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It's hardly surprising that weather is a favourite topic for so many people around the world-it affects
where we choose to live, what we wear, our moods, and perhaps even our national characteristics.
Studies have shown that changeable weather can make it difficult to concentrate, cloudy skies slow down
reaction, and high humidity with hot, dry winds makes many people badtempered.
If you live in a place like Britain, where the weather seem to change daily if not hourly, you could be
forgiven for thinking that the weather is random. In fact the weather is controlled by systems which move
around areas of the globe. In the UK the weather depends on depressions, often called lows, and
anticyclones, also known as highs. These systems start in the Atlantic Ocean, and make their way across
the British Isles from the west to the east.
Highs bring sunny weather, while lows bring rain and wind. In modern times, human activities seems
to be altering weather patterns. Gases produced by heavy industry change the temperature of the Earth's
surface, and affect cloud formation. Some researchers say that factories in Europe and North America
may have been one of the causes of the droughts in Africa in the 1980s.
The human race has always tried to guess the weather, especially in areas of the world where there
are frequent changes. Traditional rhymes point to early attempts to identify weather patterns, popular
poems include:
Red sky at night, shepherds' delight; Red sky in the morning, shepherds' warning.
Flies will swarm before a storm.
Rain before 7, clear by 11.
While folk wisdom can still provide a guide to help forecast weather, today's methods of prediction
increasingly rely on technology. Satellites, balloons, ships, aircraft and weather centres with sensitive
monitoring equipment, send data to computers. The data is then processed, and the weather predicted.
However, even this system cannot predict weather for longer than about a week.
1. When weather keeps changing, ________.
A. people become badtempered
B. people's reaction slow down
C. people find it hard to focus on their work
D. people become hungrier
2. Which of the following questions could have the answer in the second paragraph?
A. What causes changes in the weather?
B. What's the weather like in Britain?
C. Who should be responsible for the droughts in Africa in the 1980s?
D. Why does the weather in the UK make people badtempered?
3. The weather in Britain is ________.
A. random
B. moist
C. depressing
D. satisfying
4. According to a traditional rhyme, if there is a red sky at night, the next day will be ________.
A. windy
B. rainy
C. fine
D. snowy
5. Which of the following statements is true?
A. Anticyclones often bring rain and wind.
B. Weather forecasting has been done for a long time.
C. Weather could never be predicted.
D. Modern methods of weather prediction are developed from folk wisdom.
