Text 17. Phiiadelphia natural gas pipeline blast

A fire was sparked by a pipeline explosion at a Philadelphia Gas Works facility on Friday night. The blaze at a Philadelphia Gas Works facility, located in an industrial area, was extinguished at 1:35 a.m., said a fire department dispatcher. As fire crews battled the five-alarm blaze, reported at 10:15 p.m. Friday, several nearby residents took shelter at a police station and Red Cross shelter. They were allowed to return home once the fire was put out.

On Saturday residents were being asked to cut down on using of natural gas after a dramatic gas pipeline explosion that lit up the Philadelphia night sky late Friday and left some residents without heat. Some gas customers remained without service on Saturday because gas lines lacked sufficient pressure, which the company was attempting to fix. Philadelphia Gas Works company was responding to calls to restart furnaces. To keep gas flowing to other customers, the gas company was using some diversionary tactics, pumping gas through the system from different directions. The company was asking residents to reduce the use of gas in home heating and cooking. Residents were being urged to turn their home-heating thermostats down 2 to 4 degrees, while overnight temperatures fell to 12 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 11 Celsius).

No serious injuries were reported and no homes were destroyed. The negative impact of the blaze was that it closed a section of the interstate freeway, delaying traffic there.

Exercise 6. Read the following sentences and decide whether they are true (T) or false (F). Say why.

1) The fire started due to the pipeline explosion.

2) The fire was put out only in the afternoon.

3) Only Red Cross organisation provided local residents with shelter.

4) The residents were allowed to return home as soon as the fire was extinguished.

5) There was no necessity for residents to cut down on gas consumption.

6) Many casualties were reported.

7) The fire delayed the traffic in the district.

Exercise 7. Match the words from column A with the words with opposite meaning from column B.

A	В
1) extinguish 2) increase 3) lack 4) sufficient 5) industrial 6) delay	a) excess b) rural c) cut down on d) accelerate e) break out f) poor

Exercise 8. Divide these words into six groups of words with similar meaning:

fatality	reduce	explosion	upheaval	contaminate
temblor	casualty	accident	earthquake	poison
diminish	rate	disaster	catastrophe	lessen
tremor	decline	blast	pollute	speed
Shake	detonation	velocity	spoil	decrease

Exercise 9. Use the word in capitals in the end of each line to form a word that fits in the space in the same line.