Stormy Weather!
1. Match the pictures to the three stories on
the left. Write the number in the gap.
1 soil. They told us not to cycle anywhere and to stay indoors, but I had a job
2 interview in the centre so I had to go out. I saw some crazy people on bikes –
3
2. Read the stories and write the letter A, B or
C. In which story/stories does someone…?
a) go out despite a severe weather warning
b) complain about how the weather makes
him/her feel
c) talk about problems with transport
d) describe how surprised people are with
the weather
e) talk about damage caused by the weather
3. Look at the highlighted words in the text
and discuss what they mean with a partner.
Story A – Picture ___
Yesterday was unbelievable. Though we were warned there was going to be a
terrible storm, no one really expected or could possibly have visualised
hurricane-force winds destroying bus stops and ripping trees out of the wet
some of them got blown over and one even seemed to be going backwards!
The canals were full of rubbish bins that had got blown in and there were piles
of bikes in the streets. What a mess!
Story B – Picture ___
Yet another scorching, sunny day… I never knew this kind of heat was
possible here. Last Wednesday was the hottest day ever in this country. The
roads were melting in some areas, and the underground was a total nightmare
– it was like being slowly cooked in an oven. The main problem is that people
here don’t seem to understand the need for air conditioning in the summer.
There is no escaping the heat and if you actually want to go anywhere, you
have to be prepared to sweat and learn to enjoy your task sweating. Please tell
me, how do you shop? Try on clothes? No thank you. Even going for an ice-
cold beer can be uncomfortable if the pub isn’t at least equipped with a large
fan.
Story C – Picture ___
I got woken up today by my daughter screaming, ‘Dad… it’s snowing, it’s
snowing!’ She just couldn’t believe it – not surprising as they said on the news
that it hasn’t snowed here for nearly fifty years! We decided not to send her to
school and we had a great time – we even made a snowman in the yard. We
used small rocks for the eyes and a baby carrot for the nose because it was a
baby snowman. It was chaos for people going to work, and it’s been very bad
news for the citrus trees – they’re all frozen. They’ll thaw tomorrow, but the
damage is already done. I’m afraid we won’t be eating any local oranges this
year!
4. Match the words to the correct group.

base verb adjective past participle noun

________________: scorching / hurricane-force

________________: storm / heat / sweat

________________: melt / sweat / thaw

________________: frozen / blown

5. Practise saying the words and match the underlined syllables to the correct sound.

/ɔː/ /əʊ/ /iː/ /e/

Created by TDoyle, 2018 / Adapted from New English File, Upper-Intermediate SB

Practice

Choose the correct option in the stories below.

1. Last night, there was a massive (storming / heat / storm) with thunder and

lightning. I felt quite scared of the (hurricane / forceful / hurricane-force) winds,

and all the trees in the street were (blew / blown / frozen) over.

2. It was over 50 degrees yesterday at the beach, it was absolutely (heat / scorch /

scorching). Unfortunately, my mother doesn’t handle the (hot / heat / melting)

very well.

3. Alice is going to the tennis tomorrow, she’ll be (sweating / heat / sweat) out

there in the sun! Hopefully the players don’t (sweat / melt / thaw)!

4. The lakes in Montreal are almost all (freezed / melting / frozen) in winter, and

they don’t start to (melt / thaw / heat) until the warmer spring weather.

Created by TDoyle, 2018 / Adapted from New English File, Upper-Intermediate SB