Threats to Earth

VOCABULARY

a c b

1 Complete the sentences with the following words:

reveal intense major chase volunteer occur

1. If any of these symptoms ______________ while you are taking the medicine, consult your doctor immediately. 2. He would not ________________ where he had hidden her chocolate eggs. 3. Young people today are under ______________ pressure to succeed. 4. Policemen must drive quickly but carefully when they _____________ someone. 5. My brother is a member of a local ______________ fire brigade. 6. The _____________ factor in their decision was professional.

2 Which word fits best in the exercise below?

FIRE STORM WEATHER

1. An approaching ______________ 2. Unpredictable ________________ 3. A ___________ breaks out 4. Boiling hot _____________

5. Put out a ________________ 6. Changeable ______________ 7. To be caught in a _________ 8. _________ alarm

PREPOSITIONS Use the correct preposition from the list:

in, at, on, during

1. Someone came into the house _______ some time _______ the night. 2. I remember it was often cold _____Christmas _____ the 1990s. 3. Each child should start school _______ the age of six. 4. What a lovely day! There’s not a cloud ________the sky. 5. My father is never at home _____ noon. 6. This young man ______ the picture is my brother. 7. She was standing ______ the door and could see them clearly. 8. ______ the end of the book, you will find some useful notes.

Track 13 LISTENING AND GAP FILLING Complete the text using the words below. Then listen and check your answers.

meteor weighed fireball spectacularly traces impacts surface exploded uninhabited

In addition to the extremely large impacts that happen every tens of millions of years, there are many smaller____________ that occur much more frequently, but which leave smaller _________ behind or happen in places where nobody sees them. Such events would seem to be ______________ obvious, but they generally go unnoticed for a number of reasons: the majority of the Earth’s ___________ is covered by water and a good portion of the land is _____________. People have observed some of them, such as the ___________which blew up over the Australian town of Dubbo in April 1993. In the dark morning hours of January 18th 2000, a fireball ___________over a small town in Canada at a height of about 26 kilometers, lighting up the night like day. The ___________that produced the fireball was about 4.6 meters in diameter and ___________180 tonnes.

GRAMMAR PRESENT PERFECT

1 Write statements using the present perfect and since or for. Example: (Charlie/live/here/35 years) = Charlie has lived here for 35 years.

1 (Sally/have/the same car/five years) __________________________________________________ 2 (we/live/in this house/I was 25) ______________________________________________________ 3. (he/be/on holiday/last Friday) ______________________________________________________ 4. (they/see/not/Tracy/ages) __________________________________________________________

2 Complete the sentences using the present perfect. There are two sentences where it is not possible to use this tense. Identify them and use the correct tense.

Example: I’ve been there twice. 1. __________________________ so far. 2. __________________________ for two years. 3. __________________________ three days ago. 4. ___________________________ since I left school. 5. ___________________________ yet. 6. ___________________________ recently. 7. ___________________________ when

Iwas a little girl.

3 Answer the following questions using the present perfect.

Example: Can you come to my party tomorrow? No, I’ve already promised Ann I’ll visit her.

1. Is your sister at home? No,________________________________________________________ . 2. Does she know what happened? Yes,________________________________________________. 3. Is there any milk left? No, _______________________________________________________. 4. Do the Browns still live here? No, ________________________________________________.

PAST SIMPLE AND PRESENT PERFECT

Complete the sentences using an appropriate verb either in the past simple or present perfect tense.

1. Peter ____________________his leg in the park yesterday. 2. They ___________________the car. It looks new again. 3. Last year we ___________________to Italy. 4. John and Peggy ___________________the book. Now they can watch the film. 5. I ___________________my friend two days ago. 6. We ___________________to a foreign country before. 7. Her parents___________________ a new flat in 2001. 8. I’m sorry, but I ___________________my homework. 9. Alec __________________ to Africa several times up to now.

Track 14 LISTENING and GRAMMAR Use the verbs in brackets in the correct tense (the past simple, past continuous or present perfect) to complete this anecdote. Then listen to the text and check your answers.

Rose and Robin ________________(fly) to Australia for a two-week vacation to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Suddenly, the engines _____________ (stop) functioning and the captain _____________(attempt) an emergency landing. Luckily, he ____________ (see) an unknown island below and the plane ___________(land) safely on the beach. However, they all knew they may never be rescued and might have to live on the island for the rest of their lives! An hour later, Rose and Robin ________________(lie) on the beach. Robin turned to his wife and asked: “Rose, _______________________(you/pay) our American Express card bill yet?” “Oh, no! I’m sorry. I _____________________ (forget) to send the cheque,” she said. “And ___________________ (you/remember) to send cheques for the Visa and MasterCard?” he asked. “Oh, forgive me, Robin,” begged Rose. “I __________________(not/send) those, either.” Robin gave her the biggest kiss in 40 years. Rose pulled away and asked him, “What was that for?” Robin answered, “They’ll find us!”

EXPRESSING THE FUTURE Choose the most suitable tense.

1. Why are you going to / will you buy a new mountain bike? 2. Let me know as soon as Louise will get / gets here. 3. I am going to / will decorate the bathroom this weekend. 4. I’ve had enough. I’ll / I’m going to finish this tomorrow. 5. It’s a lovely day – I think I’ll go / I’m going to the beach.

MODAL VERBS

Read the following extract from a guidebook to one of the exotic islands in thePacific. Fill in the gaps with can/can’t, must or mustn’t. (Sometimes more than one answer is correct.)

1. All visitors _____________ apply for a visa. 2. You _____________ enter the country without one. 3. You ________have at least US $500 with you. If you don’t, you ________enter the country. 4. You ___________ have medical insurance. 5. You ____________ bring in guns or drugs. 6. You __________ bring travellers’ cheques.

EVERYDAY LANGUAGE

IDIOMS & FIXED PHRASES 1 Here are some common comments on the weather. Match those in column

A with the replies in column B.

A B 1. Terrible day, isn’t it? a. I hope it stays like this. 2. You look rather wet. b. I hope so. It’s so sultry. 3. It’s a lovely day, isn’t it? c. Yes, it’s freezing. 4. Do you think it will rain later? d. Yes, I’m soaked. 5. It looks as if it is going to clear up. e. Awful! I’ve never known anything like it. 6. It’s very cold today. f. Yes, the weather forecast said it would.

2 Complete the sentences using the words below. Then explain the idiom in bold.

bright rainy rains cold clouds

1. Why don’t you put that money in the bank and save it for a ___________day? 2. I know we’ve lost every match so far, but rather than get depressed, let’s look on the ___________side. 3. My uncle has serious money problems, but he’s sure he’s going to win the lottery; my aunt thinks he’s got his head in the ___________. 4. John was going to do a parachute jump, but at the last minute he got _________ feet and decided to stay on the plane. 5. Susan got a bad mark in her maths test and then the history teacher found out that she hadn’t done her project. It never _______ , but it pours.

EXPAND YOUR VOCABULARY – WEATHER A Use your dictionary to find definitions for any of the following words that you do not know.

drizzle, freezing, warm, hail, chilly, sunny, pour, frost, snow, hot, cool, shower, breeze, gale

B Write down the weather words in the correct category below. The first word has already been done for you. rain

drizzle

wind cold heat

C Tell the class what kind of weather you like/dislike. Describe what the weather is like in your town/region. D Write imaginary weather forecasts for your town or region for two different seasons, using the words in the box and adjectives/adverbs such as: heavy/ heavily, extreme/extremely, light, strong, gentle, etc.

Track 15 PRONUNCIATION 3

In these words from Unit 3 the letter u is pronounced in five different ways: Q, 3: ^, U and ju: Listen to the pronunciation of these words and put them into the appropriate box below.

but occur including usually column powerfully put junior united volunteer structure understand universe thunderstorm surface tsunami

Q

but ju:

usually powerfully U

put 3:

occur

WRITING 1 Look at the headlines. Which disasters are mentioned? Are they all natural disasters?

TOURISTS BLAMED FOR FOREST FIRE VILLAGES FLOODED AS RIVER BREAKS BANKS MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE LEAVES THOUSANDS HOMELESS IN INDIA

GAS EXPLOSION KILLS

A FAMILY OF FOUR FAMINE THREATENS AFRICAN CHILDREN

2 Choose three of these headlines and expand them into two or three sentences.

Example: The river broke its bank yesterday and flooded several villages. Hundreds of families were evacuated from their homes. The damage is estimated at thousands of pounds. 1_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ 2_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ 3_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

MY JOURNAL Write a short composition of about 100 words with the following title:

‘The worst storm I have ever been in’ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

DISCUSSING A PROVERB Explain the meaning of the following saying in your own words.

A storm in a teacup.