Extreme Living

Look at this painting. When was it painted, you think? What season is it? What country is it?

What can you see in it?

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What do you know about Ice Age?

What is the Little Ice Age?

Have you heard about Mount Tambora?

How can volcanoes influence the climate, you think?

Look at two parts of phrases and match the beginnings to the endings:

A	B
freeze year come global volcanic spew block out	to death the sun eruption gas and ash without summer cooling and go

Watch the video and answer the questions.

Why is summer 1816 called the summer without summer?

1. What do scientists call the Little Ice Age?
2. Where is Mount Tambora?
3. How did Tambora's eruption affect:

• the climate
• the crops
• the population
• the literature?

Think of a definition for the term 'volcanic winter'.

English poet Lord Byron lived at the times when Mount Tambora exploded. Read a piece af his poem and say what the weather was like.

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air

-Darkness by Lord Byron

1. How do we know that the disaster happened for real?
2. Which adjectives tell us that the sky went dark?
3. How do we know that it got cold?
4. How do we know that the disaster was global?

Here are some more facts about the Little Ice Age. Put in the words describing cold weather in the right places:

Arctic snowfall harsh bitter frost freeze iced

1. The winter of 1607-1608 has gone down in history as one of Europe’s “great winters,” bringing ... cold, snow, and ice.
2. In the Netherlands, the ... began in late December and continued with few interruptions into late March.
3. On arrival in North America, Europeans’ hopes were dashed by the ... winters.
4. In Ireland, wrote one chronicler, “in the winter of this year was a great ... , which began a little before Christmas, and continued till about Midlent.''
5. In Germany, heavy rain and flooding in early winter soon gave way to ice: the Rhine froze all the way up to Cologne, and the Main ... up all the way past Frankfurt.
6. The cold was so extreme and the freeze so great and ... , that nothing seemed like it in the memory of man,” wrote the diarist Pierre de l’Estoile.
7. Spain faced bitter cold, frozen rivers, and .... as late as May 1608.

 hurricane open water tropical cyclone heatwave desert blizzard dust storm mountain peak foot of a volcano

a remote archipelago drought flash flood high winds

Put these words in two categories:

Extreme weather:

Extreme places to live:

Read the article and say how people can survive in these extreme places:

The World’s Extreme Climates And The People Who Live There

Every human being who has ever lived was born on Earth. With the exception of a few professional space travelers, no member of our species has ever traveled farther than a few dozen miles from its surface. Every person you’ve ever known or read about has lived here, inside a thin layer sandwiched between the hot lower layers of the crust and the frigid upper atmosphere. Just about all of the life known or suspected to exist in the universe evolved in this tiny pocket, and virtually none of it will ever leave. Pity it’s such a dump.

It’s not all bad, of course—especially when it’s compared to some of the planets out there, like Venus—but there’s no denying how badly adapted humans are to live in almost every environment on Earth. It’s so rough that we’ve had to invent technology to shelter ourselves from nature in almost every place we live, lest we immediately die of exposure. With that in mind, it might be fun to have a look at some of the most extreme permanently inhabited places in the world.

The Hottest Human-Occupied Place In The World: Mecca

Mecca is the hottest continuously inhabited place on Earth, according to Weather Underground. How hot does it get there? Well, do you consider 101 degrees a hot day? Because that’s the average high in Mecca in April. Now think about the tourist boom in Mecca that comes with every Ramadan, which in 2014 fell during July, when the city is a nice, frosty 109 degrees every day, though it’s been known to hit 121 on occasion.

The Coldest Human-Occupied Place In The World: Grise Fiord, Canada

On the complete opposite side of creation from the blazing sun of Mecca, Grise Fiord, Canada is the coldest inhabited place in the world. In the local Inuktitut language, the place is known as Aujuittuq, or the “place that never thaws,” a name of such stunning obviousness it’s like calling Mount Everest “high place.”

The Driest Human-Occupied Place In The World: Atacama, Chile

Here’s what Alonso de Ercilla had to say about the Atacama desert in 1569: “Towards Atacama, near the deserted coast, you see a land without men, where there is not a bird, not a beast, nor a tree, nor any vegetation.” Near the town of Calama, in Chile’s Atacama desert, it would rain a little bit the year after he wrote that—and then not at all until 1971.

The Wettest Human-Occupied Place In The World: Meghalaya, India

Apart from some ocean basins, Meghalaya, India, is the wettest place on Earth. It averages 467 inches of annual precipitation, with an astounding 2,300 inches falling during the June monsoon. That’s 191 feet, which is 60 times Seattle’s annual rainfall total in a single month. This all happens because the warm, moist air of the monsoon flows over Bangladesh, strikes the Khasi hills above Meghalaya, and drops its moisture as rain all at once over a surprisingly small area. For comparison, imagine wringing a large storm cloud like a dishrag over your neighborhood 29 days a month all summer.

Wooden structures rot pretty quickly in Meghalaya, which has moved the locals to build bridges and ladders out of the living roots of rubber trees. Once the bamboo scaffolding rots away, in about 6 to 8 years, the remaining structure will be strong enough for foot traffic and can last over 500 years.

The Windiest Human-Occupied Place In The World: Wellington, New Zealand

There are windier places on Earth than Wellington, NZ, but most of them are inhabited by penguins. Wellington averages wind speeds of 29 kph, which is a full 11 kilometers an hour higher than Chicago’s average. During the windiest year on record, the city experienced gale-force winds on 233 out of 365 days, and gusts have gotten as high as 248 kph.

The Highest Human-Occupied Place In The World: La Rinconada, Peru

La Rinconada, Peru, is the highest permanent human settlement. Over 30,000 people live here, at an altitude of over 16,700 feet, with half the Earth’s atmosphere beneath them. Of course, 30,000 people don’t just accidentally wind up three times higher than Denver deep in the Peruvian Andes, where the average temperature is just above freezing. The town is built around an absurdly profitable gold mine that has thrived as gold prices more than doubled from 2000 to 2014. None of that gets to the miners, of course. Rather than being paid wages, the mine workers are required to work 30 days a month without pay. On the 31st day, any ore they carry out is all theirs. Of course, the ore they carry out might not actually have any gold in it, but that’s their problem.

True or Flase?

1. In comparison to the Earth, Venus is a less inhabitable planet.
2. The human race occupies but a small layer of living space.
3. Humans are well-adapted to any environment on Earth.
4. The tourist boom in Mecca coincides with the holiday of Ramadan.
5. Grise Fiord in Canada is called 'the place that never freezes' by the locals.
6. Meghalaya in India is so wet because it's near some hot lakes.
7. People in Meghalaya build bridges that last for centuries.
8. Wellington winesses more than a half of windy days through the whole year.
9. People live so high in Peru because they escaped from the town where politics didn't arrange them.

Find words that mean the following:

1. the part of our planet which is hard and rocky (5)
2. change over time, especially about living organisms (6)
3. used to living in a certain place with certain conditions (7)
4. being unprotected from external environment (8)
5. very hot and dangerous (of the sun) (7)
6. melt (4)
7. the quantity of rain over a certain time period (13)
8. a seasonal prevailing wind in the South and SE Asia (7)
9. very strong (about winds) (4-5)
10. wind blowing at times (4)
11. a place to live (10)
12. the height of a place above the sea level (8)
13. a person whose job is to look for precious metals, and other minerals like coal or diamonds (5)
14. a naturally occurring solid material from which a metal or valuable mineral can be extracted profitably (3)

You are going to watch a news report about jungle survival. Watch and answer the questions:

https://youtu.be/S0kAWL1BVjw

1 In which country was Amanda Eller travelling?

2 What happened to her?

3 What clothes was she wearing?

4 How long was she lost for?

5 How did they find her in the end?

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Past simple or Past continuous? Watch again and use the right form of the verb in the sentences:

1. Her ordeal (begin) 3 weeks ago when the 35-year-old physical therapist and yoga instructor (go) on a three-mile jog.
2. Amanada (jog) on this very trail when she (pull) over to rest.
3. She (try) to make her way back to the car but she (not realise) she actually (hike) deeper and deeper into this forest.
4. After several hours and many wrong turns she (find) herself in a maze.
5. Peter Boheze (pilot) that rescue mission.
6. He says he was just about to run out of fuel when he (spot) her.
7. 'We (cry) nad (scream) and (laugh). It was just a relief.'
8. Eller (lose) 20 pounds as she (struggle) to survive in this dense jungle.
9. She only (wear) yoga clothes and actually (lose) her shoes in a flash flood.
Here are some sentences from another survival story. What words do you think are missing?

1 One morning he went jogging.

2 While he ... jogging he got lost.

3 He ... running and listening to music.

4 He ... see where he was going.

5 How long ... he lost for?

6 ... someone looking for him?

Let's make a rule:

We use the past 1 ... to talk about finished actions in the past.

We use the past 2 ... to talk about actions in progress in the past.

3 We use when / while before the past simple.

4 We use when / while before the past continuous.

Choose the correct verbs to complete the sentences.

1 Sam jogged / was jogging when he got / was getting lost.

2 I watched / was watching the news when I saw / was seeing an interesting story.

3 When the helicopter found / was finding him, a lot of people looked / were looking for him.

4 When he ran / was running out of water, he still tried / was still trying to find the ranch.

5 It didn’t rain / wasn’t raining when Sam started / was starting his run.

6 He lost / was losing his sunglasses while he walked / was walking in the outback.

Say the sentences in two different ways. Use when or while.

1 Peter was walking in the forest. He got lost.

While Peter was walking in the forest, he got lost.

Peter was walking in the forest when he got lost.

2 We were driving. A dog ran in front of our car.

3 She was looking at the map. She dropped her camera.

4 I was reading the compass. Julia was putting on suncream.

5 We were sleeping in our tent. It started to rain.

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Survival quiz

What is the best advice in each situation?

1 Walking in the jungle, a poisonous tarantula spider falls on your arm. What is the best thing to do?

• Gently remove the spider with a flat object.
• Stay still. Wait for the spider to crawl off your arm.

2 You are lost in the forest. You are really hungry. You see some white berries on a tree.

• Don't eat the berries. Keep looking for something else to eat.
• White berries are safe, so eat as many as you can to build your strength.

3 You are thirsty in the jungle. Which water is safest to drink?

• Rainwater.
• Water from the fast-flowing stream.

4 What should you do if your leg is bitten by a poisonous snake?

• Suck the poison out of the wound.
• Keep the leg as still as possible.
5 You realise you are lost in th ejungle. Which is more important now?

• a place to shelter.
• some food to keep your strength.

6 What unlikely object can you make fire from?

• ice
• rocks

7 What should you NOT drink if you're dehydrated?

• soda
• salt water
8 How long can a healthy human go without food as long as they have water?

• three days
• four weeks
• eight weeks

9 How many days can the human body live without water?

• eight days
• three days
Answer key