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Wait – what is 'fracking'? An energy vocabulary quiz.

Lang Lang/Reuters/File

Workers climb on an electricity transmission tower to repair the power grid in Baifeng town of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China.

The energy world is replete with buzzwords: "fracking," "tar sands," and "the grid." But what do they really mean? Test your energy literacy with the Monitor's energy vocabulary quiz.

February 28, 2013

• By David J. Unger Correspondent
  @dungerdunger

1. Combine the different kinds of oil and you've got 'peak oil,' right?

No, 'peak oil' is obtained from the rock exposed in mountaintop removal
No, 'peak oil' is the notion that the world's oil supply is limited, and production will peak and enter a terminal decline
No, 'peak oil' is a Wall Street term – used to describe a spike in oil futures
No, 'peak oil' describes the initial moment a source of oil is discovered

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