GEOGRAPHY: TRAVEL TO PORTO

GEOGRAPHY: GLOSSARY UNIT 8

Mechanization: The use of machinery in the production process

Mining: The process of extracting minerals from the ground

Mineral: a naturally occurring solid chemical substance such as bauxite. Most minerals need to be transformed to enable them to be used for manufacturing products

Fossil fuels: fuel that is formed by the decomposition of buried organic material, and exposure to heat and pressure, producing substances such as coal, oil and gas.

Industry: any economic activity that produces a service or transforms raw material into consumer goods.

Irrigated farming: is the artificial application of water to the land or soil.

Energy: power that comes from the utilization of physical or chemical resources to provide light and heat or to work machines.

Biomass: organic material used as a fuel that releases energy when burned

Management: the people that run a company and ensure that goods and services of a high enough quality are produced and sold at competitive prices.


Workforce:  the employees required to produce goods and services.

Wind turbine: a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy to drive machinery or generate electricity.

Solar panel:  is a set of solar photovoltaic modules electrically connected and mounted on a supporting structure.

Renewable energy: is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are naturally replenished on a human time-scale such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat.  

Non-renewable energy: is a resource that does not renew itself at a sufficient rate for sustainable economic extraction in meaningful human time-frames.

Traditional energy: refers to the energy sources that are most commonly used

Alternative energy: is any energy source that is an alternative to fossil fuel. These alternatives are intended to address concerns about such fossil fuels.

Dam: is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams.

Guild: is an association of artisans or merchants who control the practice of their craft in a particular town. 

Heavy industry: does not have a single fixed meaning as compared to light industry. It can mean production of products which are either heavy in weight or in the processes leading to their production.

Light industry:  is usually less capital intensive than heavy industry, and is more consumer-oriented than business-oriented (most light industry products are produced for end users rather than as intermediates for use by other industries).

Cutting-edge industries: industries that employ advanced technology

Craftspersons: a person who makes products using basic tools and manual labour.

THE PRINTING PRESS

This invention was created by Johannes Gutenberg around the year 1450. This useful object is used for the reproduction of text or images on paper or similar materials.

Gutenberg bet that he could make a copy of the Bible in less than half the time  than it took to copy the faster copyist monk of all the Christian world and that they don't differentiate at all of the handwriting by him