Listen to the following utterances and fill in the gaps
Utterance 1
It's made with agricultural residues – 1) , not human 2) but agricultural: generally 3) , straw, and leaves, rice husks, 4) – carbon inferences (a fancy word for agricultural material that can be 5) ).
Utterance 2
The shredded 6) is pounded into 7) that look as large doughnuts. These briquettes burn far 8) and much cleaner than 9) . The Foundation has designed metal 10) presses that allow 11) to churn out a briquette every thirty seconds.
Utterance 3
Joy says it's always hard at first to 12) people who've always only used wood for 13) that a briquette made of plant waste is a 14) .
Utterance 4
There is some 15) or skepticism about «Will this work?» There is always a little bit of «Is this really gonna work? Isn't it going to be 16) ? Is it going to burn as fast and well as wood?»
Utterance 5
Not a 17) , says Richard, but enough to give them an escape from intense poverty. Joy says some briquette producers have 18) successful small businesses that have 19) off from their briquette making.
Utterance 6
The women we work with add 20) , change things, taught us about using eucalyptus to keep away mosquitoes – just are always 21) new things to the briquettes. That's made a brew real difference.
Utterance 7
But most African 22) remain overwhelmingly male-dominated. Richard says some men get 23) when women start earning more money than them and become 24) through making briquettes.
Utterance 8
What happens is, because you’ve kept the 25) down, you retain the aromas. Now you have this 26) smelling aroma. The neem tree is like Vicks VapoRub what you call it and the 27) comes off, without smoke.
After-listening questions
1. What are Richard and Joy Stanley? What did they establish?
2. What are biomass briquettes made of? What is the main property of those materials? Is human garbage suitable for that purpose?
3. What is the technology of making briquettes?
4. Are charcoal briquettes better than those made of agricultural waste?
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5. What device is used to make the production quicker?
6. What does the price of briquettes depend on?
7. Is it easy to convince people to use briquettes? What doubts do people usually have?
8. How much money do briquette producers earn?
9. How did briquette production influence the economy?
10. How good are African women in making briquettes? How does it influence their position in society?
11. How do some men react to their women's success? What example is given in that connection?
12. What is the example of African men and women remarkable ingenuity?
13. How good are neem tree briquettes?
14. What is the result of cooperation between the Stanleys and African people? What is the purpose of their work according to Richard?
READING
Briquette Boom Weakens Bite of Poverty for Many Africans (VOA, aud+)
By Darren Taylor
August 24, 2012
A few years ago, Richard Stanley received an invitation to a government-sponsored energy conference in a plush hotel in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. Jaded from attending such seemingly endless “talk shops,” the veteran American aid worker decided to turn things upside down.
Gasps, the uncomfortable shuffling of feet and stunned stares from suit-wearing state officials followed Richard’s entrance into the conference hall. With him was a posse of barefooted women, holes in their clothes and babies on their backs, who he’d driven to Lilongwe from a village on the outskirts of the city.
Richard recalled, “They sat on the floor of this posh hotel because they refused to sit on the chairs. On the floor in front of them they spread their bags….”
The women’s sacks were filled with “biomass briquettes” that Richard’s Legacy Foundation – an NGO he and his wife, Joyce, founded in 1994 – had taught them to make. Rather than him giving a bland power-point presentation, Richard wanted the villagers to tell Malawi’s government and energy experts with their own voices how these simple but unique objects had revolutionized their lives.
The briquettes are made from wastepaper and plant and agricultural waste that are combustible – including grass, straw, water hyacinths, maize and rice husks, peanut shells and potato and banana peels. Using a press, the shredded waste is pounded into briquettes that look like large doughnuts. They burn far longer and much cleaner than charcoal.
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“At the conference, one of these old women strode to the stage and eloquently demanded of the senior government officials present, including Malawi’s vice president, ‘We need you to acknowledge who we are and what we are doing because it is making a big difference in our community.’”
The woman then ordered everyone into the hotel parking lot, where she lit a briquette in a tiny jiko (stove) and brewed a pot of tea within minutes. The state officers were so impressed that they bought the women’s entire stock of the cooking fuel.
“The briquettes were disappearing as fast as the money was vanishing into these women’s skirts!” Richard remembered, laughing.
He added, “Then at the end of the conference, the old woman stood up again and asked the government officials for their conference documents. The organizer stood up and looked at her. He was trying to be condescending when he said to her, ‘I didn’t know you could read; I’m really impressed.’ She replied, ‘No, no. I want the paper for making briquettes. Thank you.’”
The anecdote says a lot about how important the briquettes have become in many communities across Africa, Richard noted.
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