Student Worksheet

In this lesson, you will complete a NAPLAN* style practice test. The test is in multiple-choice format.

Reading text

An Introduction to Hydro Tasmania

Hydro Tasmania provides electrical energy for the people of Tasmania, Australia’s island state. The word ‘hydro’ means ‘water’. Hydro Tasmania has thirty hydropower stations in Tasmania, along with two wind farms on mainland Tasmania and one on an island in Bass Strait. Hydro Tasmania catches the electrical energy from these sources and sends it to places where it is needed, to power people’s homes and businesses. The information below focuses on wind power production.

What is wind?

Wind is moving air. As the Earth turns, the sun heats up some parts of the land and sea more than others. The air above the heated parts is warmed, becomes lighter than the surrounding air and starts to rise. In other areas cool air sinks because it is heavier than the surrounding air. The air pushed out by the sinking cool air is drawn under the rising warm air, creating winds.

Wind will blow whenever there is a difference in air pressure – always from high to low pressure areas. Wind always starts the same way, whether gentle or with hurricane force.

How does wind make energy?

Wind has been used for thousands of years to move ships, pump water and drive machinery. Wind turbines are designed to turn the kinetic (moving) energy of the wind into electrical energy. Energy is generated in basically the same way as hydropower. Wind spins turbine blades. These blades spin a magnet inside a coil of conductor (called a generator). Because wind speed varies, wind turbines have a safety mechanism: if the wind gets too strong, special brakes will stop the blades from turning.

What makes wind power renewable?

Wind is generated from the heat of the sun, therefore it is not ‘used up’ after it has blown past a turbine; it continues to blow around the world. It is renewable because it can be used endlessly. Tasmania has a world-class wind energy resource – the island lies directly in the path of ‘The Roaring 40s’, the westerly winds that circle the Earth’s high southern latitudes.

When these winds reach the west coast of Tasmania, they have blown across the cooling Southern Ocean for thousands of kilometres since last touching warm land on the tip of the mountainous continent of South America.

Wind diagram

Look at the diagram and write the numbers from the diagram next to the correct labels below:

Reading questions

For questions 1 - 6, write TRUE or FALSE in the space provided.

For questions 7 - 20, write your answer as a), b) or c).

Vocabulary activity

Some of the terms and names in the Reading Text are shown in bold. Do you know their meanings?

Complete each statement by inserting the correct phrase from the box.
- One has been done for you.
- Make sure that the language in the phrase fits the rest of the sentence.
* Cross out the phrases as you use them.

PHRASES
stretch of ocean between Tasmania and mainland Australia.	means ‘in motion’.
north or south of the Earth’s equator.	dominated by mountains.
storm with violent winds.	among the best of its kind in the world.
a place or process from which something comes.	is based on the weight of the air.
can often do the job of many people.	blows from the west.
transmits heat or electricity.	is its largest land area.

9. When something is world-class, it is among the best of its kind in the world.

* This lesson plan is not an officially endorsed publication of NAPLAN’s creators and administrators - the ACARA body - but is designed to provide practice for the Australian Curriculum’s compulsory NAPLAN testing scheme.

Hydro Tasmania - Wind Power (NAPLAN Reading Practice)

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