Practice English Listening B1 Exercises – What is the weather like?

1 c   2 a

A

Scene 1

Jim:   Have you seen this design for the North Pole Ice Cream box?

Diana:   Oh, that must be the new design. The colors are beautiful. Mehmet did a really terrific job! Did you hear that?

Jim:   Yeah. Sounds like thunder. There might be a storm coming. The weather app says there’s a chance of rain today.

Diana:   That’s what mine said this morning, too.

Jim:   The sky is getting dark. And it’s getting really windy. I know it’s silly, but thunderstorms make me nervous.

Diana:   It’s not silly. They make me nervous, too.

Jim:   I don’t think I’ll go out for lunch today.

Diana:   Good idea. You don’t want to be out in this weather.

Scene 2

Jim:   Well, look at that. Just in time for the trip home. The weather’s clearing up.

Diana:   Really? Do you think so?

Jim:   Sure. The sun is coming out. See? There’s a rainbow! The storm must be over.

Jim:   Uh, Diana, you may not need all of that.

Diana:   Well, before I left Chile, I asked about the weather here, and everyone said it rained a lot. I…I like to be prepared!

B

Diana:   Did you hear that?

Jim:   Yeah. Sounds like thunder.

Diana:   The sky is getting dark. There might be a storm coming.

Jim:   I don’t think I’ll go out for lunch today.

Diana:   Good idea. You don’t want to be out in this weather.

The streets flooded.

People had to evacuate.

Trees fell down.

People lost their homes and cars.

A

Jim:   Ugh, more rain?

Diana:   Yes, all the weather reports say it will rain all week.

Jim:   Well, at least it’s not a hurricane. Have you ever been in a hurricane?

Diana:   No, I haven’t. Have you?

Jim:   Yeah. About five years ago, I was visiting my sister in Taipei and we got hit pretty hard. Well, they call it typhoon over there. But anyway, it was so bad that the whole country was affected.

Diana:   Oh no! What happened?

Jim:   It rained so hard that all the streets were flooded. A lot of people living in the flooded areas had to evacuate.

Diana:   What about you?

Jim:   Fortunately, my sister’s neighborhood didn’t flood. But the wind was so strong that lots of trees fell down. And broken branches were flying everywhere.

Diana:   Sounds like it was dangerous!

Jim:   It was!

Diana:   Was your sister’s place OK?

Jim:   Yeah. We were lucky. We didn’t lose power or anything.

Diana:   Oh, thank goodness! That’s a relief!

Jim:   But I knew some people who lived near the water. They lost everything: their homes, cars, all of it.

Jim:   What are you doing?

Diana:   I’m checking to see if there is a hurricane in the forecast.

Jim:   Diana, don’t worry. This is just rain. We would know way in advance if there’s a hurricane coming.

B

Diana:   Have you ever been in a hurricane?

Jim:   Yeah. I have.

Diana:   Really? What happened?

Jim:   It rained so hard that streets were flooded.

Diana:   Oh no!

Jim:   And the wind was so strong that trees fell down.

Diana:   Sounds like it was dangerous!

Jim:   It was. A lot of homes were damaged.

A

1 a   2 b

B

In local weather:

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for several areas in the Midwest. Dangerous tornadoes have been moving through parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas. As of Tuesday morning, nearly 20,000 homes and businesses in western Texas have reported loss of power. And heavy rain and strong winds have caused damage to hundreds of homes and vehicles in Oklahoma and Kansas. Local governments are asking people to stay in their homes and to avoid driving on roads and highways.

And now for international news:

Montreal, Canada, is digging out from a major blizzard. Temperatures have been falling all week. With an average temperature of -7 degrees Celsius, it hasn’t been this cold in Montreal all year. The storm has already dropped 25 centimeters of snow on the city and there’s more snow on the way.

Chile has been experiencing a severe drought. The hot, dry, and windy conditions have caused a wildfire to burn out of control in central Chile. Over 5,000 firefighters have been fighting the dangerous fire, which has burned more than 600 homes.

A

b

B

STRANGE RAIN

What’s falling from the sky?

Not long ago, a man in a village in Serbia looked up and saw a strange, dark cloud in the sky. Suddenly, hundreds of frogs were falling from the cloud onto the road. A similar event occurred in Hungary five years later, when falling frogs surprised shoppers during a storm. The same year, hundreds of small fish fell on the tiny town of Lajamanu, Australia.

Since early times, there have been reports of frogs, fish, worms, and other creatures falling from the sky. In 200 BCE, a Greek historian reported that it “often rained fishes” near his home. In Yoro, Honduras, the rain of fish was at one time so frequent that the town celebrates The Festival of Rain of Fishes every year. Strange rain is not limited to living creatures; in 1969, people in Punta Gorda, Florida, reported a sudden storm of golf balls.

Where does this strange rain come from?

A writer named Charles Fort was fascinated by these reports. In the early 1900s, he collected more than 60,000 newspaper articles about different forms of strange rain. Although most people who hear about strange rain assume these are just stories, Fort disagreed. He felt there had to be a scientific explanation, yet his own explanations were not particularly scientific! He suggested that an ocean in the clouds might be the cause of the rain. In another idea, he suggested that perhaps the frogs were from a spaceship that had exploded far above the earth.

Most people can agree that Fort’s explanations are probably not correct; however, the reports have been frequent enough that experts believe there must be some logical explanation. Today, scientists believe that this strange rain is the result of extreme weather. When powerful winds, especially tornadoes, move over a lake or river, they may pick up the water—and everything in it—including fish and frogs. The strong winds then move across land, often for very long distances. The town of Lajamanu, Australia, for example, is more than 300 miles or 482 kilometers away from a body of water. When the wind becomes weaker, everything falls to the ground, resulting in strange rain.

Strange rain goes to Hollywood

These reports of strange rain have inspired books, television programs, and movies. The Sharknado movies are probably the most well-known movies about creatures that fall from the sky. In these movies, a powerful tornado picks up shark-filled water from the ocean. It drops the water, along with the sharks, across the city of Los Angeles. As they fall through the air, the sharks attack hundreds of people. No one takes these movies seriously, but they are extremely popular. Strange rain makes a good story!

A

Answers will vary. Possible answer: He talks about the weather.

B

Answer will vary. Possible answers:

1   There was rain on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the sun came out. The afternoon was sunny and warm.

2   Lucas couldn’t go to the park on Tuesday (because of the rain). In the afternoon on Wednesday, Lucas played soccer.

3   He thinks that there may be another rainstorm.

Hi, it’s Lucas. The weather has been very strange lately. It started to rain on Tuesday. I wanted to go to the park but I went to the movies instead. On Wednesday, it cleared up and the sun came out. And I saw a big rainbow.

By the afternoon, it was sunny and warm and I was able to play soccer with my friends. I hope tomorrow is nice because I’m planning to go to the beach, but it’s looking cloudy again so we may get another storm. I guess I could stay home and watch a movie.