Upper Intermediate

NUCLEAR INDUSTRY

Choose the one answer you think best

The nuclear industry is beset by controversy and mischance. Partially constructed plants have been closed down for several reasons. Construction costs have escalated, the demand for the power has decreased, and the number of antagonists to nuclear plants has increased tremendously. Nuclear energy, once hailed with hope for a future with cheap, plentiful power is currently reaching an impasse.

The major cause for the deterioration in the nuclear industry is the fiasco at Three Miles Island in 1979. Ordinary machines break down, and humans are prone to error. But a nuclear power plant accident can cause widespread catastrophe. Salvage operations and cleanup of debris at Three Mile Island are going to take twenty years and more than a billion dollars (more than the plant cost to construct). The most significant factor about the accident is, however, that it has jeopardized the whole future of nuclear energy. Public dissent, present though dormant when the first nuclear plants were constructed, has solidified after the deplorable chaos at Three Mile Island.

Nevertheless, the nuclear plants built twenty and thirty years ago continue to operate safely and economically. Smaller than more recently built plants, they have produced power that is consistently less safe, and managed and run by less qualified personnel. Many of these plants were designed and constructed so negligently that they are now closed down.

The investigation of the three Mile Island accident revealed that supervisors and management alike were inadequately trained to cope with a crucial mechanical failure in the nuclear system. Training programs today are developed more precisely. Now prospective operatives take two years of classroom work and spend three months under supervision in a control room and two more monthsat the simulator, a computer programmed to recreate the Three Miles Island diaster, before returning to another two months in the classroom. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission administers oral and written exams before licensing new operators. Every six weeks compulsory refresher courses are given. Presumably, more scrupulous training requisites will reduce the chances of another Three Mile Island debacle.

One solution to the nuclear power plant dilemma may be to standardize facilities, as the French have done. Because France has neither oil nor coal, nuclear  power is clearly the solution to its energy demands. The government constructs and operates plants that produce 44% of the nation’s electricity. The French envisage that by 1990 they will have facilities to produce 75% of their power.

Standardization, however, would never be acceptable in the United States, but there are more palatable alternatives. Plants would have to be standardized to some degree. Nuclear wastes  must somehow be disposed of more safely than they are at present. Most important of all, safety must be assured to appease the fears of a potent antinuclear coalition of the American public.

1. What is the public’s biggest objection to nuclear plants?

A. their cost

B. the length of time it takes to construct them

C. the amount of electricity they generate

D. their danger

2. Why has construction of new nucler plants been stopped?

A. They cost too much to build.

B. People are using less electricity

C. The plants are unsafe

D.All of the above

3. Why has the Three Mile Island accident jeopardized the future of nuclear energy?

A. The public saw the potential danger of nuclear plants and has united to protest their use.

B. It will cost more than a billion dollars to clean up the debris.

C. It will take twenty years to get the plant running again

D. Nuclear energy is too expensive.

4. Why are the older plants still in operation?

A. They were built twenty years ago

B. They have better supervision that the new plants

C. They are cheap to operate

D. They are relatively safe, produce cheap electricity, and have efficient personnel

5. Why have new plants been shut down?

A. Too much time was spent building them

B. They were designed and built too carelessly

C. The public objected to htem

D. Their operators were not well enough trained

6. Who or what is to blame for the three Mile Island disaster?

A. poor design

B. inadequately trained personnel

C. leaks in the reactor

D. a faulty computer

7. How long is the training course for nuclear  plants operators?

A. a year

B. long enough to enable them to take exams

C. thirty-one months

D. six weeks

8. After being licensed, what further training do power plant operators get?

A. they get experience on the job

B. they take frequent refresher courses

C. none

D. they have to take exams

9. Why are the French committed to nuclear power?

A. They have nationalized their nuclear plants

B. They have government control of plants and equipment

C. They have no alternatives

D. Their plants are producing 44% of their electricity

10. What must the United States do before nuclear plants can be considered acceptable to their antagonists?

A. nuclear plants  must be nationalized

B. nuclear plants must be less expensive to build

C. waste disposal and safety must be assured

D. antinuclear groups must conceal their fears

Restatement

Choose the alternative sentence that is closest in meaning to the given sentence. Note that several  of the choices may be afctually corect, but you should choose the one that is the closest restatement of the given sentence.

1. Faith in human reason and science as a source of truth and a meansto improve the environment was bolstered by scientific discoveries in spite of theological oposition.

A. Theological opposition made people ose faith in human reason as a source of truth and a means to improve the environment.

B. Even though the church opposed science, people continued to believe in human reason and science as a source of truth and a means to improve environment.

C. Scientific discoveries supported people’s faith in science and reaason as a source of truth and a means to improve their lives, and the church agreed.

D. People’s faith in reason and sience was diminished bychurch opposition and scientific discoveries.

2. After Paris, Montreal is the largest French-speaking capital in the world.

A. Montreal is the largest French speaking capital in the world.

B. Paris has the second largest French-speaking capital in the world.

C. Montreal has the second highest number of French-speaking people among the world’s

 capitals.

D. The capitals of the world include French-speaking people in Paris and Montreal.

3. The station will be closed for weeks because they are replacing the escalators.

A. They are replacing the escalators, that  means the station will beclosed for weeks.

B. They are replacing the escalators, which means the station will be closed for weeks.

C. They are replacing the escalators, meaning the station will be closed for weeks.

4. You must not let htem see you.

A. They must not be allowed to see you.

B. They mustnot be let to see you.

C. They cannot see you.

5. The belief is that he started life as a miner’s son.

A. He is believed to started life as a miner’s son.

B. He is believed to have started life as a miner’s son.

C. He is started life as a miner’s son according to belief.

6. A warning to passengers — don’t go out on deck during the storm.

A. Passengers were warned not to go out on deck during the storm.

B. Passengers were warned to not go out on deck during the storm.

C. Passengers were warned against goinh out on deck during the storm.

7. I think it would be a good idea to organize some tours into outer space.

A. He suggested us to organize some tours into outer space.

B. He suggested that it would be a god idea to organize some tours into outer space.

C. He suggested organizing some tours into outer space.

8. "I think we should build a memorial on an island in the river,” he suggested.

A. He suggested to build a memorial on an island in the river.

B. He suggested a memorial to be built on an island in theriver.

C. He suggested that a memorial should be built on an island in the river.

9. As it is fairly slow on these matters, the local council has only just started a recycling service.

A. The local council, which is fairly slow on these matters, the local council has only just started a recycling service.

B. The local council that is fairly slow on these matters has only just started a recycling service.

C. The local council, being fairly slow on these matters, it has only just started a recycling serice.

My advice for a long and happy life is to get yourself an absorbing hobby. It’s something I can’t overemphasize. And the hobbies habit can and should begin in our youth. Hobbies teach us all sorts of things — and they do it in a painless and even pleasurable way. Let me give you an example. Stamp colletcting is more than just the acquisition of little labels. It’s our entry into the whole world of culture and history — at least for the last 150 years. Those little slips of paper celebrate national achievements, reveal conquests and new alliances. The philatelist can learn, too, about currencies, geography, royal houses and all the rest.

Another hobby with obvious overseas links is the cultivation of pen-friends. There are pen-friend agencies which will send your address to potential correspondents in a wide range of countries. And through your letter flap, in the months and years that follow, will come a whole host of interesting letters, sent to you by all sorts of intersting people from remote and exotic places.  In the process, if you’re a stamp-collector, you gain quite a few choice specimens to add to your collection. And both of these hobbies will give you at leaast a sprinkling of words from a wide range of foreign languages.

Some hobbies teach us practial skills or keep us fit. I wouldn’t count sport because of all the injuries it can cause. And it can’t be continued into ripe old age —not, at least, in the sense of active participation. But keeping fit is most important, so take up walking, and let it mellow into gentle — but still beneficial — gardening as the years progress.  Start a child off with a packet of seeds when he’s very young, and at 80 he’ll be carrying the prize marrow to horticultural show, and coming home pleased as Punch with his gleaming trophy. As with sport, the competitive spirit is given its outlet. And aas a sportsman or an ambitious gardener you’ll gain the discipline that comes from learning respect for the judge, the referee or the rule-book/ You’ll certainly rub shoulders with people and you’ll make yourself lots of friends or foes.

Gardening has an added attraction — it can actually help usto make — or at least to save — substantial sums of money. Of course,k gardening requisites do have to be bought —at considerable cost — initially4. But the fruits of our labours, coming free from the garden, more than repay the initial outlay. Some wopuld claim that an interest in sport is a money-maker too because of the chance of laying successful and lucrative bets. Personally, it’s something I wouldn’t encourage. You’ve more chance of finding a rarity in your stamp collection and selling itfor a few thousand punds; but again I wouldn’t encourage excessive optimism. The odds are very much against it.

If you do want a money-making hobby what about authorship? If you’ve got theskills and application you can write and sell articles tothelocal and even national press. On the other hand, if you’ve gotplenty of money and want to spend some there’salways photography. If you do your own processing the results will be cheaper than those obtained from your local chemist — but only because you’ve invested a three- or four figure sum to equip yourself initially. Some people think that the long periods shut away from the world in their darkroom make it all worthwhile!

Some hobbies foster a pride in neatness and presentation. Most philatelists want to present their stamps on the album page in the best way possible; and most people writing to pen friends want their letters to be just as well-presented. Underlying this is the practical need to be understood. I’m assuming that you’re conducting the correspondence in your native language and not in your correspondent’s language. (Why, oh, why are we so poor at languages& Language-learning could be another hobby if we weren’t so lazy.) What wasI saying& Oh, yes, I was saying that your pen-friend is having to cope with what for him or her is a foreign language. Well, then, the least you cando is to make yourwriting legible, thus ensuring that every letter of every word is a clue to your meaning. Otherwise you’re putting extra barriers in the way of international relations!

What about hobbies like chemistry and electronics? I can sum up my views by saying that electric circuits are very unforgiving.One wrong connection and thething — a radio, a burglar alarm or whatever it is — just won’t work at all. And if you go in for chemistry you’ll find bucket analyses — the slap-dash use of excessive amounts of hemicals — won’t work either. So as well as teaching us the principles that make the universe tick, these hobbies teach precision — and also a healthy concern for safety. (Which reminds me — studying firstaid can be a good hobby too, and it’s one that fosters concern for others and offers the chance to meet lots of like-minded, caring people.)

Music is another hobby which teachers us to be exact andattend to fine detail. I used to swap records — as well as stamps — with a girl from Finland, and that led me into performing some rather weird-sounding Finnish music on authentic instruments.  It’s playing music, not listening to it, thatreally "tunes you up”, by the way. Instrument-making became the next stage in my long career as a hobbyist; in fact, it taught me the sort of ingenuity that can get a ship through the neck of a bottle! There are clubs for construction enthusiasts, so you won’t be alone if you do get stuck. Just look upon it as a chance to make friends!

Yes, I can say that my life has been really full and rich, thanks to my hobbies.

Select the best answer among the choices given.

Living on land, however, are the land turtles, properly caled tortoises, of which there are approximately forty different kinds. Of these, Gopberus, including the three gopher tortoises, is found in the southern United States as far west as New Mexico. Gopher tortoises are so called because they dig long burrows, which may be nearly 50 feet long and provide a home for many other animals, such as frogs, snakes, and burrowing owls. They are primarily vegetarians, feeding on grass and leaves. Berlandier’s tortoise, a slow-moving inhabitant of the arid lands of southern Texas and Mexico, is especially fond of prickly-pear cactus.

The true tortoises come to water only to drink or bathe, and they are adapted to walking on land by their club-shaped feet. their limbs are covered with hard scales that often have a bony core. The shell is high-domed in all but a very few forms. The openings at the front and rear of the shell are usually neatly closed by the retracted limbs, on which the enlarged scales may be defensively augmented with still larger spines. The head can be entirely withdrawn, the elbows meeting in the middle in front of it and the claws of the forelimbs overlapping the lower edge of the opening at the front. The hard-scaled soles of the hind feet cover the openings at the rear.

Tortoises have become symbols of leisurely movement, of longevity, and of persistence, as in Aesop’s fable of the hare nad the tortoise. All tortoises share the ability to live to a great age, but the longest life of anytortoise of which there is an authentic record is of a great tortoise of the Seychelles Islands whose age was known to be not less that 180 years.

1. What is the main topic of the passage&

A. The characteristics of land turtles

B. The life spans of tortoises

C. The difference between the forty different kinds of land turtles

D. The symbolism associated with tortoises.

2. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a characteristic of tortoises?

A. They have retracting limbs.

B. They are well adapted to water.

C. Their heads can be entirely withdtrawn into the shell.

D. They have long lives.

3. The word their in line 10 refers to

A. feet

B. limbs

C.scales

D. tortoises

4. Gopher tortoises primarily eat

A. frogs

B. snakes

C. grass and leaves

D. prickly-pear cactus

5. The word augmented in line 13 could be best replaced by

A. added

B. contained

C. restricted

D. enhanced

6. The passage precedeing this one is probably about

A. snails

B. water turltes

C. burrowing aniomals

D. owls

7. The word authentic in line 20 is closest in meaning to

A. written

B. historic

C.Genuine

D. legendary

8. It can be inferred from the passage that tortoises

A. are very aggressive

B. have a strong defence

C.are very vulnerable

D. may soon be extinct.

9. According to the passage, how did the gopher tortoise get its name?

A. From its diet consisting mainly of gophers

B. From one of Aesop’s fables

C. From being a vegetarian

D. From digging long burrows.