Q1.
Discuss, in pairs, different situations in which weather predictions are helpful. Make a list, and after you have completed it, share it and discuss it with the pair sitting next to you. How many different categories of situations have you been able to identify?
Answer
How to do this well: do not just make a long list — sort it into categories. That is what the last line of the question is really asking. Work for five minutes in your pair, then join the next pair and merge the two lists; the number of categories both pairs agree on is your answer.
Sample answer — six categories:
| Category | Situations where a forecast helps |
|---|---|
| Farming | Deciding when to sow, irrigate, spray or harvest; not leaving a cut crop in the field before rain; protecting an orchard from hail |
| Travel and transport | Flights delayed by fog or storms; ships and fishing boats staying in harbour; landslide and snow closures on hill roads |
| Disaster preparation | Evacuating a coast before a cyclone; moving people out of flood plains; keeping relief material and boats ready |
| Health and daily life | Heat-wave advisories, changed school timings, drinking-water points, warm shelters during a cold wave |
| Work and industry | Construction, road tarring, drying of grain, salt pans, brick kilns, solar and wind power planning |
| Events and leisure | Cricket matches, weddings, village fairs, school trips, treks and pilgrimages such as the Amarnath or Kedarnath yatra |
Why sorting matters: Two pairs will almost always produce the same twenty examples. What differs is how many genuinely different kinds of use they see — and that is the real measure of how well you have understood why a country runs a weather service at all.