Central Themes Unit 8_4-34 Beyond Gram & Comp U1 6/14/16 10:51 PM Page 195

Lesson 2
Theme: Forest Fires

Before Reading
A. The total forest area burned by fires has been rising steadily since the 1950s. Some of
the increase has been attributed to climate change.
How does climate change result in more frequent forest fires worldwide?
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B. In pairs, fill in the chart with two negative consequences of forest disappearance on the
environment, the human health, and the economy respectively.
Negative Consequences of Forest Disappearance
Environment Health Economy
1. 1. 1.

2. 2. 2.

While Reading
A Technological Edge* on Wildfires
by Kenneth Chang

1 When the winds change, a ferocious best way to fight catastrophic fires is to
forest inferno can make a sharp turn, and keep them from growing to a catastrophic
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the fire crews battling it may need to
depend on their eyes and instincts to tell
them whether they are in danger.
Sometimes, as it appears to be the case in
the deaths of nineteen elite firefighters in
Arizona, it is already too late. Of course, the
scale. However, that is becoming more and
more difficult, as global warming raises the
likelihood of fires, especially in Western
forests. By 2050, the annual extent of forests
burned is predicted to rise by 50% or more.
Hence, officials and experts are increasingly

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relying on technology high and low* to goats, which eat shrubs.

counteract the trickery of raging wildfires.
2 In computer simulations, the United
States Forest Service sets tens of thousands
of virtual fires, factoring in* different
weather patterns, topography, vegetation,
and historical weather patterns. “You
would sort of get a map that depicts a
likelihood of fire occurrence,” said
Elizabeth Reinhardt, an assistant director of
fire ecology and fuels for the Forest Service.
3 Of the 193 million acres it manages, the
Forest Service thins out* the undergrowth
in about three million acres every year,
primarily through controlled burns or by
laboriously chopping down and removing
smaller trees and shrubs. In fact, in a few
places, it employs low-tech innovations like
4 Weather satellites high overhead capture
thunderstorms as they form, giving hints of
the gusty winds that often accompany
them. Remote-controlled unmanned
aircraft, flying over a blaze for hours at a
time, can take infrared photographs that
show its shifting edges. Those images are
beamed to iPads and Android tablets
carried by the firefighters. Last year, the
Forest Service tested iPads and smart
phones. In a pilot* program this summer,
the agency is testing out Android tablets.
“They exceeded expectations,” Laura Hill,
an information technology strategic
planner for the Forest Service, reported of
the iPads. “People find utility for them in
their jobs.”

A. Answer the questions.

1. Why does the writer relate the death of nineteen elite firefighters in Arizona?
© World Heritage Publishers Ltd.

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2. State two hi-tech measures used by the United States Forest Service to prevent the
rise of more forest fire attacks.

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3. How can low-tech practices lessen forest fire occurrences?

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5 But burning forests often have no cell inexact visual reports.

phone towers. “The real big stumbling
block we’ve got to solve now is how to get
Internet connectivity to every fire every
time,” observed Mr. Sexton, of the wild land
fire-management program. Sometimes, the
Forest Service can set up a mobile cell
phone tower or a microwave connection to
the local phone company that allows
firefighters to use small antennas to
communicate with one another. Another
possibility is an ad hoc* computer network
that allows firefighters to share information.
If, for example, the leader of a crew has
Internet connection via satellite, he will be
able to download information and share it.
Even if the Internet connection fails, the
crew members could still share information
with one another.
6 Another challenge is gathering more
complete knowledge about a fire. Currently,
for the larger fires, aircraft with infrared
sensors fly over the fire at night, producing
a map first thing in the morning for the
commanders on the ground. Updates
during the day are based on incomplete and
7 An unmanned aircraft can remain aloft*
over the fire for hours at a time. NASA
collaborated with the fire service in 2007,
providing its Ikhana aircraft, a modified
version of the predator drone fitted with
infrared sensors instead of missiles, which
flew out of the space agency’s Dryden
Flight Research Center in California. The
infrared sensors kept track of the
movement of the fires that would otherwise
have been obscured by smoke. “It was great
information,” Mr. Sexton said. “The
technology was there.”
8 Robert Roth, an aviation management
specialist for the Forest Service, thinks there
are no immediate plans to deploy* more
drones, but instead, the Forest Service is
trying to figure out what is exactly needed
and then analyze the risks and costs of
various approaches. Predators are
expensive, but smaller, lighter unmanned
aircraft may not be able to fly through the
shifting winds of the smoke columns. Thus,
existing airplanes with a flight crew aboard
may turn out to be an option.

B. Fill in the chart.

Obstacles Facing Fire Crews Possible Solutions
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1. 1.

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Obstacles Facing Fire Crews Possible Solutions

2. 2.

9 Mr. Sexton imagines that in the future,
people in the command post would be able
to see the precise position of each firefighter,
via a GPS receiver, as well as the current
spread of the fire. They would also have
access to information like calculated safe
zones to which firefighters could retreat
and the time it would take to get an injured
firefighter to medical care. “We could
remotely look at the locations of firefighters
in relation to where the fire is and the heat
signature that it’s producing, and perhaps
anticipate the movement of the fires before
reaching the crews,” Mr. Sexton explained.
“Sometimes it comes over a ridge, and the
crews can’t see it coming.”
edge advantage; margin of superiority
high and low everywhere
factoring in taking account of something when
making a calculation
thins out when one thins out a group of plants, he or
she removes some to make them fewer
pilot experimental
ad hoc formed, arranged, or done for a particular
purpose only
aloft up in the air
deploy put into use or action

After Reading
A. What does each pronoun refer to?
1. it (Paragraph 1) _______________________________________________________

2. that (Paragraph 1) _______________________________________________________

3. them (Paragraph 4) _______________________________________________________
4. They (Paragraph 4) _______________________________________________________
5. we (Paragraph 5) _______________________________________________________

6. They (Paragraph 9) _______________________________________________________

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B. Complete the graphic organizer with the required information with reference to the
technologies used in counteracting fierce fires.

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Technological
Procedure(s) Effectiveness
Approach
Fire crews obtaining a map
1. Computer
indicating the chances of fire
simulations
occurrence
Burning or cutting down
2. Shrubbery
undergrowth; goats eating
removal
shrubs
Empowering firefighters to
3. Unmanned
assess and make better rescuing
aircraft
decisions

C. Paraphrase the sentences.

1. People find utility for them in their jobs. (Paragraph 4)
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2. Updates during the day are based on incomplete and inexact visual reports.
(Paragraph 6)
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D. Answer the questions in complete sentences, without copying from the text.
1. Which evidence proves that financial difficulties might slow down the adoption of
effective precautionary measures against wildfires?
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2. How do the loaded words ferocious, inferno, sharp, battling, danger, deaths,
catastrophic, trickery, and raging wildfires used in Paragraph 1 set the mood? Explain.
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3. Is Mr. Sexton’s outlook on the future role of technology in firefighting positive or

negative? Explain.

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4. Identify the thesis statement, justifying your answer.
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5. Illustrate how the use of figurative language in Paragraph 1 helps portray the scale
of the problem.
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6. How are Paragraphs 1 and 9 thematically related? Justify.
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7. Describe Hill’s attitude in Paragraph 4. Support your answer with evidence.
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8. What is the writer’s purpose? Justify your answer.
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© World Heritage Publishers Ltd.

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E. Natural disasters, such as forest fires, earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes, cause deaths
and injuries and destroy property.
In a well-organized, unified, 300-word essay, elaborate on this statement, shedding light

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