EXAM PRACTICE TEST 6 Task 1. (5 points). Five sentences have been removed from the text. For questions 2-5 choose from the sentences A-F the one which best fits each gap. There is one extra sentence you do not need. THE CHERNOBYL DISASTER A By the end of 2006 it will be much stronger, though fingers may still need crossing in case of tornadoes or earthquakes. B If this is a problem for future generations to grapple with, the decommissioning of the other three reactors at Chernobyl is one for today. C The Chernobyl ghost will not be laid to rest until the plant has been transformed into an "ecologically safe system", as Ukrainian officials put it, and that will not be for a very long time. D Both people and scientists have lost hope to improve the situation. E The arch is a vast project "the largest movable structure to be built in the history of mankind", as one of those involved has called it. F To Mykhailo Khodorivsky, a member of a consortium which in the 1990s investigated ways of removing the fuel, this seems like storing up problems for the future. The Chernobyl disaster was not over when the sarcophagus took shape above the ruins of reactor number four in the summer and autumn of 1986. Nor will it be over when a new giant arch-as tall as St Paul's cathedral or the Statue of Liberty slides over the top of the sarcophagus three or four years from now. 1. There are currently three main obstacles on the path towards this goal: the lava like remains of the melted-down reactor, the spent fuel from the other three reactors, hundreds of leaking nuclear waste dumps. For the last decade, the main concern has been that the hastily built sarcophagus might collapse, blowing tonnes of highly radioactive dust into the surrounding forests and waterways. But work is now under way to shore up badly leaning walls, secure unsteady beams, and strengthen tilting supports under the plant's giant red and white chimney. 2. It's a measure of the urgency of these stabilization tasks, that they are being carried out despite plans to undo them again and dismantle most of the sarcophagusonce the new arch is in place, some time after 2008. 3. But critics argue it is a little more than a carpet to sweep the main problem under, because the fuel within the wrecked reactor will simply be left as it is. "The new, stable and environmentally safe structure will contain the remains of the reactor for at least 100 years", says a press release from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, which will disburse the 840 million euros (Sibn) the arch is expected to cost. "During (this) time an even longer-lasting solution to the Chernobyl problem must be found". 4. The arch will last for 100 to 300 years, while the fuel will remain deadly for thousands. "A new confinement is necessary, but it does not tackle the root of the problem", Mr. Khodorivsky says. "Our conclusion was that in 100 years the problem will not get simpler". For one thing, some of the plutonium will be decaying into americium, which is even more hazardous for health. "If nothing is done with the fuel, and the arch is contaminated from the inside, what do you do when it gets old?" he ask
s. "Build an even bigger one on top?"
5.​