Speech Patterns

Speech Patterns

І. Decide which of these statements are true and which are false.

1. Nanoparticles are very big. 2. Nanotechnology has a great potential. 3. There is no need to use nanotechnology in medicine. 4. Nanotechnology is a step to the industrial revolution.

ІІ. Answer the following questions.

1. What does the word nanos mean? 2. At what spheres of industry can you use nanotechnology? 3. Why is nanotechnology useful? 4. How do nanoparticles influence the cells?

Text 16. The Greenhouse Effect

Active Vocabulary:

The light from the sun comes in, and the greenhouse gases trap some of the heat radiated from the Earth. It’s an energy balance. The more heat that comes in or the more heat that is trapped, the higher the energy balance is. The bigger the ice fields, the lower the Earth’s energy balance.

A fundamental error is being spread that, because a global warming gas is transparent to a large amount of the incoming radiation from the sun, it cannot have much effect in terms of warming the planet. This is an error that ignores a real-world fact that incoming radiation is converted to longer wave-lengths as it impacts the atmosphere and the planetary surface. It is these longer wave-lengths that are then blanketed from escaping back into space. If it were not for this wave-length conversion (mechanism), the greenhouse gases (GHGs) would not be causing the rise in the level of the Earth’s energy balance.

The energy balance for the Earth is about 33° Centigrade higher than it would otherwise be if there was no greenhouse effect. The average temperature on Earth is about 16° Centigrade. Thus, it would be more like -17° Centigrade, if there were no greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and, therefore, no greenhouse effect. The best estimate is for climate sensitivity to be 3°С. Values substantially higher than 4.5° C cannot be excluded.

І. Decide which of these statements are true and which are false.

1. Energy balance depends on heat level. 2. GHGs can not cause the rise in the level of the Earth’s energy balance. 3. The average temperature on Earth is about 18° Celsius. 4. The best temperature for climate is 3° F.

ІІ. Answer the following questions.

1. What is an energy balance? 2. What error information is spread all over the world? 3. What is the difference between a greenhouse effect and a global warming? 4. Is there any danger in the greenhouse effect?

Text 17. Essential “Green” Metals are being Thrown Away

Active Vocabulary:

That old cellphone gathering dust in your cupboard could help the economy go green, if only you could get round to recycling it. A UN report published last week says that too many of the rare metals that are essential for green technologies are locked up in old gadgets we throw away or forget about.

The report, from the United Nations Environment Programme, examined the recycling rates of 60 metals. Globally, 34 of them have recycling rates below 1 per cent, while only 18 have rates above 50 per cent. Among the least-recycled metals are tellurium and gallium – which are used in solar cells – and lithium, a key component of the batteries in electric cars – which is also found in cellphone batteries.

These metals are not yet in heavy use, but will be crucial over the next few decades. While we are unlikely to run out of them in the near future, recycling those already in use is less energy-intensive than mining, offering a way to make the green technologies that rely on the metals even greener.

“Most metals can be used over and over again,” says leading author Thomas Graedel of Yale University. But this doesn’t happen, partly because electronic devices are not designed with recycling in mind, and partly because people hang onto their old gadgets for years. This hoarding mentality may be influenced by privacy concerns associated with selling or recycling old electronics that store personal information.

Part of the solution is to collect more metals for recycling, but Graedel says we also need to update our recycling technology. At the moment, about 70 per cent of the metal sent for recycling gets lost during the process.

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