Will there be Life after Oil and Gas ?
Intermediate technical English :
Answer:
Yes. The twentieth century was the century of OIL and
gas; but the
twenty-first
will be the age of cleaner types of fuel.
It will have to be.
Oil will not last for ever; and extracting it will become much more expensive
That in itself is a big problem; but there is another big problem too: climate change. The world is getting hotter, and it is largely because humans are burning so much oil and gas.... not to mention coal.
At present, there is still plenty of oil and gas under the ground. There is oil under the North Sea and under the Atlantic Ocean. Engineers keep finding new sources of oil. But there are some realities which cannot be avoided.
a) The quantity of oil under the ground and under the sea is not infinite. It will not last for ever.
b) As oil becomes rarer, it will become harder to extract. It will also become more and more expensive. It will therefore become more expensive than other sources of energy.
c) Oil and gas will always cause pollution and contribute to global warming.
Of course, there are also other truths:
d) Scientists are making new forms of oil, using plants.
e) Most of the oil that we eat comes from plants; and it is sometimes possible to make fuel from this oil. For instance, some types of fuel, called bio-fuels, already contain sunflower oil.
Sunflowers produce oil too; we use a lot of it for cooking.
In reality, the future will have to be a future without oil - or with very little oil.
Scientists are already developing cars, houses and plastics that do not use oil. Electricity will be the energy of the third millennium, but it will have to be clean electricity.
Today, electricity is produced in Britain in several different ways; some of it is produced using oil and gas; but already oil-burning power-stations are being closed, and gas has become much more expensive. Nuclear power-stations will be closed too, because they are very expensive and people do not want them.
Tomorrow's electricity will be made from from "renewable sources".
For the time being, gas will be an important source of energy. It is cleaner than oil, and easier to extract. There is also a lot more gas than oil under the ground! Gas can be used in cars and houses too. However a lot of the gas used in Britain and Europe comes from Russia; until the war in Ukraine, that did not seem to be a problem. Now Europeans have discovered that it is a big problem.
In the long term, all our energy will come from "renewable sources" - including water! The sun, the wind, the rivers and the oceans will give us all the energy that we need! It will be clean energy - with no pollution - and it will last for ever.
We are not there yet, however! The twenty-first century will have to be a century of change. People who are over 50 today are not going to see a world without oil and natural gas Those who are under twenty may perhaps do so...... if they live long enough. .
fuel: solid, gas or liquid that can be burned for energy - decade: period of 10 years - coal: a black rock that can be burned - keep: continue to - avoid: pass, not mention - infinite: endless - extract: take out of the ground - for instance: for example - in the long term: in the long distant future - power-station: a place where electricity is made - for the time being: for now, in the short term.
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Student Worksheet
Will there be Life after Oil ?
Modal verbs : will and others
Choose the most suitable modal verb in each of the following sentences: these sentences are not necessarily related to the article
1.
People who live in New York
see the Statue of Liberty.
2. You
pass your driving test before you
drive .
3. In 2100, people
be able to use oil as we do
today.
4. In 15 years’ time, people
use more electric cars than today.
5. I am 15 today, so I
still be alive in the year 2050.
6. If I buy a lottery ticket, I
win the jackpot. If I don’t,
I
Reusing information :
Complete this résumé of the article, putting appropriate words in the blanks
Oil is one of the most important of
in
today's world; but unless we finding more
and more, it will not for . In less than a
century, it will .
Most of the oil and gas we comes from the ground, but some comes from . But plants cannot produce all the oil we . In tomorrow's world, we will use oil and gas and more , but most of this will have to come from .
In the we will use a lot of , but later we will have to get our from natural forces.
Most of the oil and gas we comes from the ground, but some comes from . But plants cannot produce all the oil we . In tomorrow's world, we will use oil and gas and more , but most of this will have to come from .
In the we will use a lot of , but later we will have to get our from natural forces.
Ideas for teachers
Simple technical English► Introduction: Remember.... When you study an article in class, it is often useful to have students analyze the language and the structure of sentences. Often students are put off by articles because they imagine that they look hard — however easy they may really be.....
This article is technical; but it is not in difficult English.
► Will and modal verbs. This text is a good illustration of when to use "will" to form the future in English. Remember that will is by no means the only way to express the future in English. Will is used intensively in this article as there is a need to stress the future aspect of what is being stated.
For more on expressing the future, see A Descriptive Grammar of English: Modern English grammar by example - pages 10 - 13.
More details ISBN 979 - 8645611750. Available in hardcover, paperback or ebook..
► Oral expression: Discuss "oil" or "gas" with your students. What is it? Where does it come from? What do we use it for? Could we do without it? For teachers in Europe, the issue of gas supplies is of immediate vital interest. What is the problem, what is the cause of the problem? What are the solutions?(Pupils should learn do without, a useful prepositional verb).
If you talk about all these points in class, then the article should be very easy to follow.
Other ideas?
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Revised 2022 . Originally published in Freeway, the intermediate level English newsmagazine.
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