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Remember those orange juice commercials? The ones where people tried to poke a rolling
orange with a straw? It's easy to think of the oil drilling process like that: Difficult to find the
bullseye for the straw, but just a matter of sucking up the juice once it's stuck. Unfortunately, the
whole thing is considerably more complicated -- and dangerous.
The process begins by drilling a hole deep into the earth. To do this, a long bit attached to a
"drilling string" is used. The bit varies in diameter from five to 50 inches. After each section is
drilled, a steel pipe slightly smaller than the hole diameter is dropped in and often cement is used to
fill the gap.
This "casing" is used to give some structural integrity to the hole and to isolated high-
pressure areas of rock that can explode if allowed to release.
The drilling process is, not surprisingly, unlike using a power drill on a piece of wood. The
most prominent difference is that the he hole is filled with "mud" -- a mixture of fluids, solids and,
chemicals -- that lubricate the bit and help move the broken rock out of the way.
As the bit moves deeper, new sections of pipe are added to the "string." These are screwed
on to the topdrive at the surface in a process known as "making a connection."

Speaking Section

11 Make up a dialogue on the following situation and talk to your friend. Let one of your group
mates translate the dialogue consecutively.

You are visiting a drilling rig. Ask your guide to give you general information about oilwell
drilling, drilling rigs etc.

Grammar Section
The Article

Articles in English are invariable. That is, they do not change according to the gender or number of
the noun they refer to, e.g. the boy, the woman, the children

'The' is used:

to refer to something which has already been mentioned.

An elephant and a mouse fell in love.
The mouse loved the elephant's long trunk,
and the elephant loved the mouse's tiny nose.

when both the speaker and listener know what is being talked about, even if it has not been
mentioned before.

'Where's the bathroom?'
'It's on the first floor.'

3. in sentences or clauses where we define or identify a particular person or object:

The man who wrote this book is famous.
'Which car did you scratch?' 'The red one.
My house is the one with a blue door.'

4. to refer to objects we regard as unique:

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