Vocabulary Task
Script and Answers
1. A: Terrible day, isn’t it? I don’t feel like doing anything.
B: You must be under the weather. It is depression that you are suffering from.
A: That’s rubbish. You’re exaggerating.
B: Don’t fidget. Even some celebrities have struggled with depression. Taking anti-depressants could make a difference.
2. A: Look at all that frost on the lawn. It’s so beautiful!
B: That’s the work of the Seven Sisters. They are shedding off icicles they brought from the earth.
A: What? Seven Sisters? I’m put in a fog! Frost is formed out of water vapor in the air when the temperature drops below freezing.
B: Just kidding! Sometimes water vapor may change directly to ice without going through this liquid state of frost first.
3. A: Where is Tom? I remember you two have always been together.
B: We used to do things together but not any more. He is simply a fair weather friend.
A: No, he’s not like that, is he? What did he do?
B: He didn’t do anything but he hasn’t turned up ever since my business went into bankruptcy.
4. A: Ben looks exhausted. What has he been doing?
B: You can tell. Influenza completed its west-to-east sweep like a storm front, sowing chills and fever nationwide and knocking down so many people.
A: Do you mean he’s fallen prey to the flu?
B: Don’t play dumb. He’s a doctor and he’s been snowed under with the most serious cases.
5. A: Hey! Long time no see. Let’s go to dinner together.
B: I can’t tonight, but I’ll take a rain check.
A: You make me sad. What’s kept you rushing around?
B: I’m shaping up for another storm chasing. This is the best season of storms. I can’t miss it.
Listening Task
Script
Freak weather incidents
If your weather forecaster said it would rain frogs you might think they had gone mad. But rains of fish or frogs or other animals have been reported for centuries. On August 8, 2000 (1) a shower of dead but still fresh sprats rained down on the fishing port of Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk, England, (2) after a thunderstorm. The fish shower would have been caused by a small tornado out to sea, which (3) trawls up water and any fish near the surface. When the tornado touches the land it begins to lose energy and (4) its contents are thrown to the ground.
(5) In June 1997 it rained toads in the town of Villa Angel Flores in Mexico. A small tornado whirled up (6) a cluster of toads from a local body of water Saturday night and dropped them over the town. Motorists reported them dropping from the sky around 11 p.m. In March 1998, it rained frogs in Croydon, England. A woman reported the sudden appearance of hundreds of dead frogs in her and her neighbors' gardens when there was no known pond or lake (7) in the immediate vicinity.
Over the years all sorts of animals and plants have showered down during thunderstorms, possibly (8) sucked up from rivers and lakes by tornadoes into thunderclouds and then dumped miles away in heavy rain. Tornadoes pick up anything they find in their path but some scientists think that many animals of the same type or size may fall during a storm because as the wind travels, (9) heavier items will fall first. Then when the smaller items drop from the tornado, things that (10) tend to weigh the same will drop together.
Dozens of dead birds have occasionally been (11) seen plummeting out of the sky, sometimes partly frozen. These poor animals were probably swept up high in the powerful updrafts of a thundercloud, then frozen like hailstones before (12) gravity took over. Even stranger is a severe hailstorm in Vicksburg, USA where a gopher turtle entirely encased in ice, fell with the hail.
Other objects can rain out of the sky. In July 4, 1995 people in Keokuk, Iowa found soft drink cans that a tornado had lifted from the Double Cola Bottling Plant in Moberly and dropped about 150 miles north. Perhaps most bizarre are the “rains of blood” which have been reported all over the world (13) ever since biblical times. An important clue to their cause came in July 1968 in southern England, when a shower coated everything (14) in red gritty dust. It was fine sand blown up from the Sahara and carried over a thousand miles inside (15) a massive high pressure system before falling in a rain shower. In some dry areas, “dust devils”(dust storms) are very common with debris falling out of the sky.
Real World Listening
Script
Being a meteorologist
Q: Ilona, what made you want to become a meteorologist? When did you know?
A: I knew I wanted to become a meteorologist after seeing my first tornado. I was working at a radio station one afternoon when I saw a tornado heading right for me. Luckily, the tornado missed the radio station, but seeing it up close made me want to learn more about weather.
Q: What weather person influenced you most and why?
A: When I was in 6th grade, one of the local weathercasters, Ward Allen, came to visit my school. I still have the signed picture he gave me! It's framed and hanging on the wall at my house.
Q: What do you like best about doing the weather?
A: What I like most about forecasting weather in Central Texas is that we can see so many different types of weather ... tornadoes, flooding, and even ice & snow! It keeps things very exciting in our weather office.
Q: What is your favorite weather event?
A: My favorite kind of weather is weather that changes all of the time! I like it to be sunny one day, cloudy the next, then hot, then cold, then rainy, then dry!
Q: What do you like to do on a rainy day?
A: I like to sit on the porch and just listen to the sound of the rain falling through the trees and splashing on the ground. When the weather turns stormy, it's my job to make sure everyone knows what to expect and how to stay safe.
Q: What do you like to do on a sunny day?
A: I enjoy being outdoors bike riding or swimming at the pool or lake.
Q: Have you ever been involved in a scary weather event? What did you do?
A: I will never forget the night my mom, my grandmother, and I flew back from Europe. We were on our way home to Phoenix and there was a really bad storm over the Airport. The pilot had no choice but find the safest part to fly through and land. The whole plane was rocking side to side and was completely lit up by the lightning. I was holding on to the seat so tightly. My knuckles were white!
Q: It seems meteorologists dress depending on the weather. Do you wear certain colors, outfits, depending on what kind of day it is going to be?
A: You bet ... the less black during the spring and summer the better. Not only is it too hot, but mosquitoes also are attracted to darker clothes.
Q: Do you have any superstitious items you wear on the air?
A: No, but I always do a little dance before I start. Sometimes it helps me relax if I'm nervous.
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