THE IELTS WORKSHOP

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Listening 03 Homework
Seed germination
Emma: We’ve got to choose a topic for our experiment, haven’t we, Jack? Were you thinking of
something to do with seeds?

Jack: That’s right. I thought we could look at seed germination – how a seed begins to grow.

Emma: OK. Any particular reason? I know you’re hoping to work in plant science eventually …

Jack: Yeah, but practically everything we do is going to feed into that. No, there’s an optional
module on seed structure and function in the third year that I might do, so I thought it
might be useful for that (Q21). If I choose that option, I don’t have to do a dissertation
module.

Emma: Good idea.

Jack: Well, I thought for this experiment we could look at the relationship between seed size and
the way the seeds are planted. So, we could plant different sized seeds in different ways, and
see which grows best.

Emma: OK. We’d need to allow time for the seeds to come up (Q22).

Jack: That should be fine if we start now. A lot of the other possible experiments need quite a bit
longer.

Emma: So that’d make it a good one to choose. And I don’t suppose it’d need much equipment;
we’re not doing chemical analysis or anything. Though that’s not really an issue, we’ve got
plenty of equipment in the laboratory.

Jack: Yeah. We need to have a word with the tutor if we’re going to go ahead with it though. I’m
sure our aim’s OK. It’s not very ambitious but the assignment’s only ten percent of our final
mark, isn’t it? But we need to be sure we’re the only ones doing it (Q23).

Emma: Yeah, it’s only five percent actually, but it’d be a bit boring if everyone was doing it.

Jack: Did you read that book on seed germination on our reading list?

Emma: The one by Graves? I looked through it for my last experiment, though it wasn’t all that
relevant there. It would be for this experiment, though. I found it quite hard to follow – lots
about the theory, which I hadn’t expected (Q24)

Jack: Yes, I’d been hoping for something more practical. It does include references to the recent
findings on genetically-modified seeds, though.

Emma: Yes, that was interesting.

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Jack: I read an article about seed germination by Lee Hall.

Emma: About seeds that lie in the ground for ages and only germinate after a fire?

Jack: That’s the one. I knew a bit about it already, but not about this research. His analysis of
figures comparing the times of the fires and the proportion of seeds that germinated was
done in a lot of detail – very impressive (Q25).

Emma: Was that the article with the illustrations of early stages of plant development? They were
very clear.

Jack: I think those diagrams were in another article.

———————–

Emma: Anyway, shall we have a look at the procedure for our experiment? We’ll need to get going
with it quite soon.

Jack: Right. So the first thing we have to do is find our seeds. I think vegetable seeds would be
best. And obviously they mustn’t all be the same size. So, how many sorts do we need?
About four different ones? (Q26)

Emma: I think that would be enough. There’ll be quite a large number of seeds for each one.

Jack: Then, for each seed we need to find out how much it weighs (Q27), and also measure its
dimensions, and we need to keep a careful record of all that.

Emma: That’ll be quite time-consuming. And we also need to decide how deep we’re going to plant
the seeds (Q28) – right on the surface, a few millimetres down, or several centimetres.

Jack: OK. So then we get planting. Do you think we can plant several seeds together in the same
plant pot? (Q29)

Emma: No, I think we need a different one for each seed.

Jack: Right. And we’ll need to label them – we can use different coloured labels. Then we wait for
the seeds to germinate – I reckon that’ll be about three weeks, depending on what the
weather’s like. Then we see if our plants have come up, and write down how tall they’ve
grown. (Q30)

Emma: Then all we have to do is look at our numbers, and see if there’s any relation between them.

Jack: That’s right. So …

The history of weather forecasting

In this series of lectures about the history of weather forecasting, I’ll start by examining its early
history – that’ll be the subject of today’s talk.
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Ok, so we’ll start by going back thousands of years. Most ancient cultures had weather gods, and
weather catastrophes, such as floods, played an important role in many creation myths. Generally,
weather was attributed to the whims of the gods, as the wide range of weather gods in various
cultures shows. For instance, there’s the Egyptian sun god Ra, and Thor, the Norse god of thunder and
lightning. Many ancient civilisations developed rites such as (Q31) dances in order to make the
weather gods look kindly on them.

But the weather was of daily importance: observing the skies and drawing the correct conclusions
from these observations was really important, in fact their (Q32) survival depended on it. It isn’t known
when people first started to observe the skies, but at around 650 BC, the Babylonians produced the
first short-range weather forecasts, based on their observations of (Q33) clouds and other phenomena.
The Chinese also recognised weather patterns, and by 300 BC, astronomers had developed a calendar
which divided the year into 24 (Q34) festivals, each associated with a different weather phenomenon.

The ancient Greeks were the first to develop a more scientific approach to explaining the weather. The
work of the philosopher and scientist Aristotle, in the fourth century BC, is especially noteworthy, as
his ideas held sway for nearly 2,000 years. In 340 BC, he wrote a book in which he attempted to
account for the formation of rain, clouds, wind and storms. He also described celestial phenomena
such as haloes – that is, bright circles of light around the sun, the moon and bright stars – and (Q35)
comets. Many of his observations were surprisingly accurate. For example, he believed that heat could
cause water to evaporate. But he also jumped to quite a few wrong conclusions, such as that winds
are breathed out by the Earth. Errors like this were rectified from the Renaissance onwards.

———————–

For nearly 2,000 years, Aristotle’s work was accepted as the chief authority on weather theory.
Alongside this, though, in the Middle Ages weather observations were passed on in the form of
proverbs, such as ‘Red (Q36) sky at night, shepherd’s delight; red sky in the morning, shepherd’s
warning’. Many of these are based on very good observations and are accurate, as contemporary
meteorologists have discovered.

For centuries, any attempt to forecast the weather could only be based on personal observation, but
in the fifteenth century scientists began to see the need for (Q37) instruments. Until then, the only
ones available were weathervanes – to determine the wind direction – and early versions of rain
gauges. One of the first, invented in the fifteenth century, was a hygrometer, which measured
humidity. This was one of many inventions that contributed to the development of weather
forecasting.

In 1592, the Italian scientist and inventor Galileo developed the world’s first (Q38) thermometer. His
student Torricelli later invented the barometer, which allowed people to measure atmospheric
pressure. In 1648, the French philosopher Pascal proved that pressure decreases with altitude. This
discovery was verified by English astronomer Halley in 1686, and Halley was also the first person to
map trade winds.

This increasing ability to measure factors related to weather helped scientists to understand the
atmosphere and its processes better, and they started collecting weather observation data
systematically. In the eighteenth century, the scientist and politician Benjamin Franklin carried out
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work on electricity and lightning in particular, but he was also very interested in weather and studied
it throughout most of his life. It was Franklin who discovered that (Q39) storms generally travel from
west to east.

In addition to new meteorological instruments, other developments contributed to our

understanding of the atmosphere. People in different locations began to keep records, and in the
mid-nineteenth century, the invention of the (Q40) telegraph made it possible for these records to be
collated. This led, by the end of the nineteenth century, to the first weather services.

It was not until the early twentieth century that mathematics and physics became part of
meteorology, and we’ll continue from that point next week.