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Class

Reading (Nature and Environment)

Read the text and answer the following questions.

Climate is a country’s normal weather all year round. Climate means a country’s rain
and sunshine, winds, storms and everything else that makes up the weather over a long
period of time. The weather changes day to day and even hour to hour. It can be sunny
in the morning and cold and wet in the afternoon. But the climate changes very slowly,
over thousands of years.
Climate of a country can determine a lot of things, but it especially determines what kind of
plants and animals can live in an area. For example, polar bears need a cold climate.
They would be terribly hot and would die quickly in the desert. When climates start to
change, animals and plants start to die.
Deserts are areas of the world with an extremely dry climate. Hot deserts usually have
high temperatures in the daytime and cold temperatures at night. They don’t get much
rain. There is almost no water in the deserts. Officially a desert is an area that gets less
than 10 inches of rain a year. Deserts are home to different plants and animals such as
lizards or scorpions.
The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world. It is located in North Africa
and is nearly as big as Europe. The name Sahara comes from the Arabic word
for desert, sahra. The Sahara Desert covers many countries including Egypt, Libya,
Chad, Algeria, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, and Tunisia.

Deserts are not popular places to visit. People don’t prefer places with lots of sun and high
temperatures. Very few people go there because deserts can be extremely dangerous
places for people.

1. Which one changes over a long period of time? Climate or weather?

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2. What happens when the climate changes?

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3. Which areas are called desert?

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4. Where does the name of The Sahara Desert come from?

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5. Why aren’t deserts popular places to visit?

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© Pearson Education Limited GSE 30-35

Answers

1. Climate

2. Animals and plants start to die.

3. Area that get less than 10 inches of rain a year.

4. The Arabic word for desert, sahra.

5. They can be extremely dangerous. / The temperature is extremely high.