1. More and more people, worldwide, have already or plan to build an earth-sheltered home.
2. An earth-sheltered home is more susceptible to the impact of extreme outdoor air temperatures, so you will feel the effects of adverse weather as much as in a conventional house.
3. Other disadvantages cited by the DOE include protection against the extremes of Mother Nature, such as high winds, hailstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes; less susceptibility to fire; lower insurance premiums; less maintenance; natural soundproofing; conservative use of land and natural resources.
4. A buried house provides maximum protection from only natural disasters.
5. Many claim that earth-sheltered homes are the only way to gain total privacy. Still others like having the ability to grow your food on top of your house.
6. The only answer is to have enough insulation so that the interior surface temperature of the walls equals the temperature of the air inside the house.
7. Obviously a Monolithic Dome can be sufficiently insulated to prevent condensation.
8. Some require that all sleeping spaces must have a window with specific dimensions that opens to the inside.
9. Cohesive soils, such as clay, and permafrost areas are least suitable for underground construction.
10. The DOE recommends appropriate testing and consultations with professionals for anyone interested in building an underground Monolithic Dome.
Exercise 6. Refer to the text and complete the sentences below:
1. An earth-sheltered home is less susceptible to the impact of extreme outdoor …
2. Other advantages cited by the DOE include less lower insurance premiums; less maintenance; natural soundproofing; conservative use of …
3. A buried house provides maximum protection from not only natural disasters but man-made ones, such as...
4. Many claim that earth-sheltered homes are the only way to gain total privacy. Still others like having the ability to grow your food on top of your house.
5. The most common cause for failure of underground houses is not gross heat escaping the structure but an interior surface temperature that allows...
6. The DOE says that soil type is another critical...
7. Cohesive soils, such as clay, and permafrost areas are least suitable for...
8. Other factors cited by the DOE include radon, an invisible, odorless radioactive gas produced naturally when uranium in rock…
9. For all these considerations, the DOE recommends appropriate testing and consultations with...
Exercise 7. Make dialogues. Discuss all possible advantages and disadsvantages of underground houses.
Exercise 8. Write a summary of the text.
TEXT2. MINING.
Mining is the process by which ores or related materials are extracted from the Earth. Ore is defined as a rock or mineral, generally metallic, which can be mined, processed, transported, and sold at a profit. Therefore, the classification of an Earth material as ore depends as much on economics and technology as geology. Nonmetallic substances that are commonly mined but not considered to be ores include coal, phosphate, and sand and gravel.
Mining can occur either at Earth's surface in strip mines or open pit mines, or beneath the surface in underground mines. The method used depends on the depth, lateral extent, and economic value of the rock being mined. The deepest underground mine on Earth, which is 2.4 mi (3.8 km) deep, is a South African gold mine. The open-pit Bingham Canyon Mine near Salt Lake City, Utah, is more than 2.5 mi (4 km) wide and more than 0.62 mi (1 km) deep. It is the largest man-made excavation on Earth. Excavation of the pit began in 1906 and has continued into the early twenty-first century, producing primarily copper with smaller amounts of gold, silver, and molybdenum.
Many metals occur in their native state or in readily accessible ores. Thus, the extraction and working of metals dates much further back in time than does the mining industry. Some of the earliest known mines were those developed by the Greeks in the sixth century B.C. As were mines for many centuries thereafter, the workers in these mines were slaves and prisoners of war. By the time the Roman Empire reached its peak, it had established mines throughout the European continent, in the British Isles, and in parts of North Africa. The first scientific description of mining operations was the book De Re Metallica by the Saxon physician Georgius Agricola (1494–1555). De Re Metallica, which remained an authoritative reference for nearly 200 years, was translated from Latin to English by mining engineer and former United States president Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) and his wife Lou Henry Hoover (1874–1944).
Underground mining involves the excavation of tunnels and rooms beneath Earth's surface. Compared to surface mining, underground mining is expensive and dangerous. Therefore, it is used primarily in situations where high-value ores such as gold are concentrated in narrow veins or other unusually rich deposits. Unlike surface mines, underground mines can also be excavated beneath bodies of water.
The vocabulary of underground mining has developed over several centuries. Shafts are vertical passages excavated downward from Earth's surface, whereas raises and winzes are vertical passages excavated upward and downward, respectively, between horizontal workings beneath the surface. An adit is a horizontal passage excavated into a hillside, whereas an incline is a sloping passage excavated inward from a hillside. Horizontal underground passages following the trend of the ore body are known as drifts. An open room beneath the surface is a stope and its roof is known as the back.
Underground mines are excavated using a variety of methods. Room-and-pillar mining is the excavation of large open rooms supported by pillars. Coal and rock salt (halite) are commonly mined using room-and-pillar methods. Longwall mining is a form of underground mining widely used in the coal industry. A coal seam is completely removed using specialized machines, leaving no support and allowing the overlying rock to slowly subside as the seam is mined. Open-stope mining, in contrast, consists of rooms without any supporting pillars. It is employed if the ore body is small or the rock is strong enough to withstand collapse into the stope. Sub-level caving and block caving involve the excavation of vertical chutes and horizontal passages beneath an ore body, which is then allowed to collapse into the openings under its own weight. Gloryhole mining is a term used to describe caving methods that result in the formation of a crater or depression on the surface above the mine.
Certain water-soluble minerals can be removed from the Earth by dissolving them with hot water piped into the ground under pressure. This practice is known as solution mining. The minerals dissolve in the hot water and then are carried to the surface. In the Frasch process, a system of pipes is sunk into a known deposit of sulfur at some depth under ground. Steam forced into one pipe melts the sulfur, which is then extracted in a liquid form through a second pipe.
Exercise 1. Translate the following words and word combinations from English into Ukrainian:
Strip mines
readily accessible ores
excavation of tunnels
surface mining
underground mining
shafts
vertical passages
raises and winzes
horizontal workings
adit
hillside
sloping passage
drifts
stope.
Exercise 2. Translate the following words and word combinations from Ukrainian into English:
Видобувати з надр, обробляти, транспортувати, отримувати прибуток, залежати від, економічна цінність, мідь, молібден, надзвичайно багаті родовища.
