2 . It’s hardly surprising that weather is a favorite topic for so many people around the world. It________ where we choose to live, what we wear, our moods, and perhaps even our national features. A sunny day can lessen the deepest ________, while very bad weather can destroy homes and threaten lives.

The human race has always tried to ________ the weather, especially in areas of the world where there are many changes. Two popular traditional ways of predicting weather use pine cones(松果) and seaweed(海草). When the air has a high level of humidity(湿度), there is a higher chance of rain. When the humidity is low, there is more chance of ________ weather. Pine cones and seaweed feels dry when the humidity is low, while high humidity has the ________ effect.

Today’s methods of prediction increasingly depend on ________. Satellites, balloons, ships, aircraft and weather centers with ________ equipment send data to computers. The data is then   ________, and the weather is predicted. However, ________ this system can not predict weather for longer than about a week.

A recent study by an Australian scientist suggests that certain people may have a special   ________ for predicting weather. However, it is possible that these people could use their talent in another way, since the same group had a lot of ________ in predicting changes in another system—the stock market.

It ________ that a study of weather may also enable scientists to predict the sudden ________ of a disease. An Ebola epidemic (a kind of disease) in Uganda in the year 2000 came after the same rare ________ conditions that had been present before a sudden spread of the disease 6 years earlier.________, efforts to limit the spread of air-borne diseases such as foot and mouth are also strongly dependent on favorable wind conditions.