full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Joseph Goffman: Whatever happened to acid rain?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In 1963, scientists stnuiydg Hubbard borok Experimental Forest in New Hampshire made a shocking discovery. Their most recent rainfall salpems were nearly 100 times more acidic than usual. At these levels, additional downpours of acid rain would destroy the region’s marine and arboreal ecosystems in a matter of decades. Urgently shainrg their findings with fellow researchers, they were determined to answer two questions: what was causing this deadly rainfall? And what could be done to stop it?

Rain is never just composed of water. Chemicals and particulates in the atmosphere can be found in every drop, and some compounds— like carbon dioxide— make even rgualer rainfall slightly aiicdc. But this pales in comparison to the powerful acids pcrdeuod when water interacts with oidexs of nitrogen or sulfur dioxide. On the pH scale which measures acidity, each whole number is 10 times more acidic than the one above it. And where normal rain has a pH of roughly 5.4, rain that’s interacted with these gesas can rank as low as 3.7. Oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dxiidoe can appear naturally as a short-lived bprdyouct of volcanic eruptions or lightning strikes. But power patlns, refineries, and vehicles that use fossil flues consistently pump large quantities into the air.

Open Cloze


In 1963, scientists ________ Hubbard _____ Experimental Forest in New Hampshire made a shocking discovery. Their most recent rainfall _______ were nearly 100 times more acidic than usual. At these levels, additional downpours of acid rain would destroy the region’s marine and arboreal ecosystems in a matter of decades. Urgently _______ their findings with fellow researchers, they were determined to answer two questions: what was causing this deadly rainfall? And what could be done to stop it?

Rain is never just composed of water. Chemicals and particulates in the atmosphere can be found in every drop, and some compounds— like carbon dioxide— make even _______ rainfall slightly ______. But this pales in comparison to the powerful acids ________ when water interacts with ______ of nitrogen or sulfur dioxide. On the pH scale which measures acidity, each whole number is 10 times more acidic than the one above it. And where normal rain has a pH of roughly 5.4, rain that’s interacted with these _____ can rank as low as 3.7. Oxides of nitrogen and sulfur _______ can appear naturally as a short-lived _________ of volcanic eruptions or lightning strikes. But power ______, refineries, and vehicles that use fossil _____ consistently pump large quantities into the air.

Solution


  1. samples
  2. sharing
  3. brook
  4. gases
  5. fuels
  6. plants
  7. regular
  8. studying
  9. byproduct
  10. dioxide
  11. oxides
  12. acidic
  13. produced

Original Text


In 1963, scientists studying Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire made a shocking discovery. Their most recent rainfall samples were nearly 100 times more acidic than usual. At these levels, additional downpours of acid rain would destroy the region’s marine and arboreal ecosystems in a matter of decades. Urgently sharing their findings with fellow researchers, they were determined to answer two questions: what was causing this deadly rainfall? And what could be done to stop it?

Rain is never just composed of water. Chemicals and particulates in the atmosphere can be found in every drop, and some compounds— like carbon dioxide— make even regular rainfall slightly acidic. But this pales in comparison to the powerful acids produced when water interacts with oxides of nitrogen or sulfur dioxide. On the pH scale which measures acidity, each whole number is 10 times more acidic than the one above it. And where normal rain has a pH of roughly 5.4, rain that’s interacted with these gases can rank as low as 3.7. Oxides of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide can appear naturally as a short-lived byproduct of volcanic eruptions or lightning strikes. But power plants, refineries, and vehicles that use fossil fuels consistently pump large quantities into the air.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
acid rain 5
sulfur dioxide 4
power sector 2
power plants 2


Important Words


  1. acid
  2. acidic
  3. acidity
  4. acids
  5. additional
  6. air
  7. answer
  8. arboreal
  9. atmosphere
  10. brook
  11. byproduct
  12. carbon
  13. causing
  14. chemicals
  15. comparison
  16. composed
  17. consistently
  18. deadly
  19. decades
  20. destroy
  21. determined
  22. dioxide
  23. discovery
  24. downpours
  25. drop
  26. ecosystems
  27. eruptions
  28. experimental
  29. fellow
  30. findings
  31. forest
  32. fossil
  33. fuels
  34. gases
  35. hampshire
  36. hubbard
  37. interacted
  38. interacts
  39. large
  40. levels
  41. lightning
  42. marine
  43. matter
  44. measures
  45. naturally
  46. nitrogen
  47. normal
  48. number
  49. oxides
  50. pales
  51. particulates
  52. ph
  53. plants
  54. power
  55. powerful
  56. produced
  57. pump
  58. quantities
  59. rain
  60. rainfall
  61. rank
  62. refineries
  63. regular
  64. researchers
  65. roughly
  66. samples
  67. scale
  68. scientists
  69. sharing
  70. shocking
  71. slightly
  72. stop
  73. strikes
  74. studying
  75. sulfur
  76. times
  77. urgently
  78. usual
  79. vehicles
  80. volcanic
  81. water