Over 200 people have died in India because of a heat wave. Temperatures rose to 50 degrees Centigrade in the state of Orissa on June 19. The heat wave has affected most of India. The capital city New Delhi has seen temperatures of over 40 Celsius throughout June. The hot weather has forced many schools to stay closed, which means summer vacation for kids has been extended. To make matters worse, many states are experiencing power cuts and have no electricity. This means people cannot use their fans or air conditioners.

Weather forecasters say the boiling temperatures are because of the late arrival of the summer monsoon rains. This has made life very hard for most Indians. Sanjay Bhal from West Bengal said: “There is no escape. I have never known such a scorching hot sun.” His neighbour Bidde Gupta also complained of the never-ending heat. She said the baking hot spell seemed to be endless. She also said: “My house is like an oven. We are being roasted, even as we sleep.” Meteorologists predict the hot and dry weather to continue until the end of June.

WARM-UPS

1. HEAT WAVE: Imagine there is a heat wave in your town – everyday is 50 degrees Centigrade. (In very hot countries imagine there is a freezing spell – every day is minus 20 degrees.) Talk to your partner(s) about living in such heat (cold). What do you do to stay cool (warm). How does the heat (cold) affect your daily life? Change partners often.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Heat waves / the sun / India / 50 degrees Celsius / power cuts / fans / air conditioners / monsoons / ovens / weather forecasters

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

3. HEAT: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word “heat”. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

4. TWO-MINUTE HEAT DEBATES: With a partner, take part in these fun 2-minute debates. Students A strongly believe in the opinions on the left, Students B support the opinions on the right. Change partners often.

1. Hot weather is best. vs. Cold weather is best.
2. Sitting on a beach is life’s greatest pleasure. vs. Sitting on a beach is crazy.
3. Skiing is great fun. vs. Snow and freezing weather is not fun.
4. Summer fashions are best. vs. Winter fashions are best.
5. Kenya’s climate is better than Iceland’s. vs. Iceland’s climate is better than Kenya’s.
6. Sunstroke is worse than frostbite. vs. Frostbite is worse than sunstroke.
7. Air conditioners are heaven. vs. Log fires are the greatest.
8. Summer is the best season. vs. Winter is the best season.

5. EXTREME WEATHER:

In pairs / groups, talk about which of these places you would like to live in or choose not to live in:

• England – Extremely gray skies and non-stop rain.
• Saudi Arabia – Boiling hot, dry and sandy every day of the year.
• Iceland – Freezing cold temperatures every day with few hours of daylight.
• Philippines – Very humid every day with lots of typhoons.
• Antarctica – Nothing but snow, ice, below-zero temperatures every day and penguins.
• New York City – Boiling hot in the summer, freezing cold in the winter.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	Baking heat has killed hundreds of people in India.	T / F
b.	Temperatures touched 50 degrees Celsius in one Indian state.	T / F
c.	Schools have opened early so students have more time to study.	T / F
d.	The heat has melted air conditioners and fans.	T / F
e.	The heat wave is because the summer monsoon arrived early.	T / F
f.	A man from West Bengal has never known such a scorching hot sun.	T / F
g.	A woman compared her house to an oven.	T / F
h.	Meteorologists say the heat wave will continue until August.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	rose	touched
b.	affected	burning
c.	seen	outages
d.	stay	refuge
e.	cuts	increased
f.	weather forecasters	remain
g.	escape	never-ending
h.	scorching	witnessed
i.	endless	forecast
j.	predict	meteorologists

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	Temperatures rose	many schools to stay closed
b.	The heat wave has	the never-ending heat
c.	hot weather has forced	matters worse
d.	To make	escape
e.	power	affected most of India
f.	boiling	monsoon rains
g.	late arrival of the summer	and dry weather to continue
h.	There is no	cuts
i.	complained of	to 50 degrees
j.	Meteorologists predict the hot	temperatures

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the correct spaces.

Indian heat wave kills 200

Over 200 people have died in India because of a heat wave. Temperatures _______ to 50 degrees Centigrade in the state of Orissa on June 19. The heat wave has _______ most of India. The capital city New Delhi has _______ temperatures of over 40 Celsius throughout June. The hot weather has _______ many schools to stay closed, which means summer vacation for kids has been _______. To make matters _______, many states are experiencing _______ cuts and have no electricity. This means people cannot use their _______ or air conditioners.		extended affected forced rose fans power worse seen
Weather forecasters say the _______ temperatures are because of the late _______ of the summer monsoon rains. This has made _______ very hard for most Indians. Sanjay Bhal from West Bengal said: “There is no _______. I have never known such a _______ hot sun.” His neighbour Bidde Gupta also complained of the never-ending _______. She said the baking hot spell seemed to be _______. She also said: “My house is like an oven. We are being roasted, even as we sleep.” Meteorologists _______ the hot and dry weather to continue until the end of June.		escape arrival heat predict scorching boiling endless life

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘heat’ and ‘wave’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the gap fill. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT HEAT SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about heat and surviving in hot weather.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

rose affected New Delhi schools power cuts fans

weather forecasters monsoon rains escape endless oven predict

 DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. What was your initial reaction to this headline?
2. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
3. Can you imagine 50-degree temperatures?
4. Do you like the climate of your country?
5. Would you like to move somewhere warmer or cooler?
6. What do you do to escape the heat or cold?
7. Would you rather have boiling hot of freezing cold temperatures?
8. Are you a summer person or a winter person?
9. Have you ever been ill because of the sun?
10. Do you like sunbathing?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What are the hottest and coldest temperatures you’ve experienced?
3. What can you do to survive in 50-degree heat?
4. Are you a sun lover?
5. Can you survive one year without an air conditioner or heater?
6. The English language uses cooking words (roast, boil, bake, simmer, etc.) to describe hot weather. How about your language?
7. Have you ever felt like you were roasting?
8. What’s the best thing to drink in boiling hot weather?
9. What should the government do to help people in such baking hot conditions?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
2. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
3. Was there a question you didn’t like?
4. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
5. What did you like talking about?
6. Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
7. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

EXTREME CLIMATE LIVING: Imagine you are real estate agents. It is your job to sell top quality, luxury homes. The locations of the homes may be a problem – the Sahara Dessert and Siberia. In pairs / groups, decide on your sales talk that will get home buyers to buy a house and move to the Sahara or Siberia. Use the table to help you.

Students A – Sahara Desert / Students B - Siberia

SALES POINTS	ADVANTAGES
Health
Sports
Scenery
Wildlife
Hobbies
Other

• Change partners. Take turns in being salesperson and house buyer in trying to sell Siberia or the Sahara. “House buyers” visiting the sales office must find a problem in every part of the sales talk.
• Return to your original partner(s) and compare what kind of negative comments you heard from the house buyers. Use this to make your sales talk better.
• Present your sales talk again to a different partner. House buyers must again find faults.
• Return to your original partner a second time and discuss whether your improved sales talk worked better the second time round.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Indian heat wave kills 200

Over 200 people ____ ____ __ India because of a heat wave. Temperatures ____ __ ___ degrees Centigrade in the state of Orissa on June 19. The heat wave has _______ ____ __ India. The capital city New Delhi has seen ____________ __ _____ 40 Celsius throughout June. The hot weather ___ ______ _____ schools to stay closed, which means summer vacation for kids has been extended. To ____ _______ _____, many states are experiencing power cuts and have no electricity. This means people ______ ___ ____ ____ or air conditioners.

Weather forecasters ___ ___ _______ temperatures are because of the ____ _______ __ the summer monsoon rains. This has made life very hard for most Indians. Sanjay Bhal from West Bengal said: “There is __ ______. I have never known ____ __ ________ hot sun.” His neighbour Bidde Gupta also complained of the _____-_______ _____. She said the ______ ___ _____ seemed to be endless. She also said: “My house is like an oven. We ___ _____ ______, even as we sleep.” Meteorologists ________ the hot and dry weather __ ________ _____ the end of June.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INDIAN HEAT WAVE: Search the Internet and find more information on the Indian heat wave. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. HOW TO SURVIVE: Write a fact sheet about how to survive extremely hot or extremely cold temperatures. Show your fact sheets to your classmates in your next lesson. Did everyone include similar points?

4. DIARY / SCHEDULE: Imagine you are in India. Every day you have to survive in temperatures of up to 50 degrees C. Write the entry in your diary / journal for one day in the heat.  Read your entry to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all write about similar things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. T

b. T

c. F

d. F

e. F

f. T

g. T

h. F

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	rose	increased
b.	affected	touched
c.	seen	witnessed
d.	stay	remain
e.	cuts	outages
f.	weather forecasters	meteorologists
g.	escape	refuge
h.	scorching	burning
i.	endless	never-ending
j.	predict	forecast

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	Temperatures rose	to 50 degrees
b.	The heat wave has	affected most of India
c.	hot weather has forced	many schools to stay closed
d.	To make	matters worse
e.	power	cuts
f.	boiling	temperatures
g.	late arrival of the summer	monsoon rains
h.	There is no	escape
i.	complained of	the never-ending heat
j.	Meteorologists predict the hot	and dry weather to continue

GAP FILL:

Indian heat wave kills 200

Over 200 people have died in India because of a heat wave. Temperatures rose to 50 degrees Centigrade in the state of Orissa on June 19. The heat wave has affected most of India. The capital city New Delhi has seen temperatures of over 40 Celsius throughout June. The hot weather has forced many schools to stay closed, which means summer vacation for kids has been extended. To make matters worse, many states are experiencing power cuts and have no electricity. This means people cannot use their fans or air conditioners.

Weather forecasters say the boiling temperatures are because of the late arrival of the summer monsoon rains. This has made life very hard for most Indians. Sanjay Bhal from West Bengal said: “There is no escape. I have never known such a scorching hot sun.” His neighbour Bidde Gupta also complained of the never-ending heat. She said the baking hot spell seemed to be endless. She also said: “My house is like an oven. We are being roasted, even as we sleep.” Meteorologists predict the hot and dry weather to continue until the end of June.

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