THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT

1. Vocabulary review. Look at these words and phrases. Explain what they mean.

a blizzard a famine a heatwave a drought a flood

a volcanic eruption an earthquake forest fires

2. Watch the first part of the video. Find out which of the events in Exercise 1 happened
in the following places:

1. Queensland, Australia
2. Russia
3. Pakistan
4. The United States
5. Chicago

3. Work in pairs. Discuss what you think the root cause of the extreme weather is. Then
watch the second part of the video and check.

4. Complete the sentences about the video by adding these nouns.

core fuel potential source decades

gallons record tracks

1- The state of Queensland was hit by the worst floods in ____________________

2- Russia had one of the hottest summers on ____________, which led to droughts and
forest fires.
3- The blizzard hit so hard and so fast that it stopped rush-hour traffic dead in its
_____________
4- At it’s _____________, the problem is all about water.
5- The ocean is the main _____________ of all the water in the atmosphere.
6- The water in the atmosphere provides the ____________ for storms.
7- When the sun comes up, millions and millions of __________ of water evaporate
from the ocean.
8- The more gases there are in the atmosphere, the greater the __________ for extreme
weather events.
KEY:

1.
 A blizzard: a powerful storm with wind and snow.
 A drought: when there is no rain and everything dries up
 An earthquake: when the ground moves and shakes, and buildings fall down.
 A famine: when there is no food in an area and people go hungry.
 A flood: when it rains and rains, and the water goes up and up. Often people have to
leave their houses and sometimes cars are washed away by the water.
 Forest fires: when it’s really hot and dry, forests start to burn.
 A heatwave: a period when it is very , very hot.
 A volcanic eruption: when hot lava comes from a volcano and destroys houses and
towns.

2-
1. The area was hit by floods - the worst in 40 years, over an area as large as France and
Germany combined.
2. There was a drought followed by forest fires, after the hottest summer on record. Over
50,000 dead.
3. A heatwave was followed by floods, which covered 20% of the country! Five thousand
miles of roads and railways were washed away.
4. A record winter, with cold and snow following a heatwave – one of the warmest summers
on record.
5. A blizzard stopped rush hour traffic.

3- The root cause of the extreme weather is basically water: too much water. The oceans are
the main source of the water in the atmosphere, of clouds and rain. The sun causes water
from the oceans to evaporate. The water becomes a vapour, a kind of gas, which surrounds
the earth. More heat means more evaporation, which in turn means more energy building up
in the atmosphere and thus more possibility of extreme weather.

4-
1 decades 2 record 3 tracks 4 core 5 source 6 fuel
7 gallons 8 potential