Learning English

Introduction

Tropical storms, also known as hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons can be incredibly destructive, but just how much damage can they do? BBC Weather forecaster and presenter Darren Bett tells us. Watch this video to practise your listening skills and learn useful vocabulary to talk about extreme weather.

1. Comprehension quiz

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2. Vocabulary quiz

Fill the gaps in this quiz to test yourself.

destruction
buildings and infrastructure damaged so badly they can't be used

flooding
where water spreads to land that is usually dry

landslide
where earth, rocks, etc move quickly downhill

mudslide
a type of landslide where liquid mud moves quickly downhill

storm surge
a sudden rise in sea level that moves inland

widespread
affecting a large area

storey
the height of a floor in a building

catastrophic
causing severe damage

level
make flat 

blown over
knocked over by wind

blown down
made flat by wind

blown off
removed by wind

power cut
a break in the supply of electricity

uninhabitable
impossible to live in

TRANSCRIPT

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript. 

Phil
Hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons, all these types of tropical storms can cause destruction on a massive scale. Let's hear from BBC weather forecaster and presenter Darren Bett about what damage they can cause. 

Darren Bett
All these storms bring the same sort of weather. Really, really, strong winds that cause damage and destruction. Really heavy rain that could lead to flooding, mudslides and landslides, but also something what we call a storm surge. And this is a large area of water that gets swept into the land and causes widespreadflooding. You can get flood waters as high as two storeys high.

Storms are given a category depending on how strong the winds are. So, in the case of a hurricane, a category 5 hurricane is the strongest hurricane and the damage caused by a category 5 hurricane is going to be catastrophic. The winds are going to level whole towns and villages, so buildings will be blown over, blown down, roofs will be blown off. And the really strong winds means that there's likely to be power cuts that could last for weeks, if not months. And all of these things mean that some places will be uninhabitable for a long period of time.

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