Conversation 2
M: Hi Diana, mind if I sit down?
W: Not at all, Jerry. How have you been?
M: Good. But I’m surprised to see you on the city bus. Your car in the shop?
W: No. I’ve just been thinking a lot about the environment lately. So I decided the air will be a lot cleaner if we all use public transportation when we could.
M: I’m sure you are right. The diesel bus isn’t exactly pollution free.
W: True. They’ll be running a lot cleaner soon. We were just talking about that in my environmental engineering class.
M: What could the city do? Install pollution filters in all their buses?
W: They could, but those filters make the engines work harder and really cut down on the fuel efficiency.
Instead they found a way to make their engines more efficient.
M: How?
W: Well, there is a material that’s a really good insulator. And a thin coat of it gets sprayed on the certain part of the engine.
M: An insulator?
W: Yeah. What it does is reflect back the heat of burning fuel. So the fuel will burn much hotter and burn up more completely.
M: So a lot less unburned fuel comes out to pollute the air.
W: And the bus will need less fuel. So with the saving on fuel cost, they say this will all pay for itself in just six months.
M: Sounds like people should all go out and get some this stuff to spray their car engines.
W: Well, it’s not really that easy. You see, normally, the materials are fine powder. To melt it so you can spray a coat of it on the engine parts, you first have to heat it over 10000 degrees and then, well, you get the idea. It’s not something you or I will be able to do ourselves.
23. What is the conversation mainly about?
24. Why did the woman decide to ride the city bus?
25. What is the new material? |
