NEWS LESSONS / Going under / Elementary

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Read the headline and the sub-heading below. What do you think the article is going to be about?

Umbrellas breaking in the rain?
Rainwater filling houses and streets?
Tourists staying away because of the rain?

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Going under

Level 1

Elementary

Pre-reading A: Predicting the content

1

Pre-reading B: Key words

2

Match these keywords from the text with the meanings below.

disaster

floods

results

run-off

drainage

sewers

ploughs

absorb

1. ____________ removing liquids from something

2. ____________ water from rivers filling the land

3. ____________ a very bad accident or serious damage

4. ____________ a system of pipes underground to carry waste water away

5. ____________ things that happen because something else happened

6. ____________ take in liquid a little at a time

7. ____________ too much water that cannot go down into the ground

8. ____________ digs up the land in lines, using machines

Now read the article, check the words in context, and see if your answer to Question 1 was correct.

Going under

Everyone knows that it often rains in Britain. We often have week upon

week of rain. So why have a few heavy showers caused so much damage

here this summer?
Aida Edemariam reports

July 24, 2007

NEWS LESSONS / Going under / Elementary

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Going under

Everyone knows that it often rains in Britain. We

often have week upon week of rain. So why have

a few heavy showers caused so much damage

here this summer?

Aida Edemariam reports

July 24, 2007

People trying to take a train to or from the
southwest of England this weekend could think
they had accidentally walked into a disaster movie.
Some trains never arrived, and the people who
had to watch their homes and businesses go under
water couldn’t believe that such a short rainstorm
could cause so much damage.
I can understand their surprise, because this
country is famous for its wetness. Rain is our
national weather. Snow can cause us problems,
yes, and very hot weather, like last summer,
causes difficulties, too – but rain? With our wide
experience, surely we should lead the world in rain
management.
Unfortunately not. Thousands of people had
to leave their homes over the weekend, and
thousands more are still trapped inside their
houses. Some towns in the south had floods of up
to five metres. In the north of England, some people
still can’t go home after last month’s floods, which
killed 8 people. Everyone is asking how such short
rainstorms – just one hour in London, slightly longer
in other places – could have such terrible results.
In fact, the answer is partly because it all happened
so quickly. Brize Norton in Oxfordshire had
121.2mm of rain between midnight Thursday and
5pm Friday – a sixth of what it would expect for the
whole year. South Yorkshire got a month’s worth of
rain on June 25. It has been raining for weeks now,
“and the ground is very wet, so immediately you get
rainfall, you get runoff”, explains professor Adrian
Saul, of Sheffield University.
It isn’t just that the ground cannot absorb so much
so fast – drainage systems get too full, too. “When
you design a system you have to plan for possible
dangers, and generally the plans are good enough
to protect our communities,” says Saul. “It’s very

lucky that the Victorians built the systems as big as
they did. Especially in London, they thought the city
would get bigger, and that has protected London
until now.” But London’s population is now four
times as big – and last Friday, the sewers couldn’t
handle so much water.
“Our sewers are not designed to have so much
water flowing through them,” says Nicola Savage,
a spokeswoman for Thames Water. And they are
not designed for the way we use them nowadays.
“We each, personally, use much more water than
ever before. Also, the public often use the sewers
as a rubbish bin,” Savage adds. “People put things
like babies’ nappies down the toilet. And also, we
need to encourage people not to pour fat and oil
down the sink. The sewers were never designed to
handle this kind of thing.”
Saul is also investigating how farmers can control
the flow of water off land. If Farmers plough across
hills, not down them, there will be less runoff. And
carefully placed trees can help stop flooding. Also,
the more animals walk over a piece of land, the
harder the ground becomes, and the less water it
can absorb. Then, plants can’t grow well, and there
won’t be enough food. And if farm animals get no
drinking water for 48 hours, thousands will die, and
meat will cost more.
Scientists are also investigating how each of us can
help reduce a problem that, in fact, we have helped
create: by extending our houses, paving driveways,
and building car parks. All this takes away soft
ground that could absorb water, and adds to the
runoff into drains and rivers. And we should collect
any water that runs off the house instead of letting it
go into the sewerage system. We can use rainwater
to flush toilets or run washing machines. Every little
helps.
For although this month’s weather in Britain has
been very unusual, that may happen more, and
more often, as our climate changes. Today people
in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire are having to
leave their houses. Tomorrow, next month, next
year – who knows?

© Guardian News & Media 2007
First published in The Guardian, 24/07/07

Going under

Level 1

Elementary

1

2

3

4

6

7

8

9

5

NEWS LESSONS / Going under / Elementary

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Going under

Level 1

Elementary

Scanning for information

3

First,readthetextquicklytofindthewordsandnumbersintheboxbelow.Underlinetheminthetext.

Now, read the text again, and use the information from the box to complete the sentences below.

1. _____________ built the sewers in London.
2. The rain stopped in Oxfordshire at _____________.
3. _____________ were killed in floods last month in the north of England.
4. _____________ is a professor at Sheffield University.
5. Farm animals may die if they can’t drink water for _____________.
6. _____________ of rain fell in five hours in Brize Norton.
7. _____________ gave some information from Thames Water.
8. In South Yorkshire, on _____________, it rained as much in one day as it usually rains in a month.
9. Flood water was _____________ deep in some towns in the south.
10. There are _____________ as many people living in London now as when the London sewers were built.

Vocabulary development

4

Find words in the text that mean the following. Paragraph numbers are given to help you.

1. ____________ – kept somewhere, like a prisoner (para 3)

2. ____________ – to think and plan how to build something (para 5)

3. ____________ – succeed in working with (para 5)

4. ____________ – special pieces of soft material for babies to wear because they can’t use the toilet (para 6)

5. ____________ – covering (the ground) with hard material like concrete or bricks (para 8)

6. ____________ – to wash away with a lot of water (para 8)

five metres

eight people

121.2mm

5pm Friday

June 25

Adrian Saul

the Victorians

four times

Nicola Savage

48 hours

NEWS LESSONS / Going under / Elementary

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Going under

Level 1

Elementary

Language development: Prepositions

5

Choose prepositions from the box to go with the words below.

1. ______ the weekend
2. ______ the south
3. ______ June 25
4. raining ______ weeks
5. plan ______ possible dangers
6. Especially ______ London
7. designed ______
8. things ______ babies’ nappies

Now scan the text quickly to see if you were right.

Pronunciation: Syllable stress

The 3-syllable words in the box all come from the article.

Whichsyllableisstressed?Putthemintherightcolumn.Thefirst2aredoneforyou.

6

0 o o

o 0 o

businesses

disaster

on

like

for

over

in

disaster

businesses

management

terrible

carefully

professor

possible

protected

nowadays

encourage

scientists

extending

rainwater

unusual

NEWS LESSONS / Going under / Elementary

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Going under

Level 1

Elementary

2 Pre-reading B: Key words

1. drainage

2. floods

3. disaster

4. sewers

5. results

6. absorb

7. run-off

8. ploughs

3 Scanning for information

1. the Victorians

2. 5pm Friday

3. eight people

4. Adrian Saul

5. 48 hours

6. 121.2mm

7. Nicola Savage

8. June 25

9. five metres

10. four times

4 Vocabulary development

1. trapped

2. design

3. handle

4. nappies

5. paving

6. flush

5 Language development: Prepostions

1. over the weekend

2. in the south

3. on June 25

4. raining for weeks

5. plan for possible dangers

6. Especially in London

7. designed for

8. things like babies’ nappies

6. Pronunciation: Syllable stress

KEY

0 o o

o 0 o

businesses

management

terrible

possible

nowadays

carefully

scientists

rainwater

disaster

professor

protected

encourage

extending

unusual