# Planning a Wind Farm Field Trip: answers and explanations

Testmigo Practice Test 5, Listening Part 3

Source: Written by Testmigo.

## Answer key

| Q | Answer | Proof |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 21 | pitch | there's a pitch system, which twists the blade to change its angle to the wind |
| 22 | vane | The flat fin behind it is the wind vane |
| 23 | generator | It's the generator, the big unit at the back, that actually makes the power |
| 24 | brake | It is a brake ... The brake's job is to hold the rotor still once it has stopped |
| 25 | yaw | That's the yaw drive. Y, A, W. |
| 26 | G | What's compulsory is the safety video on the company's website |
| 27 | F | Nobody but trained technicians goes inside the towers |
| 28 | H | seeing them stopped on really windy days |
| 29 | B | send the anemometer's wind data |
| 30 | E | So survey the residents there instead |

## Why these answers are right

**21. pitch.** Dr Grant explains that where each blade joins the hub there is a pitch system that twists the blade to change its angle to the wind. The label already prints system, so pitch is the single word, and Niamh confirms the label is the system's name.

**22. vane.** On the roof of the nacelle there are two instruments. Dr Grant says the flat fin at the back is the wind vane, which tracks which way the breeze is coming from. The diagram prints wind before the gap, so only vane is needed, and Josh sums up that the fin is the instrument for direction.

**23. generator.** Once the gearbox is ruled out, the tutor says it is the generator, the big unit at the back, that actually makes the power, where copper windings spin through a magnetic field. The numbered line points at that large box at the rear of the nacelle.

The why and the trap for questions 24 onwards are free with an account on the [answers page](https://testmigo.com/ielts/listening/planning-a-wind-farm-field-trip/answers).

## Transcript

**Announcer:** Part 3. You will hear two engineering students, Niamh and Josh, talking to their tutor, Dr Grant, about a field trip to a wind farm.

**Announcer:** First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 25.

**Announcer:** Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 25.

**Dr Grant:** Come in, both of you. So, the Fernley Edge trip is on the twelfth. Have you looked at the cut-away diagram the site sent?

**Niamh:** We have, but a few of the labels are missing, so we thought we'd fill them in with you before we go.

**Josh:** Can we start at the front? I'd assumed each blade was just bolted onto the hub at a fixed angle.

**Dr Grant:** Not on a modern turbine. Where each blade joins the hub, there's a pitch system, which twists the blade to change its angle to the wind.

**Dr Grant:** That's how the spinning speed is controlled. In a storm it can also swivel them edge-on so they stop catching the gusts. Engineers call that feathering.

**Niamh:** So the label's the name of the system, not feathering. Feathering is what it does.

**Dr Grant:** Exactly.

**Josh:** Then on the roof, right at the back, there are two instruments. Is the one with the little cups the wind vane?

**Niamh:** No, I think the cups are the anemometer. That measures how fast it's blowing.

**Dr Grant:** Niamh's right. The flat fin behind it is the wind vane. It tracks which way the breeze is coming from, so the whole machine can swing round to face it.

**Josh:** Okay, so the fin is the one for direction.

**Niamh:** Now, inside the nacelle. I'd written down that the gearbox is the part that makes the electricity.

**Dr Grant:** That's a common mix-up. The main shaft only goes round slowly, between eight and twenty times a minute, and the gearbox just speeds that up.

**Dr Grant:** It's the generator, the big unit at the back, that actually makes the power. Copper windings spin through a magnetic field inside it.

**Josh:** Right, generator at the rear. And what's the disc on the thinner shaft, between the gearbox and the generator?

**Niamh:** I'd guess an emergency stop, like the brakes on a car.

**Dr Grant:** It is a brake, but it doesn't work the way a car's does. The pitch system does the slowing down first.

**Dr Grant:** The brake's job is to hold the rotor still once it has stopped, so the technicians can do maintenance safely.

**Josh:** Last one. There's a ring at the very top of the tower, just under the nacelle. Is that a bearing?

**Dr Grant:** That's the yaw drive. Y, A, W. Motors swing the whole nacelle round, so the front keeps pointing into the breeze whenever it shifts.

**Niamh:** Oh, so that's what the information from the vane is for. Good, the diagram's finished.

**Announcer:** Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 26 to 30.

**Announcer:** Now listen and answer questions 26 to 30.

**Dr Grant:** Now, safety. Ms Adeyemi, the site engineer, has sent a leaflet, but it's mostly about parking.

**Dr Grant:** What's compulsory is the safety video on the company's website. You each have to go through it before the twelfth, or they won't let you on site.

**Niamh:** We'll do it this week. Do we need our own hard hats?

**Dr Grant:** No, they'll lend you hats and jackets. Just wear proper boots.

**Josh:** Will we get to climb up inside one of the turbines? I'd love to see a nacelle for real.

**Dr Grant:** I'm afraid not. Nobody but trained technicians goes inside the towers. You'll have a briefing in the site office and then walk along the track to the nearest turbine.

**Niamh:** We've each got a question for Ms Adeyemi. Mine's about the towers. I read they usually arrive in three sections and are assembled on site.

**Josh:** Mine's about why turbines stand still. They don't start until the wind reaches about seven to eleven miles an hour, so stopping when it's calm is no surprise.

**Josh:** What puzzles me is seeing them stopped on really windy days.

**Dr Grant:** Good one. The controller shuts them down once the wind goes above roughly fifty-five to sixty-five miles an hour, to protect the machine. Ask how often that happens there.

**Niamh:** For the write-up, I was going to compare what we see with the photos we take of the blades turning.

**Dr Grant:** Photos are fine as illustrations, but they won't prove much. Ms Adeyemi has offered to send the anemometer's wind data for the day of our visit. Compare your observations with that.

**Josh:** And for the section on local impact, I thought I'd interview the farmer who leases the land to the company.

**Dr Grant:** He's paid by the company, so he's hardly neutral. Besides, the main complaint round here is shadow flicker, the flashing shadow the blades cast when the sun is behind them.

**Dr Grant:** It can only be seen within about one point four kilometres of a turbine, and the nearest village is just inside that. So survey the residents there instead.

**Josh:** Fair enough, I'll draft a questionnaire.

**Announcer:** That is the end of Part 3. You now have 30 seconds to check your answers.

[Practice Planning a Wind Farm Field Trip](https://testmigo.com/ielts/listening/planning-a-wind-farm-field-trip)