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ACHIEVE 2
UNIT 3 TEST

Alternative Energy: A Quest from the Past and a

Question for the Future
“Everyone’s talking about alternative energy,” said scientist
Dr. Brad Jackson at a recent conference on the environment.
“But it’s nothing new. Humankind has been searching for, and
finding, alternative sources of energy for thousands of years.”
5 What is alternative energy? Most researchers agree that
alternative energy is any kind of energy coming from sources
that don’t use up natural resources or harm the environment.
And, as Dr. Jackson suggests, coming up with alternative
sources of energy isn’t a new quest. One example is the
10 waterwheel. For thousands of years, humans used animals –
and their own muscles – to saw wood, crush grain and carry
out different industrial processes. With the invention of an
alternative source of energy, the waterwheel, around 200
B.C., productivity increased as both animal and human
15 energy was now free to be used for new purposes. The
windmill, invented in Persia 1,000 years later, had a similar
effect.
Coal is another ancient form of energy. For thousands of
years, the Chinese have used coal for heating and cooking.
20 Medieval Europeans used the “black stone” too, but preferred
heating and cooking with wood. Coal made the air too smoky.
Europeans only started using coal on a regular basis when
the trees in their forests had been used up. By 1800, coal and
its derivatives had largely displaced other sources of energy,
25 including wind, beeswax, water and even whale oil. Said Dr.
Jackson, “It was dirty, though. London 200 years ago was
nearly uninhabitable because of the black smoke
everywhere.”
In the 1860s and 1870s, a Frenchman named Augustin
30 Mouchot spent considerable time working on a “solar cooker,”
hoping to find a way to use the sun’s energy for industrial
purposes. He said in 1880, "Coal will undoubtedly be used
up. What will industry do then?"

photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2011

 New sources of alternative energy continue to be found, and
35 old ones like solar and wind power improved, but Dr. Jackson
is concerned: “We can’t continue to be irresponsible with the
planet. With global warming and climate change, will we have
enough time to develop the sources of energy we need?” It’s
going to be hard, but mankind has found alternatives in the
40 past. Let’s hope we can keep finding solutions in the future.

5 photocopiable © Oxford University Press 2011

 Read the text again. Choose the correct answers.
1 Why does Dr. Jackson say that alternative energy isn’t new?
a) Because alternative energy doesn’t use up natural resources or harm the
environment.
45 b) Because the waterwheel and the windmill are new sources of alternative energy.
c) Because humans have been using alternative energy sources for thousands of
years.
d) Because humans have used up all the sources of alternative energy available to
them.
50 e) Because only the windmill is still being used as an energy source today.

2 How did the waterwheel change human society?

a) It forced humans to use their own muscles instead of relying on machines.
b) It gave both animals and humans some freedom to do other things.
55 c) It helped the Persians invent the windmill later.
d) It sawed wood and crushed grain, things that had never been done before.
e) It helped decrease productivity for both humans and animals.

3 Why did medieval Europeans resist using coal for heating and cooking?
60 a) It didn’t heat or cook as efficiently as wood.
b) It didn’t make their homes and their cities uninhabitable.
c) It took up too much room in their homes.
d) It heated and cooked much more slowly than wood.
e) It made their homes dark and full of smoke.
65
4 What caused Augustin Mouchot to invest his time and energy in the solar cooker?
a) He wanted to find a source of energy that was an alternative to the waterwheel.
b) He wanted to cook his food over something cleaner and less smoky than coal.
c) He was interested in finding alternatives to wind power.
70 d) He was worried that there soon wouldn’t be enough coal for industries.
e) He wanted to use the sun’s energy for heating and cooking in homes.

5 Why is Dr. Jackson concerned about the future of the planet?

a) He thinks we’ve been responsible with the planet in the past, but we won’t be in the
75 future.
b) He doesn’t believe we can find any solutions to our energy problems.
c) He’s not sure we’ll have enough time to come up with alternative sources of energy.
d) He is optimistic about climate change and global warming.
e) He knows we can keep finding good solutions to our energy problems.
80
Circle the correct alternatives.
6 Europeans ___ coal as their primary source of energy until inventors and scientists
found new solutions.
a) have used
85 b) use
c) are using
d) can use
e) had used
 90 7 By the time the United States ___ a strong interest in producing ethanol, Brazil had
been a producer of it for many years.
a) expressed
b) will express
c) can express
95 d) expresses
e) has expressed

8 Until scientists started talking about global warming, most people ___ much about
the damage their cars and industries were causing.
100 a) won’t know
b) hadn’t known
c) don’t know
d) haven’t known
e) can’t know
105
9 When the price of gasoline becomes ___ expensive, Brazilians can fill their cars with
ethanol.
a) too much
b) not enough
110 c) not too
d) too
e) enough

10 In the next few years, we’ll have to ___ new sources of energy to replace the
115 harmful ones we have now.
a) come up with
b) break down
c) finding out
d) put it forward
120 e) working on

125

130
A001153

135
 Answer Key
1 c)
140 2 b)
3 e)
4 d)
5 c)
6 e)
145 7 a)
8 b)
9 d)
10 a)