Reading comprehension

Exercise 6.1

Decide whether the following statements are true or false according to the text. If they are false, correct them.

1. To produce electricity from flowing water a dam should be built across a river and turbines should be installed.

2. World’s hydropower potential has already been exhausted.

3. Both large-scale and small-scale hydropower projects have their disadvantages.

4. Tidal power plants are expensive to build but can make a large contribution to world’s electricity production.

5. Wave power plants can be constructed in any coastal area.

6. Solar ponds are easy in construction and don’t pollute the environment.

7. Electricity produced by wind costs less that that produced by conventional power plants.

8. 100% of electricity demand in the U.S. can be met by wind farms built in their two areas.

Language study

Exercise 6.2

Insert the suitable prepositions.

1. At tidal power plants turbines are spinned by water which flows (…) and (…) of coastal bays.

2. A high dam was built (…) the Angara River.

3. Hydropower meets almost all the nation’s electricity needs (…) Norway.

4. According (…) the Department of Energy of the United States 5% of the country’s electricity should be produced by wind in 2020.

5. (…) addition, reservoirs that power the dams are the major emitters of greenhouse gases.

6. Solar ponds accumulate heat (…) the day which is then used to heat water and space.

7. Wind farms might be used to make the hydrogen from water (…) the long run.

8. Equipment of wave power plants can be damaged (…) corrosion.

Exercise 6.3

Active and passive voice constructions.

Match the sentences on the left with their meanings on the right. Pay attention to the predicate in each sentence.

1. New wind turbines have been produced this year.	a. Новые ветряные турбины выпускаются в этом году.
2. The plant is producing new wind turbines this year.	b. В этом году завод выпустил новые ветряные турбины.
3. The plant has produced new wind turbines this year.	c. В этом году завод выпускает новые ветряные турбины.
4. New wind turbines are being produced this year.	d. Новые ветряные турбины выпущены в этом году.
5. The plant will produce new wind turbines next year.	e. Новые ветряные турбины были выпущены в прошлом году.
6. New wind turbines will be produced next year.	f. В это время в прошлом году выпускались новые ветряные турбины.
7. New wind turbines were produced last year.	g. В прошлом году завод выпустил новые ветряные турбины.
8. The plant produced new wind turbines last year.	h. К концу года новые ветряные турбины были (уже) выпущены.
9. New wind turbines will have been produced by the end of the year.	i. В это время в прошлом году завод выпускал новые ветряные турбины.
10. The plant will have produced new wind turbines by the end of the year.	j. Завод выпустит новые ветряные турбины в следующем году.
11. The plant had produced new wind turbines by the end of the year.	k. К концу года завод (уже) выпустил новые ветряные турбины.
12. New wind turbines had been produced by the end of the year.	l. В следующем году будут выпущены новые ветряные турбины.
13. New wind turbines were being produced this time last year.	m. К концу года завод (уже) выпустит новые ветряные турбины.
14. This time last year the plant was producing new wind turbines.	n. Новые ветряные турбины будут выпущены к концу года.

Find in the text and translate the sentences in the Passive Voice.

Exercise 6.4

Complete the following sentences with the correct form of the verb in brackets (Passive Voice).

1. Crude oil (to produce) by the decomposition of buried dead organic matter from plants and animals that were subjected to high temperatures and pressures over millions of years.

2. Deposits of crude oil and natural gas often (to trap) together.

3. Once crude oil (to extract), it is transported to a refinery by pipeline.

4. At a very low temperature of –184 C, natural gas can (to convert) to liquefied natural gas.

5. Coal (to use) to generate 62% of the world’s electricity and to make 75% of its steel.

6. New ways, such as fluidized-bed combustion, (to develop) to burn coal more cleanly and efficiently and may be phased in over the next several decades.

7. No new nuclear power plants (to order) in the United States since 1978, and all 120 plants ordered since 1973 (to cancel).

8. High-level radioactive wastes must (to store) safely for at least 10.000 years and about 240.000 years if plutonium-239 (not to remove) by reprocessing.

Exercise 6.5

Translate the following sentences paying attention to the Passive Voice constructions.

1. A well can be drilled, and the crude oil can be pumped out.

2. Ocean waters and coastlines have also been polluted by accidents involving oil tankers.

3. Oil reserves are identified deposits from which oil can be extracted profitably at current prices with current technology.

4. OPEC has 67% of the world’s crude oil reserves, which explains why OPEC is expected to have long-term control over world oil supplies and prices.

5. Known supplies of oil are projected to be 80% depleted within 42  93 years, depending on the annual rate of use.

6. The extraction technology of natural gas is being developed rapidly.

7. When a natural gas field is tapped, propane and butane gases are liquefied and removed.

8. This highly flammable liquid can then be shipped to other countries in refrigerated tanker ships.

9. More than 200 new power plants to be built in the United States between 2000 and 2015 will use natural gas turbine systems.

10. The amount of electricity generated by nuclear power plants in the USA is expected to decline over the next two decades as existing plants wear out and are retired (decommissioned) or become too costly to operate.

11. Without economic aid from the world’s developed countries, it is unlikely that the potentially dangerous nuclear power plants in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe will be closed and replaced with safer nuclear or nonnuclear alternatives.

12. By 2030 all U.S. reactors will have to be retired, based on the life of their current operating licenses, and many may be retired early for safety or financial reasons.

Exercise 6.6

Translate from Russian into English.

1. Чтобы сохранить тепло в домах, стены и окна зданий должны быть хорошо изолированы.

2. Ветроэнергетика быстро развивается в Германии и Испании.

3. Энергия океанских волн создается в основном энергией ветра.

4. Огромная дамба будет построена здесь к концу года.

5. Солнечные элементы соединяются в одну панель для производства необходимого количества электроэнергии.

6. К настоящему времени в мире была использована только 1/6 часть потенциального количества гидроэнергии.

7. Не возобновляемые ресурсы должны расходоваться экономно и разумно.

8. Ученые считают, что в будущем энергия солнца будет использоваться для получения водорода из воды.

9. При оценке любого альтернативного источника энергии следует ответить на многие вопросы, касающиеся его доступности, стоимости его получения и влияния на окружающую среду.

10. В России большое количество энергии расходуется неэффективно или теряется впустую.

Exercise 6.7

Render the following text in English

Buffalo Ridge

A steady breeze flows most of the year across the Great Plains, rippling prairie grasses in the summer and sculpting snowdrifts though the winter. When it reaches western Minnesota, the wind rises over a broad upland known as Buffalo Ridge, where it encounters row after row of tall, white columns, each holding three long, black propellers that swoosh softly as they spin. The wind turbines now standing in ordered ranks on the rolling farm and pasture land is the largest single wind farm in the world. By 2002, there have been 566 of these giant windmills generating a total of 442 MW of electrical power, or enough for about 42.000 average homes. Together, the wind turbines are equivalent to one large coal burning or nuclear electric power plant.

Each of the sleek, steel towers is 50 m tall, or about as high as a 12-storey building. The hollow, fiberglass blades are each 23 m long and weight about 2 metric tons apiece. From tip to tip, the blades cover 48 m, or about the wingspread of a DC-10 airplane. Every tower is topped by a 750-kilovolt (kV) generator about the size of a minivan. Although the entire project eventually spreads across 7.000 ha of land, each tower has a footprint of only about 0.5 ha or 2% of the landscape for all 566 windmills.

Costing slightly less than $1 million each, the wind turbines represent a total investment by Northern States Power  the principal public utility company in Minnesota  about $500 million. This is slightly less than the cost to construct a comparable-sized coal-fired power plant or about one-forth of the current cost to build a nuclear plant. Best of all, with wind power, the energy source is free and nonpolluting. Project managers estimate that burning enough coal to provide as much energy as this wind farm would release about 750.000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (the major gas in global warming) every year, together with about 2 metric tons each of sulfur dioxide (a major source of acid rains and aspiratory diseases) and nitrogen oxides (a major source of smog) per year. Maintaining the wind turbines also provides far more jobs and a greater boost to the local economy than would fossil fuels or nuclear power. Although the resident of the small towns near Buffalo Ridge were skeptical of the project at first, they are now delighted with its economic benefits and proud of their role in energy independence.