Reading comprehension

Exercise 8.1

1. What is nuclear fission?

2. What are the major components of a light-water nuclear reactor, and what role does each of them play?

3. What is being done with low-level radioactive waste?

4. What are the options for dealing with high-level radioactive waste?

5. How widespread are contaminated radioactive waste sites in the Unites States and the former Soviet Union?

6. What are the options for retiring nuclear power plants?

Language study

Exercise 8.2

Choose A, B, C or D to fill in the blanks in the passage.

The British nuclear industry says an accident (1) to Chernobyl can never happen in the UK.

Greenpeace contradicts the claim in a report, called Chernobyl UK, published on the (2) of the Chernobyl disaster, Sunday April 26^th.

The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) has (3) a lot of money pushing its claim, (4) sending videos to schools. The board is guilty of (5) the public by omission.

Given the (6) designs of reactors in the USSR and the UK, it is (7) that exactly the same accident could not (8) in the UK. But the CEGB (9) to say that the Chernobyl flaw  a positive power coefficient  (10) also occur in our Magnox and AER reactors. This (11) means that an accident on the scale of Chernobyl (12) can happen here at any time.

In an island as densely populated as Britain the consequences of (13) an accident would be far more catastrophic than Chernobyl. But the nuclear industry has (14) to inform the public about this potential disaster.

	A		B		C		D
1	same		similar		as		like
2	birthday		day		time		anniversary
3	-		made		spent		given
4	including		of		except		selling
5	misleading		missing		lying		mistaking
6	same		different		types		plans
7	difficult		unlikely		obvious		impossible
8	take		be		occur		happened
9	tries		fails		has		must
10	will		should		must		can
11	failure		reactor		so		-
12	-		accident		consequences		damage
13	this		such		effects		type
14	tried		attempted		been		failed

The Participle

• Причастие I образуется путем добавления суффикса –ing к основе глагола и указывает на действие, совершаемое одновременно с действием, выраженным сказуемым: developing  развивающий (ся), развивая.

• Причастие II образуется путем прибавления суффикса – ed к основе глагола или изменением самого глагола (3-я форма неправильного глагола): developed  развитый , разработанный, worn  изношенный, и всегда носит страдательный характер.

• Perfect Participle  having developed  разработав, указывает на законченность действия.

• Причастия I и II в страдательном залоге указывают на то, что действие направлено на лицо или предмет, с ним связанное: being developed – будучи разработанным, having being developed  будучи (уже) разработанным.

Exercise 8.3

a) Form Participle I and Participle II of the following verbs according to the model:

• Model: To install  (устанавливать)  installing  installed.

• To produce, to exhaust, to extract, to burn, to consume, to increase, to deplete, to transport, to treat, to estimate, to improve, to waste, to insulate, to convert, to transmit, to generate, to replace, to emit, to save, to store, to power, to operate, to test, to circulate, to spend, to create, to supply, to reuse.

b) Compare the meaning of Participle I and Participle II in the following phrases:

• burnt fuel  coal-burning plant controlling equipment  controlled rates;

• stored heat  heat-storing device wasted energy  energy wasting electric motor;

• regulated process  regulating device generated electricity  energy generating fuel;

• improved energy efficiency  improving energy efficiency.

c) Compare the forms and meanings of the Participles in the function of an attribute (в функции определения):

• areas containing deposits of oil cells concentrating solar energy;

• technology reducing energy wastes spent fuel rods;

• poorly designed nuclear reactor efficiently operating power plant;

• water stored in the pool power plant contaminating the environment;

• containers being dumped in the ocean nuclear wastes being disposed of safely;

• radioactive fuel rods being stored in the water;

• energy being produced by coal-burning plants.

d) Compare the forms and the meanings of the Participles in the function of the adverbial modifier (в функции обстоятельства):

• while collecting radiant energy from the sun… - having collected solar energy, special devices convert it into…;

• while extracting crude oil from the well – having extracted crude oil, the company transported it;

• while developing the new extraction technology… - having developed the new extraction technology, the company started to …