▶ Your Answer :
Both the reading passage and the lecturer from the listening focus on the methods developed to make use of coal as an environmentally friendly energy source. While the reading passage suggests three ways that could make coal less detrimental to the environment, the professor from the lecture argues that all of these methods possess severe drawbacks. First of all, the lecturer opposes to the plausibility of conversion of coal into gas. According to the reading passage, coal could be transformed to a type of gas called syngas. Syngas is highly practical in the way that it emits no pollutant while burning thanks to its purity in the structure. However, the professor is doubtful if converting coal is a feasible solution. He insists that the process of heating during the converting uses fossil fuel, thus leading to another damage to the ecosystem. In addition to that, the lecturer claims that huge amount of water gets polluted as a result of removing impurities from the original coal. On top of that, the professor from the listening goes against the method of using static electricity. In the article, the author asserts that a charge can pull substances of dust from the pollutants of the smoke and trap them in a collection plate. On the contrary, the lecturer proposes that this practice is rather noneffective. This is due to the fact that the charged plate can only gather certain ashes other than green house gases. While it is true that this could help lessen the pollution, major gas pollutants like carbon dioxide are left to be released to the atmosphere. These gases possess much more damaging effect to the air of the Earth. Finally, the lecturer states the use of fabric filters are unrealistic. It is argued in the article that certain woven fabric bags could be used to collect liquid and solid wastes. These bags are placed on the vents of power stations, removing almost all harmful materials. On the other hand, the professor objects to this method of fabric filtering as it can't be a long-term solution. The fabric bags usually last for only a short period of time. Moreover, this practice needs large fans to direct the particles to the filter, making the efficiency of the energy drop drastically. In conclusion, the professor from the lecture counters all three methods proposed in the reading passage as a way of using coal without harming the environment. |