Unit 11

It’s Really Worth Seeing!

Before reading:

What are the names of the four seasons?

Match the description with each season by putting the letter on the lines provided.

1. summer: ______ and ______ a. leaves drop from the trees e. snow thaws
2. fall: ______ and ______ b. snow falls f. leaves turn colors
3. winter: ______ and ______ c. temperatures drop g. hot
4. spring: ______ and ______ d. humid h. flowers bloom

After first reading:

Vocabulary related to the Internet.

Use the article to decide what each of these words mean.

1. site
a) to look for information b) a Web page c) a place where there are leaves
2. hit
a) punch b) type in information on a keyboard c) visit a Web site
3. search engine
a) a Web page that helps find information b) a motor for a computer
c) a place where you can find engine parts
4. online
a) connected to the Internet b) Web site c) looking for information on the Web
5. leaf-cams
a) Web sites about leaves b) cameras that show leaf colors
c) experts on leaf colors
6. real-time images
a) pictures of last year’s treesb) images of a clock
c) pictures of trees and how they look at that moment
7. printouts
a) computer-printed sheets b) to copy c) Internet phone calls

After second reading:

Discuss the following questions.

1. What does it mean to go “leaf-peeping”?

2. Why is it hard to determine the best time to see the leaves turn?
3. How has the Internet helped “leaf-peepers”?
Unit 11
It’s Really Worth Seeing!

Leaf Peeping Goes High Tech

By JANE MARGOLIES

When Christina Fazzone wanted to plan a leaf-peeping trip for some friends from
California, she didn't want to leave things to chance. She spent an entire day online,
checking out foliage Web sites. "I wanted them to see the most dramatic color," she said. "I
thought the Web would give me the best information about where and when to go."

Peepers, start your search engines.

With the fall leaf season in full swing, more than a dozen foliage Web sites are used by
many people to take the guesswork out of finding the season's elusive peak. They offer
everything from leaf-cams showing real-time images to foliage maps that turn from yellow
to red to brown, just as the leaves do. And traffic at sites, from yankeefoliage.com to
foliagenetwork.com, is up 25 percent or more this year. "We've been amazed at how
popular our site has become," according to Kelly Hokkanen of mainefoliage.com, where
hits have tripled over the last five years.
Among the new e-peepers are Doug and Jan Clarke, who recently flew in from England
to see the leaves. They were armed with printouts from Web pages and long lists of spots
they should hit.
But can technology really turn the annual leaf-peeping pilgrimage — by nature a hit or
miss proposition — into a sure thing?
Tourism officials note that despite the high-tech trappings, the annual ritual of
predicting color progression and "leaf drop" is hardly an exact science. "There's no
measuring machine that you can point at trees," said Donald Smith, director of forest
management for Connecticut. (In fact, many of the sites depend on volunteer leaf watchers
for their assessments.)
"Some people want to know what day, what time, the leaves will peak," said Margaret
Joyce of the New Hampshire tourism office. "They think we're going to flip a switch."
These days, Judy Bigelow regularly visits nine Web sites, scrutinizing leaf reports to
plan her various excursions. "I go nuts during the fall," she said. Still, despite all the time
that Ms. Bigelow logs on foliage Web sites, she said she missed the peak in three of the last
four years.
Is she upset? Not at all. "We still managed to be awestruck," she said.

Adapted from www.nytimes.com