The document discusses the weather and climate change. It provides vocabulary related to weather phenomena like blizzards, droughts, and floods. It discusses how the traditional formula that dry areas get drier and wet areas get wetter due to climate change is no longer universally valid, as some areas expected to get wetter have actually gotten drier, like parts of the Amazon, Central America, Africa and Asia. The document encourages learning about weather to start conversations and provides exercises to complete about weather topics.

1. The Weather
Level: Upper-Intermediate

2. What is so special about the weather?
• English speakers love to talk about the weather. It
is a way of breaking the ice (starting a
conversation). People talk about the weather on
the phone and in person. Friends and family talk
about the weather before they discuss what's
new. Co-workers talk about the weather before
starting a hard day of work. Even strangers
discuss the weather. Learn the proper vocabulary
and expressions, and you will find it easy to start
a conversation anytime and anywhere with
anyone you meet!

3. Preparatory task.
• Answer the following questions:
1) What's your favorite season and why?
2) Are there any special traditions associated with
different seasons in your country?
3) Have you ever been caught in bad weather? If
so, what did you do?
4) Do you have many disasters in you country
which are caused by weather?
5)Does weather influence your mood?

4. Study the words.
Avalanche - a dangerous slide of snow down a mountain.
Blizzard - a storm with lots of snow and wind.
Chilly – cold.
Drizzling - raining slightly.
Drought - a long period with no rainfall.
Flood - overflow of rain water.
Frostbite - a skin condition caused by over exposure to the
cold .
Lightning - electric flash caused by two clouds hitting.
Rainbow - a band of colours found in the sky after a rainfall.
Slush - snow on the ground that has been rained on.
Smog - heavy, dark cloud cover caused by pollution.

5. Watch the video and answer the
questions.
• http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/10000000
2980095/californias-extreme-drought-explained.
html
1) How much rainfall has California had this
year?
2) What are the consequences of the draught?
3) What is the other natural disaster California is
suffering from?
4) What is to be done to fight with draught?

6. Compare the two pictures.

7. Look at the graph and answer the
questions.
• 1) What does this graph
show?
• 2) What is the relation
between the rise in
temperature CO2
concentration?
• 3) When did the greatest
increase in t happen?
• 4) Why did the
temperature began to
rise?

8. Read the text and fill in the table.
The traditional formula on climate change that says that regions that have a moist climate will
experience additional rainfall is no longer valid, scientists say.
The old formula that dry gets drier and wet gets wetter (DDWW) is less universally valid than
previously assumed, stressed a team of climate researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (ETHZ) in Zurich.
“Our results emphasise how we should not overly rely on simplifying principles to asses past
developments in dryness and humidity. This can be misleading, as it cannot do justice to the
complexity of the underlying systems,” said Peter Greve from ETHZ and the lead author of the
study.
Traditional analyses using metrics could describe climate characteristics above the ocean,
but not over land.
In their new study, ETHZ researchers led by co-author Sonia Seneviratne, a professor for
land-climate dynamics, took into account the specific climatic properties of land surfaces where
the amount of available water is limited compared with the ocean.
For the study, they compared data from between 1948 and 1968 and 1984 to 2004 which
allowed them to extract trends in terms of a region’s humidity and dryness.
They found that there was no obvious trend towards a drier or wetter climate across three-quarters
of the land and only half of this surface area follows the DDWW principle.
Some regions which should have become wetter according to the simple DDWW formula
have actually become drier in the past — this includes parts of the Amazon, Central America,
tropical Africa and Asia, found the team.
However, the DDWW principle does still apply to the oceans, concluded the study that
appeared in the journal Nature .

9. Question Answer ( True/ False/ Non stated)
The formula on climate change is still valid
DDWW stands for Drought –durt-wildlife-wind
Metrics analyses couldn’t describe
climate over land.
The new study is based on climate
properties of flatlands.
In the course of the study the data from
1948 to 2004 were analyzed.
Central America and Asia should have
become drier.

10. Fill in the gaps with the words needed.
• The airplane couldn't take-off
because of the _________.
• On a _____ night you can see
a lot of stars.
• Forest fires are a serious
danger during a _______.
• The _______ was so bad, our
basement was full of water.
• Bring lots of water and wear a
hat to avoid _______ in this
weather.
• The roads are ______so please
avoid driving down any hills.
icy blizzard
drought
flood
starry
heatstro
ke
rainbow climate

11. Useful tips.
• This is the formula used to
count the world emission of
CO2.
• What might be the
consequences of excessive gas
emissions?
• What shall one do to stop it?
• Count how much gas you
emit!!

12. Homework.
1) Find a video about the weather or climate,
watch it and summarise it.
2) Write an essay on the following topic :” What
can I do to stop climate from changing?”

13. Thank you for your attention.