Britain set for heatwave in 2050 Reading Answers

Janice Thompson

9 min read

Updated On Aug 14, 2024

Reading Passage 1

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The Academic passage, ‘Britain set for heatwave in 2050 Reading Answers’, is a reading passage that consists of 14 questions.

Ideally, you should not spend more than 20 minutes on a passage. Read the IELTS reading passage, pick out significant words, and recognise synonyms in order to provide a one-word response.

So, let’s see how easy this passage is for you and if you’re able to make it in 20 minutes. If not, try more IELTS reading practice tests from IELTSMaterial.com.

The question types found in this passage are:

Matching Headings (Q. 1-5)
Note Completion (Q. 6-12)
Summary Completion (Q. 13-14)

If you want to revise some tips for Note Completion questions, check out the video below.

Reading Passage 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14, which are based on the Reading Passage below.

Britain set for heatwave in 2050

A As you sit in your home or office and look at the rain running relentlessly down the window pane, you will almost certainly be thinking, “This is more like February, when will summer arrive?” This summer seems to have been colder and wetter than ever. So here is some good news. The Meteorological Office computer has analysed weather patterns over the last 100 years and suggests that the weather will get both drier and warmer – but in fifty year’s time.

B Regardless of the effects of global warming it seems as though we can expect the average temperature in the UK to increase by 15°C. In parts of the UK we can also expect rainfall to decrease. Probably this will be most apparent in the south and east of Britain where rainfall is already the lowest in the UK. It looks as though parts of the UK may be prone to drought by the middle of the next century. This has already been noticed in the English wine making industry. John Gore Bullingham, who makes the award winning Carter Castle sparkling wine, has noticed that his grapes ripen two or three weeks earlier than they did when he started the vineyard in 1955.

C All of this seems hard to believe. At present we are in the middle of a cold, grey and distinctly sodden July. It seems as though summer will never arrive. How does this observation fit with Met Office predictions of a warmer, drier Britain? The Met Office’s chief weather forecaster Claire Miles explains, “At present the weather over the whole of North America, the North Atlantic and Europe has become temporarily blocked. Those areas which have good weather, such as Southern Europe and the Balkans, can expect to keep it and develop heat waves. Those areas which have bad weather, such as the UK and Northern France, will keep the rain and unseasonable cold.”

D We seem to have kept it for some time already. In the last two weeks of June and the first two weeks of July, the UK has had an average daily temperature of 12.90C. Although it is hard to believe, this is only 1.7°C lower than normal for the time of year. But what makes it seem so cold is that in the same period there has been only three hours of sunshine a day; less than half the average for the period.This, combined with northerly winds, makes it seem much colder. it may get a little warmer towards the end of the month but not much.

E Blocked weather does not have to be bad for the UK. The glorious summer of 1976 was caused by the same phenomenon. In that case the weather patterns came to a standstill with hot rather than cold weather over the UK. Even now, parts of Europe are suffering their highest temperatures for a generation. In Athens last week the temperature rose to 48.50C, a temperature record for Europe. The settled and warm weather which would normally come to Britain on prevailing westerly winds is now stuck over the North Atlantic, sandwiched between unusually cold and wet weather in Northern Europe and the East coast of North America.

F “Basically,” says Miss Miles, “you’ve got low pressure centred on the UK and the eastern US and two huge high pressure areas centred on the Atlantic and the Balkans. Normally high altitude winds would blow west to east and bring the weather with them. They form waves so in somewhere like the UK we usually get alternate high and low pressure systems passing over us. These bring, successively, warm and sunny, then colder and wetter weather and there is a pretty fixed boundary between the two. But this year the waves have been more pronounced. The waves become so big they turn into cells with the winds within them going round in circles. The normal west to east winds stop and the weather remains static for some time. It could stay like this for the whole summer.”

Questions 1-5

The Reading Passage has six paragraphs A – F. Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs A-F from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate number i – viii in boxes 1- 5 on your answer sheet. There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

Paragraph Headings

i The process of blocked patterns

ii Better weather in Britain soon

iii The highs and lows of weather

iv Record UK temperatures

v The weather now and in the future

vi The weather now

vii Met office forecasts

viii Weather blocking in the past

1 Paragraph B

2 Paragraph C

3 Paragraph D

4 Paragraph E

5 Paragraph F

Questions 6-12

Complete the notes below which summarise the explanation for blocked weather patterns using answers selected from the box below. Write your answers on the answer sheet.

Alternately, Usually, Occasionally, Always, Never, Speed up, Bigger, Rotate, Still, block, smaller

Questions 13 and 14

Complete the following paragraph based on information in the Reading Passage using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write the answers in boxes 13 -14 on your answer sheet.

The weather in Britain is expected to change in the next fifty years. The temperatures will rise and in some areas the amount of rain will certainly (13)………………indeed it has been forecast that some regions of England will be (14)…………… by 2050.

Reading Answers

1 Answer: ii

Question type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph B

Answer explanation: In Paragraph B, it is said that “Regardless of the effects of global warming it seems as though we can expect the average temperature in the UK to increase by 15°C.” This points to the fact that the second paragraph explains how irrespective of global warming, the average temperature or the UK will increase, rainfall will decrease and the grapes will ripen earlier than usual.. Hence, the answer is ii (Better weather in Britain soon).

2 Answer: i

Question type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph C

Answer explanation: In Paragraph C, it is said that “At present the weather over the whole of North America, the North Atlantic and Europe has become temporarily blocked…” This points to the fact that the third paragraph discusses the process of blocked weather patterns in North America, the North Atlantic and Europe where areas with good weather will continue to have it and develop heat waves, whereas the areas with bad weather will have the same . Hence, the answer is i (The process of blocked patterns).

3 Answer: vi

Question type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph D

Answer explanation: In the fourth paragraph, the present weather conditions are discussed as it is evident in the following lines – “In the last two weeks of June and the first two weeks of July, the UK has had an average daily temperature of 12.90C. …This, combined with northerly winds, makes it seem much colder. it may get a little warmer towards the end of the month but not much.”. Hence, the answer is vi (The weather now).

4 Answer: viii

Question type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph E

Answer explanation: In the introductory lines of Paragraph E, it is stated “Blocked weather does not have to be bad for the UK. The glorious summer of 1976 was caused by the same phenomenon.”. It can be concluded that blocked weather had occurred in the summer of 1976 as well. Hence, the answer is viii (Weather blocking in the past).

5 Answer: iii

Question type: Matching Heading

Answer location: Paragraph F

Answer explanation: In Paragraph F, it is said that “ …you’ve got low pressure centred on the UK and the eastern US and two huge high pressure areas centred on the Atlantic and the Balkans…”. The last paragraph of the passage describes the high and low pressure zones in the different parts of the UK and the effects that they have on the weather of the country. Hence, the answer is iii (The highs and lows of weather).

6 Answer: usually