antiseismic test for civil structures: the simulation of Kobe's earthquake (7,2 Richter scale), with the building placed over an enormous oscillating platform belonging to the NIED-Institute, located in Tsukuba science

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park, near the city of Miki in Japan. This Italian project, employed very thin and flexible panels in glued laminated timber, and according to CNR researchers could brought to the construction of much more safe houses in seismic areas.

[from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_economy#Uses_of_wood]

NOTES

1.Populus is a genus of 25–35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar, aspen, and cottonwood.

2.Pyrolysis is a thermochemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures without the participation of oxygen. It involves the simultaneous change of chemical composition and physical phase, and is irreversible. The word is coined from the Greek-derived elements pyr "fire" and lysis "separating".

3.Syngas (from synthetic gas or synthesis gas) is the name given to a gas mixture that contains varying amounts of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Examples of production methods include steam reforming of natural gas or liquid hydrocarbons to produce hydrogen, the gasification of coal, biomass, and in some types of waste-to-energy gasification facilities.

ASSIGNMENTS

1. Fill in the blanks with the following words and words combinions:

wood, carbon monoxide, low, carbon dioxide, hardwood, water vapor, base, hydrogen, fuel, nitrogen, higher

1. ... is used as a material in wooden houses and other structures with a broad range of dimensions.

2. Methanol is the most important … material for industrial chemistry.

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3.Wood … can be used for cooking and heating through stoves and fireplaces, and occasionally for fueling steam engines and steam turbines that generate electricity.

4.The turbine engine has not the ability to work at a … revolutions rate.

5.Wood gas generator is a bulky and heavy device that transforms burning wood in a mix of molecular ... (H2), … (CO), … (CO2), molecular … (N2) and … (H2O).

6.Charcoal can then be used as a fuel with a … combustion temperature.

7.The best way to obtain methanol from … is through syngas produced by the anhydrous pyrolysis of wood.

2. Make up sentences based on the text using the following expressions:

wood fuel; combustion of wood: a fuel with a higher combustion temperature; the development of energy; wooden frames; the best way to obtain; the small amount of energy

3. Give the English equivalents of the following:

твердая биомасса топлива; древесный уголь; дрова; опилки; сжигание древесины; окружающая среда; углекислый газ; растительные вещества; водород; азот; химическая промышленность; дизельное топливо; причал; дамба; сейсмостойкие здания

4.Make up your own questions to the text.

5.Translate from Russian into English:

1.Древесина – сравнительно твердый и прочный волокнистый материал.

2.В природном виде древесина используется в качестве строительного материала и топлива.

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