WORKSHEET

CPE Reading Paper

Part 3
This task is taken from New Proficiency Testbuilder by Mark Harrison
EXAMS

(Macmillan, 2002).
You are going to read a newspaper article. seemed to work. Dr Mather was about to
Seven paragraphs have been removed from admit defeat when serendipity intervened.
the article. Choose from the paragraphs A-H
30
the one which fits each gap (27-33). There is
one extra paragraph which you do not need to Dr Mather was convinced that something that
use. In the exam you will mark your answers the place was spewing into the atmosphere
on a separate sheet. was encouraging the downpour. Subsequent
experiments confirmed that hygroscopic salts
Rainmaker with his Head in the Clouds pouring into the sky from there were respon-
sible. Hygroscopic salts attract water - once in
Critics dismissed Graeme Mather’s attempts to the atmosphere, the particles act as magnets
make clouds rain. But now recent experiments around which raindrops can form.
appear to have vindicated him. Anjana Ahuya
reports. 31
Dr Graeme Mather lived his life with his head He was wary; Dr Mather was known to be a
in the clouds, as a documentary film to be smooth-talking salesman. ‘He was charming
shown this week shows. Against the advice of and charismatic, and many scientists don’t
almost everybody else in the meteorological trust that,’ he says. ‘He was also not well-pub-
community, the Canadian scientist devoted his lished because he had been working in the
professional life to trying to make clouds rain. commercial sector. Overall, he was regarded
27 as a maverick. On that occasion, he presented
results that I was convinced were impossible.
Yet the statistical evidence was overwhelming,
Before Dr Mather became involved, the
which I couldn’t understand.’
science of weather modification had already
claimed many reputations. The idea that 32
clouds could be manipulated first circulated
‘If those findings can be reproduced there, it
in the 1940s, and efforts gathered pace soon
will be the most exciting thing to have hap-
after the Second World War.
pened in the field for 20 years. It will be re-
28 markable because some of the results are not
scientifically explainable.’ He adds, however,
However, the entire discipline fell into disre- that scientists must exercise caution because
pute when commercial companies hijacked cloud-seeding is still mired in controversy. He
the idea, took it around the world, and then also points out that, with water being such
failed to deliver on their promises. Cloud- a precious resource, success will push the
seeding, as the process was known, became research into the political arena.
the preserve of crackpots and charlatans. 33
29 Dr Cooper says: ‘With the paper mill, he saw
Scientists theorised that if they could inject something that other people wouldn’t have
the cloud with similarly shaped crystals, these seen. I am still uncomfortable with his idea
imposter crystals would also act as frames because it throws up major puzzles in cloud
around which droplets would clump. The physics. But if Dr Mather was right, it will
cloud would then be tricked into raining. demonstrate that humans can change clouds
Silver iodide, whose crystals resemble those in ways that were once thought
of ice, seemed the best bet. Sadly, none of the impossible.
experiments, including Dr Mather’s, which
had been going for more than five years,
E ED •
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Exams / CPE / Reading Paper Pt 3 / Worksheet 000000

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© Macmillan Publishers 2006; Text: © Mark Harrison 2002

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 WORKSHEET
CPE Reading Paper
Part 3
EXAMS

A Dr Mather refused to be daunted by this F The scientific community remained sniffy

image. After all, the principle seemed perfectly in the face of this apparent proof. Foremost
plausible. Water droplets are swept up to the among the sceptics was Dr William Cooper,
top of the clouds on updrafts, where they be- of the United States National Center for
come supercooled (ie, although the temperature Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Dr Cooper,
is below freezing, the water remains liquid). regarded as one of the world’s finest cloud
When a supercooled droplet collides with an scientists, saw Dr Mather present his
ice crystal, it freezes on contact and sticks. astonishing claims at a cloud physics
Successive collisions cause each ice crystal to conference in Montreal.
accumulate more water droplets; the crystals
grow until they become too heavy to remain G They involved weather experts firing
suspended in the atmosphere. As the crystals rockets into clouds to stop them producing
fall through the cloud, they become raindrops. hail, which damages crops. The clouds, it
The ice crystals therefore act as frames to was hoped, would dissolve into a harmless
‘grow’ raindrops. shower.

B Dr Mather unfortunately will not be H The desire to do so led him to set up a

involved in the debate about such matters. He project in South Africa, which was ultimately
died aged 63, shortly before the documentary to convince him that it was possible. As the
was completed. It will ensure that this smooth- programme reveals, experiments around the
talking maverick is given the recognition he world appear to prove his faith was justified.
deserves.

C He and a colleague decided to collect a

last batch of data when they flew into a tiny
but ferocious storm. That storm, Dr Mather
says in the film, changed his life. Huge droplets
were spattering on the tiny plane’s windscreen.
No such storm had been forecast. Back on the
ground, they discovered the storm was located
directly above a paper mill.

D A trial in Mexico has been running for two

years, and the signs are promising. ‘We were
sufficiently encouraged in the first year to
continue the seeding research. But the results
are preliminary, because we have only a very
small sample of clouds at the moment. We
need to work over two more summers to reach
a proper conclusion.’

E He arranged to fly to South Africa ‘with the

full intention of explaining what was wrong
with the experiment’. Instead, he came back
convinced that Dr Mather was on to something.
He is now running two experiments, one in
Arizona and one in northern Mexico, to try to
verify the South African results. The experi-
ments use potassium chloride, which is similar
to table salt (sodium chloride) and, it is claimed,
non-polluting.
E ED •
SIT D E
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W NL IAB

Exams / CPE / Reading Paper Pt 3 / Worksheet 000000

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© Macmillan Publishers 2006; Text: © Mark Harrison 2002

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 ANSWER KEY
CPE Reading Paper
Part 3
KEY
EXAMS

27 H
28 G
29 A
30 C
31 F
32 E
33 B

The paragraph which does not fit any of the gaps

is D.

E ED •
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Exams / CPE / Reading Paper Pt 3 / Answer Key 000000

OM OW P
FR E D CO
N TO
HO

© Macmillan Publishers 2006; Text: © Mark Harrison 2002

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