Technical English - Unit 8: Projects
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UNIT 8: PROJECT
Recorder 20
Hello and welcome to the new Visitors Centre at the Three Gorges Project. The Centre was opened in 2009. Many visitors ask why the TGP was constructed, so we hope that this short talk will give you some general information.
In the past, the Yangtze River used to flood every year, particularly in the flood months between May and September. These floods caused thousands of deaths every year, as well as destroying houses, businesses and farmland . So, this was one reason for constructing the TGP, which has eliminated flooding and loss of life.
Since the dam was completed , this has brought a further advantage, since it's now possible to regulate the flow of water through the three gorges, and to even out the water flow during the 12 months of the year. At the earliest planning stage, an important aim of the project was the generating of electricity.
Two power plants were constructed , one on each side of the river, with a combined capacity of 18,200 MW, the largest in the world. The area covered by the present reservoir once included two cities and 116 towns. About 1.1 million people had to be resettled as the waters of the reservoir began to rise.
Many thousands of the displaced persons chose to emigrate to other cities in search of employment. Those that chose to remain in the gorges have all been re-housed , and many new towns have been built for this purpose.
These new settlements have been well laid out by providing grassy open spaces around the five-storey housing blocks. The people who have moved there appreciate the quality of their new housing, which is superior to the simple houses that they had before.
Finally, because this huge new dam lies close to an earthquake zone, many visitors ask questions about the safety of the TGP. In fact , the dam has been constructed to a high specification in order to withstand earthquake shocks. Thank you for listening. To hear some statistics about the Three Gorges Project, press '7' .
Recorder 20
Here are some statistics about th e Three Gorges Project. The scale of the Three Gorges Dam is enormous, and huge quantities of rock and concrete had to be moved during th e construction phase. 103 million cubic metres of earth and rock were excavated and moved. 32 million cubic metres of earth and rock were moved for filling.
A total of 28 million tonnes of concrete was mixed , transported and poured. Massive quantities of metalwork were used on the project, including 462,300 tonnes of rebar. There was also a large requirement for general metalwork, for things like gates, beams, and so on.
This totalled 256,500 tonnes. The total volume of the dam is estimated at 12 million cubic metres. It' surprising, not that the TGP took so long to construct, but that such a huge project was completed in such a short period, just 17 years. Work on this dam, the largest in the world, started in 1993 and was completed on schedule in 2009. During its construction, about 20,000 people were involved in building the dam.
The dimensions of this dam are as follow's: it has a maximum height of 181 metres and is 2,309 metres long; in other words, it is over two kilometres in length. To build such a huge dam, it was first necessary to construct nine concrete batching plants, for the mixing of the concrete.
These had a very large production capacity, and when all nine plants were working, they had the capacity to produce 2,400 cubic metres of concrete per hour. In fact, in one month, these nine batching plants broke a recort they produced 553,000 cubic metres of concrete, that's over half a million cubic metres, in one month!
Finally, behind the massive Three Gorges dam lies the reservoir, which covers an area of 1,084 square kilometres. The reservoir is 660 kilometres long. To return to the main menu, press '0'.
Recorder 22
First syllable stressed: Second syllalble stressed:
cylinder continuously
drilling directional
pipeline hydraulic
stabilise obstruction
travelling stability
turntable sufficient