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Wind farms: Warm up

Before reading the chapter, ask the students to work in pairs or small groups and give them the following questions to encourage them to explore the subject of the use of energy and energy sources. At this point students should be tapping into their knowledge of the subject and not doing any research.

• Do you cook with gas, electricity, or something else?

• How do you heat the house?

• Is it necessary to heat all rooms twelve months a year?

• How is the water heated in the bathroom?

• Do you know how much your family pays for electricity or gas?

• How many appliances do you have that run on electricity?

• Do you think about switching off lights when you are not using a room?

• Have you any idea where the energy is produced that is used in your house?

• What is the most common source of energy for heating/cooking in the country you live in?

• Do you think the energy supply in your country could be limited in any way?

This discussion could be followed up with some written answers. Ask the students to write about energy and its uses in their homes. Give them a choice of how to present this: a flow text, bullet points, or a diagram.

Research activity

Students should research some of the discussion points above in small groups and present results to the class.

2.1 Wind energy

Text 2.1.1 The history of wind energy

Read the text to the students to model pronunciation. Students listen with books closed. Then the students should read in pairs.

Give the students an opportunity to record themselves reading (using their phones or recording devices) and practise self-evaluation: considering volume, clarity, and pace.

The controversy surrounding wind farms: Interactive oral activity idea

Discuss the following points: What are wind farms? Where are they? Why are they now springing up around the world?

Use this as an introduction to the controversy surrounding wind farms. Ask students to speculate about why wind farms are not universally welcomed or think of arguments for and against them.

Text 2.1.2 What exactly is a wind farm?

Vocabulary: After reading, ask students to work in pairs and pull out words from the text that they feel are necessary to know. Recommend collecting vocabulary in groups. Which words are directly connected to wind farms; which are adjectives, nouns, or verbs? Summarize the content of the text orally.

TEACHER’S GUIDE

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Keeping vocabulary lists – tips for students:

• Write down the word and where it is from.

• Check the meaning; either in an English–English dictionary or English–L1.

• Write the sentence or part of the sentence from the text to show how the word is used.

2.2 The cost of wind farms

Students should read Text 2.2.1 in pairs and discuss the content. They should examine unknown words by looking at the context. The sentences before and after the word will help them to guess the meaning. Ask the students to ask each other questions about the text to check for understanding.

In the general comprehension, encourage the students to find the answers and share them with each other orally at first. Follow this by asking them to write the answers in sentences. Encourage them to write full sentences and not just one-word answers.

For example:

Q: What is the author’s aim in this article?

A: In this article the author wants to convince the reader of the positive aspects of wind energy.

Rather than: He wants to tell the reader about wind farms.

The teacher should model the kind of answers expected in comprehension questions, so that the students understand the meaning of ‘a full sentence’, also emphasizing that the answer will contain some of the vocabulary from the question. It is also useful to explain what is meant by ‘a phrase’. In the final examination students are sometimes asked to quote a phrase from the text to justify an answer they have chosen.

Letter writing – formal English

The students are asked to write a formal letter to the Deputy Chief Executive of the trade association, Mr Maf Smith.

You can give students practice in writing other formal letters, for example:

• A letter to a newspaper (Letters to the Editor column), expressing concern about the wind farm in your area.

• A letter to the manager of a hotel where you stayed on holiday, complaining about the proximity of the hotel to a wind farm and the effect it had on your holiday.

• A letter to the mayor of your town, expressing your approval of the wind farms as an alternative source of clean energy.

• A letter to a Greenpeace expert on wind farms, asking him if he could visit your school and talk to your grade about wind farms and their effects on the environment.

2.3 Perspectives on wind farms

Text 2.3.1 Wind farms are useless, says Duke of Edinburgh

Who is the Duke of Edinburgh? The head of state in the United Kingdom is the monarch Queen Elizabeth II. Her husband is Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Before the students read the article, ask them what they think his opinion will be. Explore the different meanings of the United Kingdom/Great Britain/England.

United Kingdom = Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Great Britain = England, Scotland, and Wales

Then read the text aloud around the class. Subsequently students read in pairs.

Ask students to make notes about Prince Philip’s opinions. Discuss opinions for and against wind farms and present them in a visual way.

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This could be in the form of:

• a mind map,

• a graphic organizer,

• a flow chart.

Vocabulary: Students pick out words and phrases that they feel are useful. Create a wall chart as a visual.

Working with direct and indirect speech

Ask students to collect articles from current affairs in the press or from online articles and use these for vocabulary work.

Examples:

• Examining the use of direct speech where the actual words spoken by an individual are shown in quotation marks.

• Noting the verbs used to preface reported speech.

• Students’ making a chart showing direct speech and corresponding indirect speech use.

Tip: Look at the website for ‘The Day: current affairs for schools’, which your school would need to subscribe to but would provide your students with a regular source of up-to-date information on current affairs.

Text 2.3.2 International Energy Agency: the other side of the energy discussion

The students read the text aloud in pairs, discussing the content and vocabulary as they go.

Research activity: Some useful sites include:

• the International Energy Agency Website; search for ‘energy poverty’ on the site

• the National Geographic website; search for articles on energy

• the Center for American Progress; look at the section on ‘energy and environment’

Text 2.3.3 Modern energy for all

Students will be presented with some facts about energy poverty. To prepare for discussion, brainstorm some answers to the following questions before reading the text:

• What proportion of people in the world do you think use electricity to cook their food?

• How dangerous do you think inhaling smoke from an open fire can be?

• What do you think is the connection between electricity and health care?

• How frequently do you see electricity being used in your school? (List examples.)

Exam practice

Pre-reading activity. What do students expect to read here? Ask them to consider vocabulary that they will expect to read. Students read the text alone at first, and then aloud with a partner. As they read they should be noting vocabulary and phrases that they think are important to the understanding of the text.

Suggestions for further reading

Cold Wind by C.J. Box. American award-winning author writes a murder mystery with wind turbines at the centre of the plot.

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Answers

Text 2.1.1

Text handling

1 F 2 C 3 A 4 E 5 D 6 B

Text 2.1.2

General comprehension

1 An area where there are no buildings.

2 Wind energy results from changes in temperature triggered by the sun.

3 Wind energy is renewable.

4 It is plentiful, non-polluting, affordable, and does not contribute to global warming.

5 Only a small number.

6 No, it is a controversial subject.

Text handling

1 answers will vary

2 Find the words in the text:

a installed

b converting

c fossil fuels

d sufficient

e determine

f cause

g insomnia

h defacing

Text 2.2.1

General comprehension

1 To convince readers of the positive aspects of wind energy.

2 Examples: cheap, provide employment, not noisy, do not damage health

3 Ofgem, Ipsos MORI, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors

4 answers will vary

5 It is affordable.

Text handling (1)

1 D

2 G

3 A

4 F

5 E

6 C

7 B

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Text handling (2)

1 electricity

2 imports of fossil fuels

3 a wind turbine

4 wind turbines

Text 2.3.1

General comprehension

1 Wind farms are ‘absolutely useless’ and a ‘disgrace’.

2 Mr Wilmar, representative of Infinergy – a wind turbine company.

3 The anti-wind farm lobby.

4 Wind farms negatively affect the environment.

5 The Prince of Wales agrees with his father, Prince Philip.

6 Offshore wind turbines are on Crown land and pay for the use of it.

7 Foreign companies.

Text handling

1 Find the words in the text:

a attack – assault

b financial aid – subsidies

c growing – burgeoning

d in opposition to – at odds with

e openly honest – frank

f supporters – proponents

g put up – erected

2 What do the underlined words refer to?

a wind farms

b wind farms

c wind farms

Grammar in context

1 ‘He said they were absolutely useless, completely reliant on subsidies and an absolute disgrace.’ / ‘He said that they would never work as they need back-up capacity.’ / ‘Mr Wilmar said one of the main reasons the Duke thought onshore wind farms to be “a very bad idea” was their reliance on such subsidies.’ / ‘He said he thought that they’re not nice at all for the landscape.’

2 Suggested answers: ‘Wind turbines are absolutely useless, completely reliant on subsidies and an absolute disgrace.’ / ‘They will never work as they need back-up capacity.’ / ‘I think one of the reasons why onshore wind farms are a very bad idea is their reliance on such subsidies.’ / ‘I think that wind turbines are not nice at all for the landscape.’

Text 2.3.2 and Text 2.3.3

General comprehension

1 Household access to electricity and non-polluting cooking facilities.

2 It hinders development.

3 To inform the OECD, governments, industry, the private sector, and financial institutions.

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Exam practice

Exercises

1 1 I

2 E

3 L

4 H

5 K

6 A

7 B

2 B

3 I B

II D

III F

IV A

V G

VI E

VII C

Further exercises

General comprehension

1 He means that you can watch and be entertained by nature in the same way you can watch and be entertained by TV.

2 The annual National Whale and Dolphin Watch takes place on the 27th July.

3 The author delights in seeing seals, whales, dolphins and porpoises.

4 The British government does not care about the porpoises.

5 The British government’s attitude to wind farms is positive.

6 The wind farms negatively affect the porpoises’ echolocation ability.

7 The developers believe that wind farms can provide solutions to everything. The conservationists believe that wind farms are a threat to the marine environment.

8 ‘With what porpoise?’