Storm Busters!

A - Before you start Name___________________________ Answer the questions with a partner. 1. What do you know about tornadoes? Score: ___________ Grade __________ 2. Have you ever seen one? 3. Do they ever happen in your country? Storm Busters! Speaker: Chuck Rolando (Standard American accent) It is storm-chasing season in Tornado Alley, USA. Tour companies offer courageous, and possibly insane, tourists the chance to see a tornado from a distance of only 300 metres. The season runs from May 1st to June 30th. DANGEROUS TERRITORY Tornado Alley is famous for its thunderstorms and tornadoes. It’s located between the Rocky and the Appalachian mountain ranges: hundreds of miles of flat, open plains. It runs through Northern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. The buildings in this region have reinforced roofs, solid foundations and storm cellars. Local people rely on storm warnings to avoid disaster. ADRENALINE! Tornadoes are very dangerous, so why do people want to chase them? Documentary-maker Sean Casey says, “It’s addictive!” His driver Byron Turk agrees: “It’s the adrenaline…the ultimate challenge!” Casey built a Tornado Intercept Vehicle. It weighs 680 kilos and has steel- plated armour. Its windows are 4 centimetres thick. Casey and his team filmed as a tornado hit the vehicle. You can see his documentaries on the Discovery Channel. A BIG RISK Are you still interested in storm- chasing? Well, it’s very important to find expert guides. A company like “Storm Chasing Adventure Tours” (SCAT) can guarantee tourists’ safety. They have years of experience, and understand how storms develop. They use advanced computer systems to predict the location of the storms. SCAT chief Todd Thorn says, however: “Guides cannot rely only on the technology. They must have the ability to read the sky.” The SCAT team aren’t simply tourist guides. They also provide important information to National Weather Centres on the position and strength of storms. They help save lives. UNBELIEVABLE Storms usually occur in the late afternoon, early evening. Teams must drive hundreds of miles to arrive at storm locations. So they leave their base in Amarillo, Texas in the morning. The chase often continues until late in the evening. What is it like to chase a storm? SCAT driver Kevin Harned says: “It’s one thing to see a tornado on TV, but totally different to see it with your own eyes!” NASA and VORTEX Scientific teams want to improve our ability to predict tornadoes. The international VORTEX research team sends over 30 vehicles to follow each tornado and collect data. The film Twister (1996), starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, portrayed one of the first VORTEX teams in the 1990s. At the same time, NASA is studying satellite images of tornadoes. Today National Weather Centres can give 13-minute warnings before tornadoes hit. VORTEX and NASA hope to predict tornadoes earlier, so they can warn residents at least 30 minutes before they arrive. This will certainly stop events like the Greensburg, Kansas disaster, which took place on May 4th 2007. On that occasion 11 people died and the entire city was destroyed. B - Listen and answer /5 Read these statements and write T (True) or F (False). 1. Tornadoes are a tourist attraction in Tornado Alley. _____ 2. The storm-chasing season lasts for three months. _____ 3. Tornado Alley runs through several States of the USA. _____ 4. A tornado hit Sean Casey’s vehicle while he was filming. _____ 5. Storms usually happen late at night. _____ C - Read and answer Read the article and answer the questions. /12 1. How near can tourists get to a tornado? 2. What kind of country is Tornado Alley? 3. What protection do the inhabitants of this area have from tornadoes? 4. What makes Sean Casey’s vehicle so strong? 5. How do expert storm chasers predict the location of storms and tornadoes? 6. In what way do members of the SCAT team help to save lives? /7 D - Learn it! Use it! Complete these sentences with words from the glossary (the words in bold and red). You may have to adapt the expression in some way; e.g. change from singular to plural. 1. If you read a lot of articles in English, your knowledge of English vocabulary will ______________________. 2. The highest mountain ______________________ in the world is the Himalayas. 3. Another word for “crazy” is ______________________. 4. Jane is very helpful. You can ______________________on her if you need a hand. 5. Don’t take too many of those tablets. Some doctors say they’re ___________________. 6. That suitcase looks heavy. How much does it ______________________? 7. Look at those dark clouds. We’re going to have a ______________________. E – Ready for KET? (Paper 1, Part 5) /8 Choose the best word for each space. Storm chasers are people 1 ________ (what/which/who) drive around in special vehicles and follow storms and tornadoes 2 _________ (for/to/so) photograph or study them. They use computer systems to predict where the storms will be. They also rely 3 ________ (at/on/to) their experience of how storms develop. Sometimes they 4 ________ (have/must/will) to drive hundreds of miles across the flat open plains of Tornado Alley before arriving 5 ________ (to/by/at) the location of a storm. Many people wonder 6 ________ (how/which/what) it’s like to chase a storm. Storm chaser Kevin Harned says: “It’s 7 ________ (a/one/another) thing to see a tornado on TV, but totally different to see it with your own eyes.” However, anybody who is interested 8 _______ (in/about/to) trying it should find expert guides to accompany them. .

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