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.

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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