When you look carefully at what is happening now, you can often say what will happen next. Dark clouds tell you rain is coming. A runner one step ahead at the tape tells you who is about to win. This skill is called predicting, and English has special verb forms for it. This unit teaches you to predict, to read and talk about the weather, and to use the future forms will and going to correctly.

People who refuse to see such signs pay for it. Rudyard Kipling wrote a song about villagers whose fathers built dykes, strong walls that hold back flood water. The people were warned again and again that the dykes were weak, but they delayed, and the flood came.

The song is really about all of us. If we do not look after the things that protect us, whether a dyke, a forest or the air itself, the harm falls on our own children. Try the skill yourself: tell a friend what your village or city will look like after ten years. For example, In ten years my town will have many more houses. The roads are going to be more crowded. If we keep cutting trees, the hills will be bare.

No part of the environment has escaped the effects of pollution. All over the world, the land, the air and the water have been contaminated by a growing amount of waste materials and substances. This waste comes from three main sources: factories, homes and vehicles. Sometimes the waste is only an eyesore, something ugly that spoils the beauty of our surroundings. In other cases it is a serious threat to our health, and it can even cause death.

The most dangerous waste of all comes from factories. Industrial waste often contains toxic substances, poisons strong enough to kill plants and animals. Where there is no proper government control, factories simply pour these substances into rivers, and their chimneys fill the atmosphere with poisonous fumes.

In towns and cities, people burn fossil fuels for heating. The fossil fuels are oil, coal and gas, and burning them releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Some cities have been declared smokeless zones, yet air pollution remains a major problem there, because the exhaust fumes from vehicles on the roads never stop.

Each of us is guilty of polluting the environment to some extent. Almost everything we buy today comes in a container or packaging made of plastic, glass or aluminium, and we usually throw it away. Attempts are now being made to encourage factories to recycle these materials, that is, to treat used things so they can be used again.

How long can this pollution continue? Scientists warn that the rising amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may soon have disastrous effects. They fear it will raise the average temperature around the world and melt the polar ice caps. If that happens, the level of the oceans will rise by four to six metres, and vast populated areas of the planet will be covered by water. Can we afford such a risk simply by carrying on polluting?

A forecast rarely writes long sentences. It shows a small symbol for each day, and the reader turns the symbol into a weather word. Here is one full week of forecast, written out in words.

To talk about the forecast, use this pattern: It is + weather word + on + day. So you say, It is snowy on Wednesday. It is rainy on Tuesday. You can also begin with the day: On Friday, it is hot. On Saturday, it is cold. Both orders are correct.

Weather is the easiest thing in the world to talk about, because everyone is standing under the same sky. Read this conversation aloud with a partner, one of you as Ramesh and one as Ramila, and act it out with your voices and hands.

Notice what the two speakers do. They name what they can feel and see now, and then they predict. You can build the same kind of short conversation from any situation. Take the situation, add what you notice, then add what you think will happen.

• It's raining heavily. I think the streets will be flooded by evening.
• Gita studies very well. She is going to come first in the exam.
• It's very windy. The kites will fly high today.
• He looks tired. He is going to fall asleep in a few minutes.
• She looks happy. I guess she will share some good news with us.

On radio and television, the weather report gives numbers, and a good listener catches them. The temperature of a city is given twice: the maximum, the highest of the day, and the minimum, the lowest of the day, both measured in degrees Celsius. Rainfall is measured in millimetres. A report on the evening news moves quickly from city to city, so keep your pencil ready and note each number beside its city.

These are the kinds of sentences you should be able to catch from one report on cities of Nepal:

• Biratnagar recorded a maximum temperature of 32 degrees Celsius with no rainfall.
• Kathmandu had a maximum of 26 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 13 degrees Celsius.
• Pokhara had a minimum of 12 degrees Celsius and 20 millimetres of rainfall.
• Butwal was the hottest, with a maximum of 33 degrees Celsius and no rainfall.
• Janakpur had a minimum of 23 degrees Celsius with no rainfall.
• Birendranagar had a minimum of 13 degrees Celsius and 10 millimetres of rainfall.

Listen to the weather report on the radio or television this evening. Note down which place had the highest maximum temperature and which had the lowest minimum, and tell your class tomorrow.

English has two everyday ways of talking about the future, and choosing between them is the grammar skill of this unit. Both point ahead in time, but they are chosen for different reasons.

Study these three sentences. Oliver will be back soon: the speaker is guessing about the future. We won't be ready: a negative guess, using won't. Do you think it'll rain this afternoon? a question asking for someone's opinion about the future.

Study these three sentences. We are going to watch a film, do you want to join us? the plan was made earlier. I'm going to clean my room: a decision already taken. Look! The bus is going to leave! the speaker can see it happening in front of them.

Everything above now comes together on paper. To write a paragraph about changes that will occur in your school next year, begin with one sentence that names the topic, then give three or four predictions using will and going to, and close with one sentence of feeling. Here is a model. Next year our school is going to look quite different. The new building will be finished, so we will get a bigger library with more English storybooks. Our class is going to plant trees along the fence, and the bare playground will turn green. There will be a computer room too. I think next year will be the best year of our school.

You can also write plans as a simple list. Here are five things a student might do after the final exam:

• I will visit my grandparents in the village.
• I am going to learn to ride a bicycle.
• I will read two storybooks in English.
• I am going to help my mother in the kitchen garden.
• I will teach my little sister the English weather words.

Turn the reading into a project you can hold in your hands. A scrapbook of pictures teaches your class more than a lecture, because everyone can see the pollution you are talking about.

• Collect images or pictures that show any form of pollution: dirty rivers, smoking vehicles, burning rubbish, piles of plastic.
• Sort your pictures into three groups: causes of pollution, effects of pollution, and preventive measures.
• Paste them into a scrapbook and write one clear English sentence under each picture.
• Present your scrapbook to the class and explain what each picture shows.

Every sentence you spoke and wrote in this unit belongs to one of four kinds, sorted by the job it does.

The end mark is your quickest clue. A full stop closes a statement or a command, a question mark closes a question, and an exclamation mark closes a burst of feeling. Read a sentence aloud, ask what job it is doing, and the kind names itself.

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