Modals in Past.

Natural Disasters and Forecasting

Introduction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK9VJmu2ehc&t=41s

Snapshot:

Take a look on the following Weather Forecast:

Report 1:

Welcome to the weather report. Now, let’s see what the weather is like today. In
the north of the country, it’s very windy and cold. It might rain too, so don’t leave
home without your umbrella! The temperature is around 10º centigrade. In the
east it might be rainy all day today, I’m afraid. There may be a thunderstorm in
the afternoon. The temperature is a bit higher, at around 13º.

In the west and middle of the country, the weather is dry but cloudy. So no rain
for you, but it is quite windy and the temperature is just 10º. The south of the
country has the best weather today. It’s cloudy most of the time but sunny this
afternoon. The temperature is around 15º.

Report 2:

Hello, this is Cindy, reporting from TAD in Chicago. And wow, folks, it might be

very cold out here! As you can see, I’m dressed for this weather.

Right now, the temperature is under 12° C. Looking up, I can see that might be
a heavy cloud cover, which might be  making it colder and colder outside. We
should have had a lot of rain by now, as you can see behind me. It must have
felt very windy today in the morning. The wind speed is actually 7mph.
This weather will stay the same for the rest of the day. This evening, we may
expect temperatures to fall even more but with no precipitation.

To prepare for this weather, you should have done a storm cellar just in case of
worst disasters. You must have grabbed your coat, rain jacket and your boots if
you want to leave home now. You may want not to forget your umbrella!

Thanks so much for joining me for the weather report. This has been Cindy
reporting from Chicago. Remember, stay cool out there! Back to you at the
studio.

Which was your favorite?

Vocabulary:

Watch this video to get along with the most common natural disasters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3d7tJhMc1k

Activity: choose one of these natural disasters you have experienced and
describe how was it.

Grammar

Modals for present and future:

- When showing present or future time, the modal auxiliaries might, may,

could, must and should precede the simple form of the verb, as in the
example sentence below:

Look at those clouds! It might rain heavily.

- A modal followed by be + progressive verb shows that the speaker thinks

an action is happening at the moment.

It should be snowing now, but it’s not, that’s so weird in this season.
Modals in past:

-When expressing past actions, might, may, could,

must and should precede have + past participle, as in the following
example:

It must have rained all night, everything is so wet, I won’t go out today.

-To form a negative past tense modal sentence, use modal + not + have +
past participle.

It shouldn’t have happened, you knew a hurricane was coming, and still you
didn’t reinforce the fence, now we lost half of the house, it will cost thousands
to fix everything.

-To say you think an action was happening at a time in the past, use  modal +
have been + progressive verb, as in the next example.

It might have been raining when the phone cut off and the electricity might
have gone too, that’s why Maria hasn’t called back yet.

Meaning and Use

1. Might have, may have, could have

These are used to show past possibility.  In other words, they are guesses
about what happened at a period before now. 

I may have lost my wallet at the café when the earthquake started.

2. Could have
It is also used to talk about something the speaker was able to do in the past
but didn’t.

We were all having so much fun that we could have stayed longer, but the
blizzard hit all of a sudden.  (We didn’t stay longer.)

3. Must have
It is used to show probability in the past.  That is, the speaker is almost certain
that an action took place at a time before now.

He is angry now; he must have lots of money due to the droughts. All of the
crops were damaged and he ran out of water in the tanks.

4. Should have, ought to have

These are used to express advise or offer an opinion regarding the past. It
refers to an action that would have been good or appropriate, but never
happened. They are also used to express past expectation. 
We should have build the storm cellar when we had the money, now the
tornado season is coming and we don’t have where to take refuge.

5. Using “not”
The use of not with a past tense modal expresses the idea that whatever
action took place was not good or appropriate.

Peter shouldn’t have gone out without his umbrella, it was a rainy day. By the
time he came back home, he was all soaked.

Activity
Research about natural disaster to answer the following questions:

When a large area of land is covered in water it must be called a __________.

drought flood avalanche blizzard

A _________ is a large wave of water that might follow an earthquake near a

coastal area.

monsoon volcano tsunami heat wave

A hurricane is essentially the same thing as a typhoon. They just occur in

different parts of the Earth.

true false

How must be called it when we talk about weather patterns over the span of a
year: ______________.

climate forecast hurricane tornado

An avalanche occurs:

in the ocean. on mountainsides. above a rainforest.

During a drought, food prices must have gone up because:

people might be eating more. oil becomes more expensive. people

must have liked to save for better times. farmers couldn’t have grown
enough crops.

This ________ may have occurred because the plates in the Earth shifted their
places, it has causing the ground to shake violently.
ice storm avalanche typhoon earthquake
Enter the following link to practice more “Modals in Past”

https://www.esl-lounge.com/student/grammar/4g66-past-modals-exercise.php