Федеральное агентство по образованию Государственное образовательное учреждение высшего профессионального образования

ПЕТРОЗАВОДСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

О. Л. Добрынина energy

Учебное пособие по формированию навыков профессионального общения студентов по специальности

«Энергоснабжение. Энергосбережение»

Петрозаводск

2005

УДК 803

ББК 81.432.1-952

Д 571

Рецензенты:

Печатается по решению редакционно-издательского совета Петрозаводского государственного университета

Д 571/О. Л. Добрынина; Energy/

ПетрГУ.  Петрозаводск, 2005.  124 с.

ISBN

Цель учебного пособия по английскому языку – расширение словарного запаса студентов и специалистов в области экологии и энергетики, возобновляемых и невозобновляемых энергетических ресурсов, альтернативных источников энергии. Пособие предусматривает развитие навыков чтения и перевода литературы по специальности, обсуждения различных вопросов и тем, устного и письменного перевода. Пособие снабжено кратким глоссарием на английском языке.

Для студентов специальности «Энергоснабжение. Энергосбережение».

УДК 803

ББК 81.432.1-952

ISBN  О. Л. Добрынина, 2005 @ Петрозаводский государственный

университет, 2005

Contents

UNIT 1 5

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS ON THE EARTH 5

Reading comprehension 8

Language study 9

Prefixes 10

Discussion 14

UNIT 2 16

LAWS OF ENERGY 16

Reading comprehension 20

Language study 22

Discussion 25

UNIT 3 27

RESOURCES 27

Reading comprehension 31

Language study 32

Discussion 39

UNIT 4 41

IMPROVING ENERGY EFFICIENCY 41

Reading comprehension 46

Language study 46

Discussion 50

UNIT 5 53

USING SOLAR ENERGY TO PROVIDE HEAT AND ELECTRICITY 53

Reading comprehension 57

Language study 58

The infinitive 58

Discussion 64

UNIT 6 65

HYDROPOWER AND WIND ENERGY 65

Reading comprehension 69

Language study 69

Discussion 76

UNIT 7 77

NONRENEWABLE FOSSIL FUELS 77

Reading comprehension. 82

Language study. 83

The Modal Verbs and Their Equivalents 83

Discussion 87

UNIT 8 88

NUCLEAR ENERGY 88

Reading comprehension 93

Language study 93

The Participle 94

Practice 97

Discussion 102

UNIT 9 104

SOLUTIONS: A SUSTAINABLE ENERGY STRATEGY 104

Reading comprehension 107

Language study 108

The Gerund 108

Discussion 113

UNIT 10 114

ENERGY CRISIS 114

Reading comprehension 118

Discussion 120

Role play: THE NUCLEAR DEBATE 121

GLOSSARY 124

MAIN SOURCES OF INFORMATION 136

Unit 1 environmental problems on the earth

«What's the use of a house if you don't have a decent planet to put it on?»

Henry David Thoreau

Here we present an overview of the serious problems most environmentalists and many of the world prominent scientists believe we face and their root causes.

The environmental issues we face include (1) increasing resource use, (2) population growth, (3) destruction and degradation of wildlife habitats, (4) premature extinction of plants and animals, (5) poverty, and (6) pollution. All these issues are interconnected and are growing exponentially.

There is an abundance of bad environmental news: (1) forests are shrinking, (2) grasslands are deteriorating from the overgrazing by livestock, (3) soils are eroding, (4) plant and animal species are disappearing, (5) fisheries are collapsing, (6) rivers are running dry, (7) underground water is pumped from wells faster than it can be replenished, (8) temperatures are rising, (9) glaciers are melting.

During this century, the earth's climate may become warm enough to disrupt agricultural productivity, to alter water distribution, to cause economic chaos because of the release of certain gases into the lower atmosphere from burning fossil fuels and the destruction of forests. Toxic wastes from factories and mines poison the air, water and soil. Agricultural pesticides contaminate some of our drinking water and food.

There is also some exciting good news: average human life expectancy doubled during the 20^th century. Since the 1960`s global food production has outpaced population growth, thanks mostly to new high-yield forms of agriculture. Since 1970 air and water pollution levels in most industrialized countries have dropped because of new pollution control laws and technologies. Recently they have developed international treaties to phase out production of chemicals that deplete ozone in the upper atmosphere.

Our existence, lifestyles, and economies depend completely on the sun and the earth. To survive and maintain good health, all forms of life must have enough food, clean air, clean water, and shelter to meet their basic needs. Additional needs for humans include respectable and safe work, health care, recreation, cultural opportunities, education, and freedom from physical danger.

An environmentally sustainable society satisfies the basic needs of its people without depleting or degrading its natural resources.

Are things getting better or worse? Experts have conflicting views about how serious our population and environmental problems are and what we should do about them.

Some analysts believe that human ingenuity and technological advances will allow us to clean up pollution to acceptable levels, find substitutes for any resources that become scarce, keep expanding the earth's ability to support more humans, as we have done in the past.

On the other hand, many leading scientists contend that we are disrupting the earth's life-support system for us and other forms of life at an accelerating rate. On November 18, 1992 some 1.680 of the world's senior scientists from 70 countries, including 102 of the 196 living scientists who are Nobel laureates, signed and sent an urgent «World Scientists' Warning to Humanity» to government leaders of all nations. According to this warning.

Our massive tampering with the world's interdependent web of life  coupled with the environmental damage inflicted by deforestation, species loss, and climate change  could trigger widespread adverse effects, including unpredictable collapses of critical biological systems whose interactions and dynamics we only imperfectly understand... No more than one or a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the prospects for humanity immeasurably diminished.

So the major environmental problems are:

1. Air pollution: 1) Global climate change. 2) Stratospheric ozone depletion. 3) Urban air pollution. 4) Acid deposition. 5) Outdoor and indoor pollutants. 6) Noise.

2. Water pollution: 1) Oil spills. 2) Toxic chemicals. 3) Oxygen depletion, etc.

3. Food supply problems: 1) Farmland loss and degradation. 2) Overfishing. 3) Coastal pollution. 4) Soil erosion, salinization, waterlogging. 5) Water shortages. 6) Poor nutrition, etc.

4. Waste production: 1) Solid waste. 2) Hazardous waste.

5. Biodiversity depletion: 1) Habitat destruction and degradation. 2) Extinction.

The first step in dealing with these problems is to identify their underlying causes. Scientists have identified five basic causes of the problems we face:

1. Rapid population growth.

2. Unsustainable resource use.

3. Poverty.

4. Not including the environmental costs of economic goods and services in their market prices.

5. Trying to manage and simplify nature with too little knowledge about how it works.

The next step is to look for the solutions of the problems and persuade the lawmakers and the public that the environmental problems exist and the governments have a responsibility to implement the solutions. But most of environmental issues are controversial and include political, economic, social and ethical problems, which should be dealt with. Another difficulty is that most of these problems have long-range harmful effects instead of easily visible short-term effects. Examples are: global climate change, ozone depletion, non-point water pollution (such as runoff from farms). Explaining such complex issues to the public and mobilizing support are difficult.

Countries are concerned with military security and economic security. But all economies are supported by natural resources and without clean water and air, biodiversity no nation can be physically or economically secure. So all countries must make environmental security a major focus of diplomacy and government policy at all levels.