Episode 0192

Hello everyone and welcome back to English Pod. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine. And today we have a very, uh, weather-focused lesson. It's all about all the horrible things that can happen to you with the weather.

Exactly. So as you know, there are many different types of weather, uh, not only rain or sunshine, but many other phenomena.

So, we're going to take a look at some of those, but before we go into it, let's take a look at one word on vocabulary preview.

Vocabulary preview.

Okay, so we're talking about extreme weather today.

That's not rain or drizzle or sunshine. We're talking about really interesting, unique, and sometimes devastating things that can happen.

So today's vocabulary word is Armageddon.

All right. So Armageddon. Now, you've probably seen the movie Armageddon.

So what does this word mean?

Okay, so this word is a reference to the end of the world. It means the time when the world will end because of a great catastrophe or a great disaster.

Okay.

So everyone talks about Armageddon, it's mentioned in the Bible, and as you say, it's when the world stops existing.

Exactly. So, think about that one as we listen to today's dialogue.

We will be back in a minute to talk about what's going on.

Those are the headlines for today. And now for the international weather report with Mike Sanderson.

Thank you, Bob.

This past week has been the beginning of Armageddon for many.

As a series of unprecedented meteorological events occurred around the world.

In Switzerland, a major avalanche was reported in the Alps.

Fortunately, no one was injured.

Due to the extreme cold this winter, a blizzard has struck the US Midwest.

Causing classes in schools and universities to be temporarily canceled.

Moving on to Latin America, Ecuador has suffered a six-month drought that has not only affected farming.

But has also forced the closure of the hydroelectric power plant that provides electricity for the entire country.

In Chile, a major earthquake that registered 7.5 on the Richter scale struck the Southern region.

Authorities have not yet released an official statement.

Any good news?

One of the major volcanoes in Mexico has erupted, causing major floods and landslides in the region.

Meanwhile, Mexico's coast has been hit by Hurricane Liliana, and officials say that all the seismic activity leads them to believe that a tsunami may hit Central America, affecting Honduras, Guatemala, and Panama.

That's all the news we have for today, but stay tuned for updates on the 6 o'clock news.

Back to you, Bob.

All right, we're back. And well, this weather report is not really far from the truth.

I mean, this kind of stuff happens every day all over the world, right?

We've heard of a lot of earthquakes and volcanoes and things like that. So, this is very valuable stuff when you're trying to talk about current events as well.

Okay. So, why don't we start now analyzing a couple of different words and phrases on language takeaway.

Language takeaway.

Well, the first vocabulary item we have here is meteorological event.

It's a real mouthful.

long word.

Meteorological.

So, for example, meteorological means having to do with the weather, something that's related to the weather.

So, a meteorological event could be rain.

Snow.

Okay.

So, it has to do with meteorology.

Meteorology is the study of the weather, and someone who does this is a meteorologist.

So, usually the weathermen, uh, that you see on TV, they're meteorologists.

Right. Okay.

So, meteorological events.

Now, moving on, one of the first events that we're going to look at is an avalanche.

Avalanche.

An avalanche has to do with snow.

This means that when a mountain that has a lot of snow on it, um, maybe part of that snow breaks off and starts to roll down, um, you have a wall of snow that comes down. That's an avalanche.

That's an avalanche.

And the snow comes down.

And it's actually very dangerous because people can get buried under the snow.

Yeah, exactly.

All right. So, another event that has to do with snow is a blizzard.

Okay, a blizzard is different from an avalanche because an avalanche, maybe it's not snowing, the snow just falls.

But in a blizzard, you're talking about a storm of snow.

But it's like a lot of snow coming down from the sky.

So much snow that you probably can't see anything.

There's just white everywhere.

Okay.

All right, so that's a blizzard. A lot of, lot of snow coming down from the sky.

Now, moving on, the opposite of snow and things being wet is we have a drought.

Yeah, this is the opposite of wet, actually.

So there's no rain in a drought.

A drought means that things are very dry. The land is very dry.

Okay, so it's a period of time that there's no snow, there's no water, there's no rain, there's nothing. It's very, very dry.

We're going through a drought.

Okay. So you gotta watch out for a drought.

Now, in this case, it not only affected farming, but also we have a hydroelectric power plant that can't work, obviously, because there's no water.

So, hydro means water.

Mhm.

Hydroelectric means electricity that is generated by flowing water.

And so, for example, a mill, something that turns water on a river is a way to get power from water.

But a hydroelectric, uh, project that can give you electricity is maybe like a dam or, um, an electric mill.

Right.

So, usually you have these on rivers, and they just take advantage of the flowing of water to turn some huge turbines and generate power.

So, that's all we have for now. Why don't we listen to the dialogue again.

And we'll be back shortly to take a look at some more words.

Those are the headlines for today. And now for the international weather report with Mike Sanderson.

Thank you, Bob.

This past week has been the beginning of Armageddon for many.

As a series of unprecedented meteorological events occurred around the world.

In Switzerland, a major avalanche was reported in the Alps.

Fortunately, no one was injured.

Due to the extreme cold this winter, a blizzard has struck the US Midwest.

Causing classes in schools and universities to be temporarily canceled.

Moving on to Latin America, Ecuador has suffered a six-month drought that has not only affected farming.

But has also forced the closure of the hydroelectric power plant that provides electricity for the entire country.

In Chile, a major earthquake that registered 7.5 on the Richter scale struck the Southern region.

Authorities have not yet released an official statement.

Any good news?

One of the major volcanoes in Mexico has erupted, causing major floods and landslides in the region.

Meanwhile, Mexico's coast has been hit by Hurricane Liliana, and officials say that all the seismic activity leads them to believe that a tsunami may hit Central America, affecting Honduras, Guatemala, and Panama.

That's all the news we have for today, but stay tuned for updates on the 6 o'clock news.

Back to you, Bob.

Well, a word that many people are unfortunately familiar with is Richter or Richter scale.

And now this is something that a lot of people are talking about right now because of the earthquake in Sichuan, China last year.

And so the Richter scale, uh, that's a big R because it's a proper name.

Is a way for us to determine how severe, how big the earthquake was.

Right. So people talk about a 6.0, a 7.1.

So that's on the Richter scale.

The lowest is zero, and the highest is 10, correct?

Right.

But 10 is like impossible, apparently.

Apparently. And a lot of them are actually underwater. But the very serious ones are maybe 8.0, 7.0.

Mhm. All right. So Richter scale.

Now, we talked about earthquakes, we talk about snowing.

Now, let's talk about a volcano. A volcano in Mexico has erupted.

Okay, so we've got two words here, volcano. A volcano is a mountain that has an opening in the center where lava from the middle of the earth, the center of the earth can come out.

So it's very dangerous, obviously, because it's very hot.

Right.

But a volcano doesn't open, it erupts.

So the verb here that we use with a volcano is to erupt.

Okay, so it doesn't explode, a volcano erupts.

That means to open violently very quickly.

Okay.

So when this happens, obviously you have a lot of lava, you have maybe snow that melts and you have floods and landslides.

Okay, landslides. A landslide is one word, but it's made up of two words that you probably already know.

So land, obviously, it's the ground and things like that, the earth.

But a slide is to move down across the ground.

And so a landslide happens when you've got something, um, like lava or water that's pushing all of the earth, all of the ground down.

Right. So you usually see this that happens, um, on the side of mountains or on the side of hills where all that land starts to slide down or to go down.

And it's very similar to an avalanche, right? But instead of snow falling down, it's a mud and land.

Mud and land, yeah.

All right. So we have a landslide, and because of all the, uh, eruptions and the earthquakes, they said that they have a lot of seismic activity.

This word seismic is something that I've heard a lot recently in movies like 2012.

Yeah.

Um, so seismic means, um, having to do with the movement of the plates under the earth's crust.

So, you know, the earth is, is not everything that we see, it's also activity, things happening underneath the ground.

And so underneath the ground, we have these big plates, and seismic activity is what happens when these kind of things start to move.

Activity is movement.

And so seismic activity refers to earthquakes and volcanoes, things that are changing under the ground that will affect us.

Okay.

So that's seismic activity. It's pronounced seismic, right?

Seismic, that's right.

Okay.

And, uh, because of all this activity, uh, people say that they may have a tsunami.

Well, this doesn't sound very English, does it?

I know, tsunami.

And actually, if you see the spelling, it's with a T, T S.

Right, I think it's a Japanese word, but I'm not positive.

I think so too.

Um, tsunami is the name that we give to a giant tidal wave.

So that's a wave of water in the ocean that's very, very dangerous because it can get to 100, 200 feet tall.

Mhm.

Right.

And, um, there was a very, very famous tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004.

Do you remember that?

Yeah, and in in in Indonesia, right?

That's right, Indonesia and Thailand and Vietnam.

Yeah, it was it was intense, it was big.

And it was also because of an earthquake, right?

I think so. All these earthquakes, they move the earth around, and then all of a sudden, the the reaction is that there's water that moves, and the water then, yeah, turns into a wave.

It's a huge wave.

Yeah, just imagine what happens if you have if you have a bucket of water and then you start moving the bucket just a little bit, and just you see how it just water starts to splat all over the place.

That's right.

All right, so tsunami was our last word for today. Why don't we listen to our dialogue again, and we'll be back shortly.

So Marco, these are all pretty terrifying.

Have you ever experienced a meteorological event like one of the ones that we talked about today?

I've, uh, I've actually lived through, like, three earthquakes, like, pretty big ones.

Um, apart from that, I actually, I've seen a volcano erupt a couple of times.

Because, you know, Ecuador is a, is, is part of the volcano alley, right?

It's all the Andes Mountains, and it's part of the Ring of Fire, what they call.

So we have a couple of different active volcanoes, and from time to time, they will start to smoke or to spew some lava.

But nothing major, like there hasn't been a major catastrophe with the volcanoes.

Hopefully, it won't either.

Well, and these days they have a lot of equipment, uh, seismic equipment and meteorological equipment.

That can help meteorologists to determine when things will happen, like when a volcano will erupt or if there will be an earthquake, because they can study the tremors in the ground.

Right.

Yeah, and I think probably the most famous, uh, volcano is, I think it was in Italy, right? Mount Vesuvius.

That's right.

So you've got Mount Vesuvius in Naples, which famously destroyed a number of cities in this ancient civilization in ancient.

What is a major Roman times?

It was, and what's amazing is that they still have a lot of the the buildings under the ash.

Underground, right?

Because when all the ash settled, it preserved the bodies, like a mummy.

And so you can see the bodies and the things that they, you know, their jewelry and their money, and it's fascinating because it's this horrible, horrible natural disaster.

Actually helped us in the future learn about this old civilization.

Old civilization.

Yeah. It's crazy. Actually, in uh, in Ecuador, you can see a huge hole that has like a a lake in the middle.

And you're like, oh, wow, that's beautiful.

But that's actually caused because the entire mountain just kind of blew the top off, like the cone, because of this major eruption.

So you can just imagine how powerful these eruptions are. I I can just imagine what it would have been like Mount Vesuvius.

But anyway, on a brighter note, if you have any questions, any comments.

Or any stories of your own, maybe you've uh, you've lived through a typhoon, a hurricane, a tornado.

Um, you can come to our website, Englishpod.com.

We hope to see you there.

All right.

Bye, guys.

Bye.

The English audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Great snow.

Blizzard.

A prolonged period of scanty rainfall.

Drought.

A very big rain and windstorm.

Hurricane.

A large sea wave produced by an earthquake.

Tsunami.

Something tech relating to or caused by an earthquake.

Seismic activity.

Let's try that faster.

A very big rain and windstorm.

Hurricane.

A prolonged period of scanty rainfall.

Drought.

Something tech relating to or caused by an earthquake.

Seismic activity.

Great snow.

Blizzard.

A large sea wave produced by an earthquake.

Tsunami.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Blizzard.

With the blizzard came strong gusts of wind, freezing temperatures, and near zero visibility because of all the blowing snow.

Blizzard.

The blizzard warning will remain in effect until tomorrow morning when the winds will die down to about 30 kilometers per hour.

Blizzard.

If you really need to venture out into that blizzard with your car, you're going to have to go at a crawl because of the near whiteout conditions and the danger of drifting.

Drought.

The lack of rain in the spring and the above average temperatures caused a drought in the late summer.

Drought.

We have to start conserving water because of the drought.

Drought.

For about half a decade in the 1930s, the prairies in Canada and the United States experienced a severe drought, during which there were numerous dust storms and the land became a wasteland.

Hurricane.

Several mudslides occurred in this region shortly after the hurricane passed through.

Hurricane.

North Atlantic hurricanes are formed off the tip of Africa, build as they travel across the Atlantic Ocean, and then finally hit the Caribbean and the southern United States at full force.

Hurricane.

The weather became very calm all of a sudden, and we knew that the eye of the hurricane was passing over us.

Seismic activity.

He measured the earthquakes using a seismograph and noticed the increase in seismic activity.

Seismic activity.

Seismic activity can cause new landmasses to form and the destruction of others.

Seismic activity.

The seismic activity caused earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and multiple tsunamis.

Tsunami.

When there is a massive earthquake on the ocean floor, a lot of water is displaced, forming a tsunami as this water travels towards land.

Tsunami.

The Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 was caused by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded.

Tsunami.

She looked out over the land, still flooded in areas by water left by the tsunami that had ravaged her home just days before.