3. Circle in the list the words and expressions you know. Write down their translation in the table and calculate the percentage of your lexical competence.

1	renewable		9	solar power
2	to erect dams		10	consumption
3	deforestation		11	harmful chemicals
4	strip mining		12	drawbacks
5	fuel		13	pollutant
6	replacing soil		14	nuclear power
7	to devastate		15	mine tailings
8	coal		16	exploration

Foreign Language University Training

Energy is defined, by Daniel D. Chiras, as «the capacity to do work», and is found in many forms, including heat, light, sound, electricity, coal, oil, and gasoline. Each of these forms of energy provides us with the capacity to light our homes, cook our food, travel by car, train, boat, or plane, to operate factories, and to do a number of other things that we do regularly.

As listed above, energy sources are far and wide. But this is only a cursory list of where energy is found, it is necessary to dig deeper to uncover the true nature of our energy sources. First and foremost, the sun is the ultimate energy source. The heat from the sun gives plants and animals the energy to grow and, in some cases, provides human beings with the energy needed to do some of the things we like to do, such as light our homes or cook our food. The energy from the sun is also partly responsible for the wind on the earth, which we also sometimes use to provide ourselves with power. Solar and wind power are both renewable sources of energy that are currently not widely used. Renewable sources of energy are resources replaced by natural ecological cycles (water, plants, animals) «or natural chemical or physical processes (sunlight, wind)».

Other energy sources that are widely used by human beings include wood, oil, coal, natural gas, the atom (or nuclear power), and moving water, just to name the most commonly used. While it is clear that we benefit by the use of these energy sources everyday by having light in the evening, warm homes, mechanized transport, etc.- we often forget that their extraction and use has severe drawbacks, not to mention the drawbacks of exploration, processing and distribution.

First of all, energy is not just given to us; we have to extract it from the earth. In the case of wood, this means we have to cut down trees to burn to get their energy. To exploit coal and oil, we have to dig or drill. We spend great amounts of time and money to erect dams, altering our rivers and streams to make energy (as well as save water). We have even learned to split the atom to produce energy, which also requires digging into the

earth to retrieve uranium, essential to atomic power production.

All of these extractive activities produce ill effects on the land.

We extract wood from forests for a variety of reasons, one of which is the production of energy. The ill effects of this activity are readily seen on blank hillsides that were once covered with trees. We call this deforestation. But deforestation doesn ’t only produce something unpleasant to see, it also erases animal habitat, alters watersheds, increases erosion into streams and rivers, and depletes the plants and trees that help provide oxygen to the atmosphere.

The extraction of other fuels also produces negative consequences. Coal is generally mined in two ways: strip mining and underground mining (or deep mining). Strip mining causes devastating effects on the land as it involves removing all the earth from atop coal deposits that are close to the earth's surface, extracting the coal, and refilling the scar that is left behind. The practice of strip mining increases erosion destroys wildlife habitat and grazing land, pollutes and depletes water Sources, and creates unsightly views we call eyesores. The roads that must be built into these areas further contribute to erosion, which often fills streams with sediment killing fish and other organisms and reducing the water carrying capacity of the stream, potentially contributing to floods.

Another way of mining coal is underground mining. In underground mining deep tunnels, or mine shafts, are dug into the ground to get to the coal deposits that are being extracted. In this process, underground mines create large amounts of wastes which are brought to the surface and dumped near the entrance of the mine. These wastes, which we call mine tailings, contain heavy metals, acids, and other pollutants, and often find their way into streams and rivers during rain storms.

Oil exploration and extraction from both land and sea can also devastate the environment. On land oil exploration and extraction destroys wildlife habitat through road construction and the clearing of land for drilling equipment. Leaks also heavily affect wildlife, killing animals and the vegetation upon which they depend.

Hydropower is in many ways a very positive energy source. First of all, unlike oil, coal, natural gas, and other fossil fuels, hydropower is renewable like solar and wind power. Also, it creates no air pollution or thermal pollution, and is fairly cheap in comparison to other energy sources. Lastly, hydropower technology is fairly well developed. Hydropower also has its drawbacks though. For one, reservoirs created behind dams fill in with sediments. Most dams have a lifespan of 50-100 years, though some may have a lifespan up to 300 years. Moreover, after reservoirs have filled with sediment they are gone forever. Also, dams may create reservoirs that inundate towns, villages, farm land, and wildlife habitat. So, though hydropower has certain advantages, its disadvantages must also be considered in the use of such an energy source.

In addition to the extraction of energy sources, the consumption of energy sources also has ill environmental effects. Many of the energy sources we most commonly use — coal, oil, natural gas — must be burned to produce energy.

This burning releases harmful chemicals into the air, such as N02, CO, and SO, just to name a few, that pollute the air we and other animals rely on to breathe. Further, nuclear energy does not create air pollution but does create a large amount of radioactive waste which we must find a way of depositing safely, so as not to harm human communities or wildlife.

With all the ill effects of energy exploration, extraction, and consumption it is important to reduce our use of energy, to reduce these effects. But another reason to reduce our use of energy is that most of our energy comes from nonrenewable resources like oil, coal, and natural gas. Nonrenewable resources are resources that are being depleted, or used by humans, faster than the earth can replenish them. So, if we do not reduce our energy consumption, or conserve energy, we may soon run out of nonrenewable energy sources. Also, it is important to remember the first and second laws of thermodynamics, which tell

s a lot about the availability and efficiency of energy. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy is neither created nor destroyed only transformed from one form to another. The second law of thermodynamics I states that when energy is transformed from one form to another, it is degraded: decreasing the amount of useful energy each time it is converted. Last, it is important to use renewable energy sources like wind and solar power whenever possible.