B. Read the text and answer the following questions.
Sohan lives in a village in the south-west part of Bangladesh. Last night he could not sleep. His sister had her SSC exam next morning. She could not read either. There was load-shedding. The summer night being muggy and hot, life became hell without electricity. Most of their area remained dark for hours due to power shortage.
In May-June, temperature shoots up to 40 degree Celsius. With almost 90 percent of humidity in the atmosphere, it becomes all wet, damp and sticky. When you are busy fanning yourself all the time, how can you concentrate on studies? In the night it is impossible to sit down to study with a candle light or table lamp or hurricane lamp or a rural kerosene lamp. People simply come out of houses almost bare-bodied and sit in the open places. Some splash cold water on their faces. Fans remain unmoving, electric bulbs are off and it is dark everywhere. It is simply unbearable.
What is the reason of frequent load-shedding? Press reports say there is a shortage in electricity production. According to the Power development authorities, the demand for electricity a few years ago was more than 6,000 MW* a day while the supply remained around 4,200 MW. In the rural areas, the Rural Electrification Board (REB) could supply barely half of the total demand which was around 2,400 MW per day. In the capital city, the demand stood at around 1,400 MW while the supply amounted to 650 MW. As a result, load-shedding is unavoidable for the time being. But situation is improving very fast.
*MW is Megawatt which is a unit of power used to measure the output of a power station.
Questions
1 What happened to Sohan last night?
2 How was the summer night?
3 How is a summer day?
4 What happens during load-shedding in Sohan's area?
5 What do people use at night during load-shedding?
C. Complete columns B and C in the following table with the information from the above text in section B. Then calculate the shortage of electricity supply and write the results in column D.
A
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B
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C
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D
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Electricity
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Demand
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Supply
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Deficit
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Nationwide
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Rural area
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Capital city
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D. Complete the dialogue. Base the dialogue on the nationwide demand, supply and deficit of electricity shown in the table in section C.
X : What's the nationwide demand of electricity?
Y : It's…………….Megawatt per day.
X : How much can the Power Authority supply?
Y : They can supply only…………….Megawatt per day.
X : What's the deficit/How much is the deficit?
Y : Well, it's…………….Megawatt per day.
Now complete the following dialogues using the other information in the table.
I
X : What's the rural area's demand of electricity?
Y : It's…………….…………….
X : How much can the REB…………….?
Y : They…………….…………….
X : …………….?
II
Y : Well, …………….…………….
X : What's the capital city's…………….?
Y : It's…………….…………….
X : …………….?
Y : They…………….…………….
X : …………….…………….?
Y : Well, …………….
E. Do you think load-shedding causes the same kind of problems to people both in and outside the city? Discuss with your partner and make two different lists of problems caused by the long-time load-shedding, one in the city, and the other outside the city.
List of problems caused by load-shedding
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In the city
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Outside the city
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F. Write a letter to an editor of a national daily about the sufferings of the people caused by load-shedding in your locality.
If you want to read the next lesson of this unit please click the link below:
Lesson: 2 | Renewable energy sources -2
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