This is America. Гришенкова Е.Г. - 110 стр.

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two to sixty-four kilometers an hour. But they have been reported to move in other
directions and as fast as one hundred seventeen kilometers an hour.
In the United States, the force of a tornado is judged by the damage to
structures. Scientists inspect the damage before they estimate the severity of a
tornado. They measure tornadoes on the Enhanced Fujita scale or the EF scale.
Ted Fujita was a weather expert who developed a system to rate tornados in the
1970s. The EF scale is a set, or collection, of wind estimates. They are based on
levels of damage to twenty-eight different kinds of structures and other objects.
Tornadoes that cause only light damage are called an EF-zero. Those with the highest
winds that destroy well-built homes and throw vehicles great distances are called an
EF-five.
Some people make a sport out of watching and following tornadoes. They are
called tornado chasers or storm chasers. Their work can be seen in the extreme
weather videos that are increasingly popular on television and on the Internet.
Some chasers do it just because it is their idea of fun. Others do it to help
document storms and warn the public. Still others are part of weather research teams.
Recently, an international team of scientists completed a tornado research
project called VORTEX2. More than one hundred researchers traveled throughout
America’s Great Plains in 2009 and 2010. They used weather measurement
instruments to collect scientific information about the life of a tornado. The goal of
the project was to examine in detail how tornadoes are formed and the kinds of
damage they cause.
A film about the VORTEX2 project opened at some theaters in the United
States last month. The film includes never before seen images of tornadoes. To safely
capture up-close film footage of tornadoes, some project participants traveled in a
seven-ton, armored tornado intercept vehicle directly into tornadoes as they formed.
The National Weather Service says the United States gets more severe weather
than any other country. For one thing, it is also bigger than most other countries. And
it has many different conditions that create many different kinds of weather. There
are seacoasts and deserts, flatlands and mountains. The West Coast is along the
Pacific Ocean, which is relatively calm. The East Coast is along the Atlantic Ocean,
which is known for its hurricanes. These strike mainly the southeastern states.
3 COMPREHENSION CHECK
Decide whether these statements are TRUE or FALSE
1. Tornadoes are also known as twisters.
2. Tornadoes have been observed on every continent.
3. Today experts are able to tell exactly where or when a tornado will hit.
4. Tornadoes are known to cover a much bigger area than hurricanes

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