Unit 29

UNIT 29 WORD LIST automobile An automobile is a car. The first automobiles were very different from the ones that exist today. candidate A candidate is a person who is competing to win something such as a job. Alice is the best candidate for the job. confidential If something is confidential, it must be kept secret. The information from the meeting is confidential. corporate If something is corporate, it is related to a large business. Tom enjoys working in the corporate world. enhance To enhance something is to make it better. Amy's blue shirt really enhances the color of her eyes. era An era is a period of time that has something special about it. During the medieval era, knights wore protective armor. guideline A guideline is a rule about how to do something. Before they began the project, the teacher gave them some guidelines. incorporate To incorporate is to add something to another thing. I decided to incorporate a new ingredient into my cake recipe. interact To interact is to talk to or do something with another person. The kids began to interact when the adults left the room. interval An interval is the time between two things happening. Tony rested for brief intervals while he worked in the yard.

mobile If something is mobile, it can be moved easily. Mobile phones are convenient because you can use them anywhere. modify To modify something is to change it a little bit. I modified my outfit by adding a belt to it. parallel If two things are parallel, they are the same distance away from each other (along their entire length). There are two yellow parallel lines dividing both sides of traffic. phenomenon A phenomenon is something that can be seen as it is happening. I thought the lights were a strange phenomenon, but they were just shooting stars. pollute To pollute means to make air, water, or land dirty, unclean, or foul. The careless factory polluted the river with chemicals. ridicule To ridicule is to make fun of something in a mean way. The other students ridicule Peter's foreign accent. solar If something is solar, it is related to the sun. Using solar energy is good for the environment. territory A territory is a piece of land that belongs to a country but isn't a state. Gibraltar is a territory of Great Britain. tournament A tournament is a competition, usually with many people participating. My dad is playing in a golf tournament tomorrow. transportation Transportation is any type of vehicle that can carry people or things. I don't have a car, so my normal transportation is the train.

The Solar Car Race We live in a mobile society. But the cars we drive require too much gas, plus, they pollute the air. Eventually, the natural resources used to make gas will run out. So, what happens then? Many people think solar-powered automobiles are the answer. To learn more about this type of transportation, teams from universities and corporate organizations gather in Australia every two years for a solar car race. The race is called the World Solar Challenge. Candidates for this tournament must design their own cars. The teams keep all their plans confidential. They don't interact with other teams because the race is very competitive. And these cars aren't just enhanced and modified versions of normal cars. They are completely different. The cars only have room for one person and are very simple inside—they don't even have a cushion for the driver to sit on. These cars are shorter and much more flatter normal cars. Most importantly, the outside of the cars incorporate solar panels that lie parallel to each other. These panels are made from materials that take in light from the sun and turn it into electric energy. The cars use this energy to move. These cars race over 3,000 kilometers across the Australian territories. The drivers have to follow strict guidelines. They must stop at certain intervals to charge their batteries. And unlike normal race cars, they can't go very fast. They have to drive at the normal speed limits. Although the drivers want to finish the race quickly, that is not the main goal. The objective is to see how well the cars work under normal driving conditions. Because of the World Solar Challenge, a new era in car making and driving is beginning. People may ridicule the solar cars because they look strange, but this is a phenomenon that isn't going away. Using the technology from the vehicles, car makers will eventually create solar cars for the rest of us.