full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Rebecca J. Barthelmie and Sara C. Pryor: How do wind turbines work?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

First up, blade orientation. Wind turbines can be designed with their rotor on a vertical axis or a horizontal axis. Vertical blades can pick up wind coming from any direction, but with much less efficiency than horizontal axis rotors. Horizontal designs allow blades to capture the wind’s full force by trciankg the wind’s direction and tnirnug to face it. This turning psercos is called ynwaig, and older windmills achieved it through manual monitoring. Today, wind sensors and computer systems automatically ajsdut the blades with epxret pisircoen to cutprae as much energy as possible.

Open Cloze

First up, blade orientation. Wind turbines can be designed with their rotor on a vertical axis or a horizontal axis. Vertical blades can pick up wind coming from any direction, but with much less efficiency than horizontal axis rotors. Horizontal designs allow blades to capture the wind’s full force by ________ the wind’s direction and _______ to face it. This turning _______ is called ______, and older windmills achieved it through manual monitoring. Today, wind sensors and computer systems automatically ______ the blades with ______ _________ to _______ as much energy as possible.

Solution

  1. tracking
  2. yawing
  3. process
  4. turning
  5. adjust
  6. expert
  7. capture
  8. precision

Original Text

First up, blade orientation. Wind turbines can be designed with their rotor on a vertical axis or a horizontal axis. Vertical blades can pick up wind coming from any direction, but with much less efficiency than horizontal axis rotors. Horizontal designs allow blades to capture the wind’s full force by tracking the wind’s direction and turning to face it. This turning process is called yawing, and older windmills achieved it through manual monitoring. Today, wind sensors and computer systems automatically adjust the blades with expert precision to capture as much energy as possible.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
wind turbines 4
wind energy 3
rotational energy 3
wind turbine 3
kinetic energy 2
modern wind 2
horizontal axis 2
modern blades 2

Important Words

  1. achieved
  2. adjust
  3. automatically
  4. axis
  5. blade
  6. blades
  7. called
  8. capture
  9. coming
  10. computer
  11. designed
  12. designs
  13. direction
  14. efficiency
  15. energy
  16. expert
  17. face
  18. force
  19. full
  20. horizontal
  21. manual
  22. monitoring
  23. older
  24. orientation
  25. pick
  26. precision
  27. process
  28. rotor
  29. rotors
  30. sensors
  31. systems
  32. today
  33. tracking
  34. turbines
  35. turning
  36. vertical
  37. wind
  38. windmills
  39. yawing