Starting off

The goal here is to encourage the students to contribute anecdotes and experiences of bad or extreme weather conditions. The best way to introduce the topic, therefore, is to provide an example yourself. After this the students should be given a moment to think/recall events, before getting into groups for the discussion.

Before you read / First reading

This is a prediction task which the students should do before they see the text; it forms the first reading task. Key:

18 … how many years since this much snow fell in the UK

six million … how many people were forced to stay at home by the snow

over 2000 … how many schools were closed because of the weather

650 … how many calls to the London Ambulance service there were in one night

51 … how long the traffic jam on the M25 motorway around London was (kilometres)

First reading

This should be a relatively easy task for the students. Remember, though, that they should be reading quickly for global understanding here, so give them a time limit to avoid their reading very carefully. Key:

1. Winter in the autumn

2. Records tumble as winter bites

3. The authorities struggle to cope...

4. ...But Britons manage with a smile

5. Red cheeks and happy faces

6. So this is global warming?

Vocabulary 1

Key:

1. tumble

2. stranded

3. widespread

4. scale

5. dealing with

6. entire

7. cheeks

8. delighted

9. disruption

Vocabulary 2

Key:

1. widespread

2. entire

3. were stranded

4. scale

5. tumbled

6. cheeks

7. entire

8. delighted

9. disruption

10. deal with

Third reading

This is a more challenging task, requiring quite careful reading of the text. Give the students time to work individually and then time to discuss their answers before conducting feedback. The key in feedback is to get the students to justify their answers with reference to the text, asking them to quote the relevant word, phrase or sentence. Key:

1. The text does not tell us. Airports may have been (in fact, have been) closed because of other weather conditions, such as heavy fog, for example.

2. False. The key phrase here is `large swathes', which suggests a substantial proportion of the country.

3. Because such snowfalls as `hardly common' in the UK. They were, therefore, a surprise to the authorities (who lack equipment such as snow ploughs for road and rail) and to the people (who do not have, for example, snow tyres for their cars or snow chains).

4. It does not go to or from anywhere. The M25 is a circular motorway `around London'.

5. The main positive aspect mentioned of the severe weather is that it `brought people together': people started to help each other in ways which they would ordinarily, perhaps, not do.

6. The cold winter does not disprove global warming because global warming is really `global climate disruption'.

Discussion

The questions are designed for the most part to provoke a range of opinion rather than consensus. You might start the discussion with the first question in open class, eliciting ideas and demonstrating with follow-up questions that you expect more than simple agreement or disagreement (`Why do you say that?' `Can you think of any possible benefits/problems with that?' etc.). The students could then go into groups to discuss the remaining questions.

Extension

As you monitor the discussion above, pay attention to which question seems to generate the most controversy and the broadest range of opinion. As an extension you can use this question as the basis for a formal debate. Put the question on the board as a motion (`This house believes that…') and organise the class into `for' and `against' teams (there can be several of each if the class is too large to simply divide in half). Give the students time to prepare their arguments and then ask each side/group to provide a 3-5 minute opening statement. Following this give them time to formulate questions to ask the other side/groups. They should then be ready for the debate. As you will be the chair of the debate it will be your job to ensure that everyone us able to participate and that the stronger students do not dominate. A language review stage (good phrases you heard and errors to be analysed) would be a good way to round the lesson off.

Contact

Please let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for future editions of Around English.

Peter Moran [e-mail]

TEACHER'S NOTES AND KEY

February 2009

© Pearson Education Polska 2009

Winter in the autumn This winter has already been an extremely cold one for Britain. As far back as October - not even winter, of course - there were heavy snowfalls and sub-zero temperatures in much of Britain, closing airports at times. This was the first time in a decade snow had fallen in any large amounts so early. Records tumble as winter bites The situation is even worse now that winter has properly arrived. At the beginning of this month over six million people were forced to stay at home because of transport problems. Thousands of passengers were stranded at airports as snow blocked runways and flights were delayed or cancelled. Large swathes of the country were under several feet of snow - the most widespread snowfalls for 18 years. The authorities struggle to cope... Heavy snowfalls and sub-zero temperatures are hardly common in the

UK and it is, perhaps, understandable that the authorities were less than fully prepared. However, the scale of the disruption was spectacular. Over 2000 schools were closed by the extreme weather. The London Ambulance service announced that it would only deal with life-threatening emergencies after dealing with over 650 calls in seven hours overnight. Roads were closed, railways blocked and one traffic jam on the M25 motorway around London stretched for over 32 miles (51.5km). Even the Old Bailey - the main criminal court in London - was closed by the weather. ...But Britons manage with a smile The British authorities may have found the weather too much for them, but the British people coped far better. As London's entire fleet of buses stayed in its garages and all but one Tube lines were affected by the weather, some Londoners brought out their skis and skied to work. Those with off-road

vehicles helped their neighbours. As is so often the case, the bad weather brought people together. Red cheeks and happy faces Not everyone found the bad weather a problem. With schools closed and the chance for the first time in years to build snowmen and have real snowball fights, British children were delighted. So this is global warming? The first thought, of course, is no-more global cooling than warming. But, of course, climate change means a lot more than a steady rise in temperatures everywhere. Global warming really means global climate disruption and the extreme winter weather in the UK is, unfortunately, a very good example of what we can expect in the future. Not a very positive thought.

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