Name: Class: Date: 26.12.2017 -Due: 31.12.

2017

1
Read the passage and answer the below questions:

2
3
4
5
Vocabulary:

6
7
Vocabulary:

Vocabulary:

8
Vocabulary:

9
10
 Weather forecasts

It is hard to imagine a world without weather forecasts they have become so essential to so many facets
of everyday life in the 21st Century. On an individual basis, of course, people use weather forecasts to
decide what to wear: whether they need an umbrella, protection against the sun or even medication
against abnormally high pollen levels. The forecast is also seen as a necessary safeguard to protect life
and property and we have also become accustomed to receiving warnings against extreme weather
conditions such as drought, heavy snow, flooding or high winds. In our increasingly motorised age, the
weather report is now seen as vital for advising drivers of difficult driving conditions. The forecast is
equally important in agriculture and commerce so that famers can grow their crops and commodity
brokers can trade them on stock markets. Energy providers are also among a wide range of institutions
that rely on an accurate forecast so that they can plan ahead for the services they provide.

While the technology we use today to provide weather forecasts is new, the study of weather patterns is
as old as the hills as mankind has always been dependent on weather. In primitive civilisations, hunters,
warriors, farmers and shepherds alike would look to the gods in the sky as the force behind the weather.
Often the priests of these gods would enjoy high status and considerable power in the belief they could
influence the gods to provide the right weather conditions by performing a rain dance or even, in the case
of the Aztecs, commanding a human sacrifice. The actual forecasting methods usually relied on
observed patterns of events, also termed pattern recognition. For example, if the sunset was particularly
red, the following day often brought fair weather. This form of weather lore, which was passed from one
generation to the next, has not entirely disappeared as is evidenced by such sayings as “red sky at night,
shepherds’ delight”. However, not all of these predictions proved reliable, and many of them have since
been found not to stand up to rigorous statistical testing by meteorologists today.

Our roots of our modern scientific tradition can be traced back to the Babylonians who began to predict
weather from cloud formations and, more particularly, the Ancient Greeks. As is the case in so many
other fields, Aristotle is considered to have founded the modern science of meteorology when he correctly
identified the hydrologic cycle in 350 BC. This cycle, which describes the continuous movement of water
on, above and below the surface of the Earth, is fundamental to much of modern weather forecasting.
However, Aristotle himself and his follower and pupil Theophrastus largely failed to make the connection
between the water cycle and weather forecasting and their science was scarcely more reliable than the
aboriginal rain dance. Indeed, the word “meteorology” literally means the study of heavenly bodies and
the Greeks attempted to explain weather conditions through heavenly signs such as colours of the sky,
rings and halos.

The influence of Aristotle on weather forecasting lasted for almost 2000 years and was only gradually
eroded by a combination of a series of scientific discoveries and advances in communication technology.
One important step forward was made in 1654 when Fernando de Medici set up the first
weather observation network with meteorological stations in eleven separate European cities. When this
data was centrally collected in Florence, it became possible to analyse weather patterns on a grander
scale than ever before by allowing maps to be produced that showed atmospheric conditions over a large
area of the Earth’s surface. The invention of the telegraph in 1837 allowed such observations to
be collected more quickly and from a wider region than ever before and as a consequence meteorologists
were able to identify the global nature of weather patterns.

A central figure in turning the science of meteorology into the modern-day weather forecast was Robert
Fitzroy. Fitzroy was a man of many talents who had sailed with Charles Darwin in The Beagle, helped to
pioneer the use of barometers in the navy and correctly identified sunspots as an influence on weather
conditions As a former naval captain he was aware of the necessity of accurate forecasting and he
helped to establish The United Kingdom Meteorological Office, which became the first national
meteorological service in the world. This office would advise ports around the United Kingdom when a
gale was expected so that the fishing fleets would not put out to sea. These forecasts were so reliable
that they were published in the newly-founded daily newspapers and it is said that Queen Victoria would

11
not sail anywhere unless Fitzroy had said the seas would be calm.

How has weather forecasting evolved in the past 20 years? There have been a number of influences and
perhaps the most visible is the use of satellite technology. It is almost impossible to watch a forecast on
television nowadays without seeing a satellite picture showing where the areas of high pressure and low
pressure are and how the weather is likely to develop. Indeed, a whole new industry of “nowcasting” has
developed, telling us what the weather is like now and what we could expect tot see if we could be
bothered to look out of the window. A less evident, but equally relevant, innovation has been the
application of the comparatively new science of mathematical modelling to weather forecasting. This
involves using the massive computational powers of supercomputers to process all the different variables
so as to provide some likely forecasts of what will happen next with the weather. Even here, however, the
science is by no means complete and the weather experts still need to choose between different possible
forecasts. How do they do that? Experience and judgment – not perhaps that different from the ancient
Babylonians who decided if it was going to rain by looking at the shape of the cloud.

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Early societies used to predict the weather by noting . Although this body of knowledge

was not completely in making forecasts, it was more accurate than performing a rain dance.

While the discovery of was academically important, it did not notably improve

forecasting methods. The establishment of an was a major step forward because then

early meteorologists charts showing weather patterns. However, real progress was not made

until the information that formed the basis of these charts could be sent by means of
telegraph.

12