I.                    How often do you have to explain / describe how something works in your
discipline? What was it you had to describe this way last time? Are pictures/ diagrams important in
such situations?


II.                  Look at the picture of a hydropower plant and try to label it with the words
given. There are 3 words too many

magnets, transmission lines, transformer, intake, waterfall, forebay, turbine, generator, headpond,
tailrace, penstock hydropower station, ss.jpeg adapted from: http://www.nbpower.com/html/en/safety
  seen on May 20, 2012


III.                Listen to the recording and check your answers


IV.               Listen to it again and complete the script with what you can hear.

170 000 cubic metres of water will pass here every minute, and almost 60 kmph, that’s enough water
to fill about a hundred thousand 1_______________________ every day. Standing here you can actually
feel the power of the water. Harnessing that power is what hydroelectric stations have been
designed to do for over a hundred years on Ontario. In essence, they’re factories that convert the
energy of falling water into the 2_______________________, or what is commonly called the
electricity; the electricity that powers the province.

Most hydroelectric stations use either water diverted around the natural 3_____________________,
such as a waterfall, or a dam is built across a river to raise the water level and provide the drop
needed to create the 4________________. Water at the higher level is collected in the forebay. It
flows through the plant intake into a pipe called a penstock, which 5________________ to a turbine
water wheel at the lower water level. The water pressure increases as it flows down the penstock.
And it is this pressure and flow that drives the turbine that is connected to the generator.

Inside the generator is the rotor that is spun by the turbine. Large 6_______________ are attached
to the rotor located within the 7__________________________ called the stator. As the generator
rotor spins the magnets, a flow of electrons is created in the coils of the stator. This produces
electricity, and can be stepped up in voltage through the 8_________________, and set across
9__________________.

The falling water, having served its purpose, exits the generating station to the tailrace, where
10________________________ of the river, to continue the cycle of creating the clean, renewable
energy for Ontario.


V.                 Text analysis.

a)      Now go over the second, third and fourth paragraphs of the text again and underline in a
different manner what happens and where.

b)      Descriptions of process very often contain verbs of movement. Can you identify them in the
text?

c)      Process descriptions often contain sequence adverbs to help the reader/listener orientate
in the successiveness of the steps performed. Enrich paragraphs 2-4 with chosen by you sequence
adverbs (Process Description document in IS)

VI.             Practice. Now draw your own picture and with your own words describe how something
relating to your field of study works/behaves.

Refer to the picture to facilitate the understanding of your potential audience. Have an
introductory sentence, use phrases from the process description paper.


VII.          HOMEWORK: Grammar revision – transition phrases

Sources:

 www.wikipedia.org

http://www.lenntech.com

http://www.nbpower.com

http://www.darvill.clara.net