Day reading Passage (Australian culture and culture shock)

Day 2 Reading Passage 2 (Out of Africa: solar energy from the Sahara)
Word list:
1 
Astonished (adj) 
(B2) - very surprised
Example: They looked astonished when I announced I was pregnant.
2
 
Skeptical (adj) 
(C2) - doubting that something is true or useful 
Example: Many experts remain skeptical about/of his claims.
3 
Staggering (adj) 
(C1
) -
very shocking and surprising
Example: It costs a staggering $50,000 per week to keep the museum open to
the public.
4 
Propose (v) 
(B2) - to offer or suggest a possible plan or action for other people to 
consider
Example: She proposed a boycott of the meeting.
5 
Renewable (adj) 
(C2) - Renewable forms of energy can be produced as quickly as 
they are used
Example: Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.
6 
Generate (v) 
(B2) - to cause something to exist
Example: Her latest film has generated a lot o f interest/excitement.
7 
Venture (n) 
(C2) - a new activity usually in business, that involves risk or uncertainty 
Example: She advised us to look abroad for more lucrative business ventures.
8 
Subsidy (v) 
(C1
) -
money given as part of the cost of something, to help or encour­
age it to happen
Example: The company received a substantial government subsidy

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Day 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on 
Questions 14-26, 
which are based on Reading
Passage 2 below.
Out of Africa: solar energy from the Sahara
Vivienne Walt reports on how the Sahara Desert could offer a truly green solution to
Europe’s energy problems
A
For years, the Sahara has been regarded by many Europeans as a terra incognita1 
of little economic value or importance. But this idea may soon change completely. 
Politicians and scientists on both sides of the Mediterranean are beginning to focus 
on the Sahara’s potential to provide power for Europe in the future. They believe 
the desert’s true value comes from the fact that it is dry and empty. Some areas of 
the Sahara reach 45 degrees centigrade on many afternoons. It is, in other words, a 
gigantic natural storehouse of solar energy.
В 
A few years ago, scientists began to calculate just how much energy the Sahara 
holds. They were astonished at the answer. In theory, a 90,600 square kilometre 
chunk of the Sahara - smaller than Portugal and a little over 1% of its total area - 
could yield the same amount of electricity as all the world’s power plants combined.
A smaller square of 15,500 square kilometres - about the size of Connecticut - could 
provide electricity for Europe’s 500 million people. I admit I was sceptical until I did 
the calculations myself, says Michael Pawlyn, director of Exploration Architecture, 
one of three British environmental companies comprising the Sahara Forest Project, 
which is testing solar plants in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Pawlyn calls the 
Sahara’s potential staggering’.
С 
At the moment, no one is proposing the creation of a solar power station the size of 
a small country. But a relatively well-developed technology exists, which proponents 
say could turn the Sahara’s heat and sunlight into a major source of electricity - 
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP). Unlike solar panels, which convert sunlight directly 
into electricity, CSP utilises mirrors which focus light on water pipes or boilers to 
produce very hot steam to operate the turbines of generators. Small CSP plants 
have produced power in California’s Mojave Desert since the 1980s. The Sahara 
Forest Project proposes building CSP plants in areas below sea level (the Sahara 
has several such depressions) so that sea water can flow into them. This water would 
then be purified and used for powering turbines and washing dust off the mirrors. 
Waste water would then supply irrigation to areas around the stations, creating lush 
oases - hence the ‘forest’ in the group’s name.
1 
adapted from Time Magazine
*terra incognita - Latin, meaning an unknown land’

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Reading Passage 2
D 
But producing significant quantities of electricity means building huge arrays of 
mirrors and pipes across hundreds of miles of remote desert, which is expensive. 
Gerry Wolff, an engineer who heads DESERTEC, an international consortium of 
solar power scientists, says they have estimated it will cost about $59 billion to begin 
transmitting power from the Sahara by 2020.
E 
Building plants is just part of the challenge. One of the drawbacks to CSP technology 
is that it works at maximum efficiency only in sunny, hot climates - and deserts tend 
to be distant from population centres. To supply Europe with 20% of its electricity 
needs, more than 19,300 kilometres of cables would need to be laid under the 
Mediterranean, says Gunnar Asplund, head of HVDC research at ABB Power 
Technologies in Ludvika, Sweden. Indeed, to use renewable sources of power, 
including solar, wind and tidal, Europe will need to build completely new electrical 
grids. That’s because existing infrastructures, built largely for the coal-fired plants 
that supply 80% of Europe’s power, would not be suitable for carrying the amount of 
electricity generated by the Sahara. Germany’s government-run Aerospace Centre, 
which researches energy, estimates that replacing those lines could raise the cost 
of building solar plants in the Sahara and sending significant amounts of power to 
Europe to about $465 billion over the next 40 years. Generous government subsidies 
will be needed. ‘Of course it costs a lot of money,’ says Asplund. ‘It’s a lot cheaper to 
burn coal than to make solar power in the Sahara.’
F 
Meanwhile, some companies are getting started. Seville engineering company
Abengoa is building one solar thermal plant in Algeria and another in Morocco, while 
a third is being built in Egypt by a Spanish-Japanese joint venture. The next step will 
be to get cables in place. Although the European Parliament has passed a law that 
aids investors who help the continent reach its goal of getting 20% of its power from 
renewable energy by 2020, it could take years to create the necessary infrastructure.
G 
Nicholas Dunlop, secretary-general of the London-based NGO e-Parliament,
thinks companies should begin transmitting small amounts of solar power as soon 
as the North African plants begin operating, by linking a few cable lines under the 
Med. ‘I call it the Lego method,’ he says. ‘Build it piece by piece.’ If it can be shown 
that power from the Sahara can be produced profitably, he says, companies and 
governments will soon jump in. If they do, perhaps airplane passengers flying across 
the Sahara will one day count the mirrors and patches of green instead of staring at 
sand.

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Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A -G , in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 
a mention of systems which could not be used
15 
estimates of the quantity of power the Sahara could produce
16 
a suggestion for how to convince organisations about the Sahara’s potential
17 
a short description of the Sahara at present
18 
a comparison of the costs of two different energy sources
Questions 19-22
Look at the following statements (Questions 19-22) and the list of organisations below.
Match each statement with the correct organisation, A-G .
Write the correct letter, A -G , in boxes 19-22 on your answer sheet.
19 
They have set a time for achieving an objective.