墨尔本PTE素材库——Nuclear Dump

墨尔本PTE素材库——Nuclear Dump

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这篇文章针对南澳将要接受核废弃品事件，展开讨论。南澳干燥，政治稳定，同时也远离地震带，相对而言是比较适宜安置核垃圾的地点。同时，也能给洲政府带来不少的财政收入。同时，核废弃物也可再利用，产生能量发热发电，甚至进行学术研究。但，依然有人为安全性担心不已。

这篇文章内容是常考的科学内容，非常适合做retell the lecture的练习。当中涉及的词汇，你都会吗？所涉及到的知识，你都熟悉吗？

澳大利亚语言学院整理的墨尔本PTE素材库，旨在帮助各位PTE考生整理一些可以用作PTE考试题型练习的素材，可以帮助大家提升dictation、re-tell lecture、Summarize  spoken text 等等题型的能力哦！PTE市面上的素材并不多，练习的题目也不多，所以AIL整理的这些PTE素材库，真的是帮助非常大的哦！

【Key vocabulary】

Nuclear waste 核废料

Uranium n. 铀

Radiation n. 辐射

Radioactive adj. 放射性的

Full Transcript

Now to a big issue out of South Australia. A Royal Commission there has recommended that the state become the first in Australia to house a nuclear waste dump. The report found that the dump would make SA a lot of money but some people are really concerned about it. Here’s both sides of the debate.

This is where household waste goes. This is where organic waste goes. And this is where human waste goes. But where does nuclear waste go? OK, that’s probably not a question you’ve ever actually asked before, but it’s something a lot of people are talking about at the moment.

MARK PARNELL, GREENS: Is the best we can do for ourselves and next generations to become the world’s nuclear waste dump?

TOM KENYON, LABOR: I think we should do it, and if we don’t, we’ve got no one to blame for ourselves for our future.

Nuclear waste is the stuff left over from power plants like this, which turn nuclear fuels, like uranium, into heat and electricity! While we don’t have any nuclear power plants here in Australia, there are hundreds around the world.

And the waste they create needs to be put somewhere, really, really safe. See, long after it’s been used for fuel, nuclear waste releases a type of energy called radiation. That radiation can harm or even kill, and can last for many thousands of years. That’s why nuclear waste needs to be stored in very safe places, away from people, and often far underground. But where?
Well a new report’s found that ‘where’ could be in South Australia. It’s considered a good spot because it’s dry, fairly empty in some areas, politically stable and earthquakes aren’t really a risk.

The report also says that if we did build a specially designed dump, it could hold 13% of the world’s radioactive waste. And doing so could earn South Australia some serious cash, more than $5 billion dollars a year once it’s set up.

But some are really worried about the idea. Even though the dump would have to be built and run safely, they don’t like the idea of one being anywhere near them. Others worry about the danger involved in transporting the waste to the dump. And some just don’t think it would be as profitable as expected. At the moment, Australia doesn’t accept nuclear waste from other countries. And while we do actually store some of our own already, used in things like medicine and research, in the grand scheme of things, it’s nothing like what’s being talked about here.

The South Australian government hasn’t made a decision about building the dump yet. And the report suggests getting support from the community is really important if it’s to go ahead.

So what do you think about the idea?

BOY: I think it’s good because we can get quite a bit of money from it and the tax could possibly go down since all the money.

GIRL: I think it’s a bad idea because people living in South Australia won’t want it because it’s radioactive and if the storage unit breaks the whole of South Australia’s goings to be affected.

BOY: I think it’s good because we’re getting a lot of money for it and that could be really helpful for our community.

GIRL: I think it would be bad, because it would give South Australia a bad name for being the place that keeps nuclear waste, and I also think it would be bad because of the risk of a leakage, which would be terrible if it got into a water source or a food source.

(Source: http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s4409211.htm)