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| 1 | |
Which of the following is not a key element of today's world energy problems? |
| | A) | The inevitable decline in an economical supply of oil, natural gas, and coal |
| | B) | The increasing demand for energy globally as world population and prosperity grow |
| | C) | The decreasing abundance of easily extractable uranium for nuclear power plants |
| | D) | Increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide |
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| 2 | |
An indication of the increasing prosperity of the collective world population is |
| | A) | the increasing ownership and use of cars in countries like China and India. |
| | B) | the decline over the past two decades in the percentage of the world's population that lives on the equivalent of one dollar or less per day. |
| | C) | the increasing consumption of energy, which, according to many estimates, will continue to grow over the next quarter century or more. |
| | D) | All of the above are indications of a rise in world prosperity. |
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| 3 | |
The most widely used source of commercial energy production worldwide is |
| | A) | nuclear fission. |
| | B) | oil. |
| | C) | natural gas. |
| | D) | coal. |
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| 4 | |
If present trends continue, which of the following sources will dominate commercial world energy consumption over the next quarter century? |
| | A) | Nuclear fusion |
| | B) | Nuclear fission |
| | C) | Coal |
| | D) | Oil |
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| 5 | |
A drawback of natural gas in the United States is |
| | A) | that although it is relatively clean and abundant, demand for it is decreasing given the "fear factor"—people are afraid of explosions of natural gas, especially once it is in liquefied form. |
| | B) | the fact that it produces much less energy per gram than coal. |
| | C) | that the largest producer of natural gas is China, and China refuses to sell their natural gas to the United States. |
| | D) | that much natural gas is shipped in liquefied form by sea, and at present there are only four terminals in the United States that can accept liquefied natural gas. |
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| 6 | |
Which of the following requires the most land area to satisfy the energy requirements of a medium size city? |
| | A) | Growing crops for conversion to fuel |
| | B) | Solar collectors |
| | C) | Wind turbines |
| | D) | Nuclear power |
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| 7 | |
The greenhouse effect is necessary for life on Earth because |
| | A) | without it Earth's surface would average –18 °C instead of 15 °C. |
| | B) | without at least 2% carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, plants could not photosynthesize properly. |
| | C) | without an adequate level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, rain clouds would not form and soon Earth would overheat. |
| | D) | the atmospheric pressure of greenhouse gases maintains a balance of incoming and outgoing cosmic rays. |
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| 8 | |
Due to increasing world temperatures over the last thirty years |
| | A) | the North Pole is now totally free of ice during the summer months. |
| | B) | sea levels have been rising on an average of 6.2 mm/year. |
| | C) | average global temperature is approximately 3.2 degrees higher today than it was a thousand years ago. |
| | D) | larges sections of the ice shelves surrounding Antarctica have broken up and drifted out to sea as icebergs where they eventually melt. |
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| 9 | |
Which of the following has not been attributed to global warming? |
| | A) | A decrease in lightening strikes worldwide |
| | B) | An increase in droughts in some regions |
| | C) | An increase in the frequency and severity of hurricanes and other tropical storms |
| | D) | A decrease, due to environmental change, of the number of species on Earth |
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| 10 | |
The carbon dioxide concentration in our atmosphere is currently what percent higher than any time in the last 650,000 years? |
| | A) | 17% |
| | B) | 27% |
| | C) | 35% |
| | D) | 42% |
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| 11 | |
In 2007, which of the following countries emitted the most carbon dioxide? |
| | A) | United Kingdom |
| | B) | China |
| | C) | United States |
| | D) | India |
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| 12 | |
In 2007, which of the following countries emitted the most carbon dioxide per person? |
| | A) | United Kingdom |
| | B) | China |
| | C) | United States |
| | D) | India |
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| 13 | |
Besides carbon dioxide, another significant (contributing 15% to global warming) and naturally occurring greenhouse gas is |
| | A) | nitrogen gas. |
| | B) | nitrous oxide. |
| | C) | the class of chemicals known as CFCs and HCFCs. |
| | D) | methane. |
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| 14 | |
In some regions the full impact of warming due to increased carbon dioxide has not yet been felt because |
| | A) | although the carbon dioxide has been released into the atmosphere, it generally takes five to ten years to be chemically activated. |
| | B) | the presence of smoke particles has formed a thin haze that partially blocks sunlight. |
| | C) | the melting of ambient ice particles in the upper atmosphere has had a reverse cooling effect. |
| | D) | destruction of the ozone layer has blocked UV rays, which in turn helps break down greenhouse gases. |
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| 15 | |
Concerning deforestation, which of the following statements is true? |
| | A) | A typical rainforest tree removes 22 kilograms of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. |
| | B) | Approximately 500,000 square miles of rainforest are destroyed annually. |
| | C) | Brazil has put a halt to large-scale deforestation. |
| | D) | Haiti is working to preserve the surviving 25% of its original rainforests. |
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| 16 | |
The world's largest producer of crude oil is |
| | A) | Russia. |
| | B) | Iran. |
| | C) | Saudi Arabia. |
| | D) | the United States. |
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| 17 | |
The world's largest importer of crude oil is |
| | A) | Russia. |
| | B) | Iran. |
| | C) | Saudi Arabia. |
| | D) | the United States. |
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| 18 | |
Which of the following statements concerning tar sands is false? |
| | A) | Tar sands in the past have often been uneconomical, but as demand for oil increases, this is changing. |
| | B) | Producing oil from tar sands releases over four times the amount of carbon dioxide that is released when the same amount of oil is produced from a conventional well. |
| | C) | Waste water that remains after producing oil from tar sands is too contaminated for further use. |
| | D) | Tar sands are difficult to mine, but once brought to the surface require little energy to convert to oil. |
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| 19 | |
Hybrid cars |
| | A) | are designed so that they can easily run on gasoline, ethanol, or natural gas. |
| | B) | are fueled by hydrogen, which is run through a fuel cell to produce a highly enriched natural gas. |
| | C) | have both gasoline engines and electric motors, and use regenerative braking to charge a set of batteries. |
| | D) | depend primarily on variable valve timing and a lean gasoline-air mixture to increase the mpg. |
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| 20 | |
Underground coal fires |
| | A) | are extremely difficult to put out and may burn for decades. |
| | B) | tend to be ignited when oil escaping from an old well leaks into a coal mine. |
| | C) | are fortunately a thing of the past; the last one was put out in 1961. |
| | D) | are found exclusively in China and Indonesia due to the lax environmental regulations in those countries. |
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| 21 | |
Sequestration refers to |
| | A) | various forms of carbon capture and storage, such as pumping carbon dioxide into old oil fields. |
| | B) | the placing of objectionable high-ash coal plants in the neighborhoods of economically disadvantaged people. |
| | C) | the use of daily tides to drive turbines and produce electric power that can be stored in large lithium batteries. |
| | D) | the process whereby catalytic converters remove pollutants from the exhausts of cars. |
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| 22 | |
Sometimes very hot steam is passed over coal |
| | A) | in order to cool the steam so that it can be reused in the production of oil from tar sands. |
| | B) | as a way to remove sulfur and arsenic impurities from the coal. |
| | C) | to separate out 99% pure hydrogen gas that can then be stored for later use in a fuel cell. |
| | D) | to produce a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen commonly referred to as syngas. |
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| 23 | |
Acid rain and acid snow |
| | A) | cause lake de-acidification as well as create a blue glow to sunsets. |
| | B) | can be up to, but no more than, five times more acidic than normal rainwater. |
| | C) | is produced in large part when sulfur contained in coal combines with oxygen during burning to produce sulfur dioxide, which in turn forms sulfuric acid when it combines with moisture in the atmosphere. |
| | D) | is found primarily in the high latitude polar regions during the winter when there is little sunlight to break down sulfur and nitrogen oxides, which are the primary components of acid rain and acid snow. |
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| 24 | |
Harnessing nuclear power to produce electricity |
| | A) | was first accomplished over half a century ago. |
| | B) | has an incredibly safe track record—indeed, there has never been a major accident at a commercial nuclear power plant. |
| | C) | is, given that there are some 443 reactors in 31 countries today, the single most widespread means of producing usable commercial energy. |
| | D) | is currently based on post–World War II fusion technology. |
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| 25 | |
Which of the following is not a renewable energy source? |
| | A) | Hydroelectric plants |
| | B) | Cap-and-trade systems |
| | C) | Tidal wave operations |
| | D) | Wind farms |
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| 26 | |
The Three Gorges Dam |
| | A) | is an enormous hydroelectric project on the Yangtze River, China, which will have a capacity of over 22 GW. |
| | B) | demonstrates the destructive aspects of large hydroelectric projects, such as flooding wide areas and turning once fertile river valleys into wastelands unfit for agriculture. |
| | C) | will continue to entail the relocation of millions of people as the river erodes its banks and the artificial lake becomes polluted. |
| | D) | All of the above are true. |
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| 27 | |
Geothermal energy |
| | A) | is an ancient technology that has fallen out of favor in recent years. |
| | B) | is currently used in several dozen countries and accounts for nearly 4% of the world's energy production. |
| | C) | cannot be applied in regions, such as Iceland, near tectonic plate boundaries because the underground temperature increase is too high and pipes set in the bedrock tend to buckle and melt. |
| | D) | is based on the principle that temperature increases with depth below Earth's surface, and furthermore, in some areas naturally occurring hot water can be extracted as an energy source. |
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| 28 | |
Which of the following is not a form of solar energy? |
| | A) | Photovoltaic cells |
| | B) | The Geysers power plant |
| | C) | The Mohave Desert array |
| | D) | The use of mirrors directing sunlight on pipes filled with oil |
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| 29 | |
Modern wind power |
| | A) | typically utilizes arrays of small "windmills" with blades on the order of 10 meters long placed on high hills and mountain tops. |
| | B) | is extremely controversial because the turbines are so noisy and ugly, and the turbines are too fragile to place offshore where they will be out of the way. |
| | C) | supplies electricity to fewer than a million households in the United States and shows no signs of growing anytime soon. |
| | D) | is currently the fastest growing source of clean energy. |
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| 30 | |
Tidal power and wave power |
| | A) | are, realistically, totally impractical. |
| | B) | combined, globally, accounts for less than 200 MW. |
| | C) | cannot use submerged turbines as they tend to clog with sand and silt. |
| | D) | while small on a global scale, can be applied locally to supplement other energy sources. |
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| 31 | |
Energy storage systems include |
| | A) | conventional and flow batteries. |
| | B) | electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen. |
| | C) | pumping water into high reservoirs and compressing air in sealed underground caverns. |
| | D) | all of the above. |
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| 32 | |
A significant drawback to the use of ethanol in the United States is |
| | A) | due to the fact that most U.S. ethanol is produced from corn, and given the amount of energy used to produce ethanol from corn, it is unclear that there is any energy savings or reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. |
| | B) | due to the fact that most U.S. ethanol is produced from sugar cane, and given the amount of energy used to produce ethanol from sugar cane, it is unclear that there is any energy savings or reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. |
| | C) | the fact that the United States government unfairly places a high tariff on exports and imports of sugar cane. |
| | D) | that ethanol causes a major increase in tailpipe pollution. |
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| 33 | |
Algae may "come to the rescue" |
| | A) | by being bred in special machines through which coal plant waste gas can be run, the algae removing sulfur dioxides. |
| | B) | by being bred to produce either hydrogen that can be used as a fuel directly, or oils that can be converted to diesel fuel. |
| | C) | by destroying damaged ecological landscapes polluted by uranium and coal mining. |
| | D) | when they gobble up unwanted carbon monoxide released by poorly tuned gasoline engines. |
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| 34 | |
Which of the following is not a good example of energy conservation? |
| | A) | Recycling aluminum and other metals, glass, and paper products |
| | B) | Switching from ethanol produced from sugar cane to corn-based ethanol |
| | C) | Improving the thermal insulation of buildings |
| | D) | Taking public transportation when possible instead of driving alone in an automobile |
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| 35 | |
Governments can help address the energy problem by |
| | A) | taxing carbon dioxide emissions. |
| | B) | developing cap-and-trade systems to regulate annual carbon dioxide emissions. |
| | C) | subsidizing alternative and clean energy sources. |
| | D) | implementing all of the above. |
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