UNIT
3 The longer read
The mystery of
raining animals
There’s a famous expression in English to refer
to heavy rain – something the English know
all about. People say ‘it’s raining cats and
dogs’ – you might know it. The origin of the
expression is a mystery. It might have come
from the fact that long ago, there were lots
of cats and dogs living in the streets of towns
and cities without owners. When there was
heavy rain, many of these poor animals died
and their bodies were left in the streets, so it
looked like they had fallen from the sky. We
understand that when we use this expression,
cats and dogs are not really falling from the
sky. However, there are plenty of examples
throughout history of animals (and other
things) falling from the sky.
Possibly the most common weird weather
event is when it rains small fish. It’s so common
in some places, such as coastal towns in
Mexico and Honduras, that it can happen
every year. In the Mexican town of Tampico in
2017, it rained small fish. In the 1970s, National
Geographic reported the same curious scenes
in the small town of Yoro, Honduras. The most
likely scientific explanation is that a weather
event called ‘waterspouts’ – similar to a
tornado but of water vapour and caused by
a storm – must have sucked up tiny fish and
other animals and then carried them in the
wind, dropping them somewhere else later.
The same explanation applies to reports of
raining frogs.
Not all animal rain is caused by rain, however.
In 2018, residents in Florida believed it must
have rained iguanas when they found these
lizards lying around their gardens. Could these
animals have been picked up by a rainstorm?
Again, this puzzling event is a bit of a mystery,
but one possible explanation is that the ‘lizard
rain’ happened during an especially cold period
Influence 4 · © Macmillan Education Limited 2020 · Your Influence B1+
in the state. Temperatures had dropped to 4°C,
and it had even snowed in some areas. Iguanas,
who are more used to warmer weather, spend
most of their time holding on to branches or
the side of a tree. When they found themselves
in these near-freezing conditions, their bodies
must have shut down and they couldn’t hang
on. So, in this case, they must have fallen to the
ground from trees. Fortunately, the animals
weren’t dead, and once the temperature had
risen they would move back to the trees again.
If you suffer from arachnophobia (fear of
spiders), this might be your worst nightmare.
No, you say, it can’t have rained spiders. Very
few types of spiders are social, usually preferring
to live on their own, but there are some species
that move around together, like bees or ants.
Together they build enormous webs to catch
insects. Usually, these huge structures are close
to the ground in the form of terrifying sheets
of thick webs. But sometimes they’re higher
up, and if it’s windy, some of the spiders might
fall – it might actually rain spiders. This is
what might have happened in 2013, near Sao
Paolo in Brazil. With a strong enough wind, the
spiders could have dropped from their webs
and rained down on the locals below.
So even if it’s not raining, you might want to
take an umbrella.
 UNIT
3 The longer read
1 Read the article. Match the animals with
the places.
Animals: spiders; iguanas; fish
Places: Mexico; Brazil; Honduras; Florida
2 Read the article again. Choose the correct
option a–c.
1 Where does the expression ‘it’s raining
cats and dogs’ come from?
a Nobody really knows.
b It rained cats and dogs once.
c The animals were killed in heavy rain.
2 How do we know that raining fish
happens frequently?
a T he weather that causes it is
very common.
b It’s an annual event in some places.
c T here are many reports of it around
the world.
3 Which two animal rain events might be
caused by the wind?
a fish and iguanas
b fish and spiders
c iguanas and spiders
4 Why did the iguanas in Florida fall to
the ground?
a I t rained so hard that they fell out of
the trees.
b T hey fell from the trees because it
was snowing.
c T heir bodies stopped working because
of the low temperature.
5 What is unusual about the account of the
raining spiders?
aS  piders don’t normally form
large groups.
b It doesn’t often rain in Sao Paolo.
c The spiders were very large.
3 Are the sentences T (true) or F (false)?
Correct the false sentences.
1 One possible explanation of the
expression ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’ is
that the animals fell off roofs onto the
streets when it rained heavily.
Influence 4 · © Macmillan Education Limited 2020 · Your Influence B1+
2 It only rains fish in towns near the sea. T/F
3 Some people thought that the iguanas
might have come with the rain. T/F
4 When the weather was warmer, the
iguanas moved to another area. T/F
5 The spiders in Brazil probably fell out
of their webs because of the wind. T/F
6 These types of spiders work with
bees and ants to build webs. T/F
Subskill: Guessing meaning
There are different ways of guessing
the meaning of a word you don’t know.
What part of speech is it? Do you
recognise any part of the word? Can
the word/sentences before/after the
word help you? Can the topic help you?
4 Word work Match the definitions to the
underlined words in the text.
1 very small drops of water in the air
2 extremely frightening
3 the place or moment when something
begins
4 the people who live in a particular
place
5 very strange and unusual
6 on land near the sea
5 Of these three mysterious weather events,
which one would you be most frightened
of? Why? Which one do you think is the
most dangerous? Why?
T/F