Apprendre avec ABA English – Qu’est-ce que le vent?

Hello earthling!

Vous savez ce que « earthling » veut dire ? C’est un être humain qui habite sur la Terre. Donc… VOUS !

À ABA English, notre devise est “always be learning” (toujours continuer à apprendre). Votre cerveau reste actif et frais quand vous apprenez. Avec nos posts “Apprendre avec ABA English” nous avons l’intention de bien vous enseigner l’anglais et en plus, quelque chose de nouveau. Aujourd’hui, par exemple, nous allons voir comment se forme le vent (wind en anglais).

Voici les étapes à suivre :

1. Lisez le texte
2. Comprenez le vocabulaire
3. Regardez le mini documentaire 

What is wind?

The word “wind” can mean many things. It can be peaceful. Violent. Powerful. Exciting.
Bitingly cold. Or searingly hot.

Wind is everywhere, all the time. But where exactly does it come from? I mean, it’s only air, which we’ve talked about a little before. But there are no fans, or turbines, or giant people in the sky blowing the air around, so… where does the wind come from?

Even when you don’t feel the wind, the air is never totally still. If you zoomed way in, you’d see air molecules, bouncing around, colliding with each other and everything around them. All that bumping and bashing creates a force. It’s the force of all those bouncing air molecules over a given area of Earth that results in pressure.

See, air has mass, and gravity drives that air down towards the ground. That’s why there’s more air pressure down here, than, say, Mount Everest. The average atmospheric pressure on Earth is one bar. Or 100,000 Pascals. But luckily, that pressure isn’t pushing straight down. The force goes out in all directions. So we aren’t squished into pancakes. Wind is what happens when air moves from high pressure to low. Anyone who’s ever watched the weather knows that air pressure isn’t the same everywhere. And that’s because of temperature.

Air near the equator is heated by the energy of the sun, so it becomes less dense and it rises. Near the poles there’s not as much heating by the sun, and that cold dense air sinks down toward the Earth.

Right along the equator that creates this area with almost no wind, called the “doldrums”. But wind doesn’t come straight from the north or the south. The Earth is turning, and because the atmosphere isn’t attached to Earth, that causes the wind to curl and rotate. That’s known as the Coriolis Effect. If you want to experience that, just try to play catch on a merry-go-round. Pressure and temperature combine with a rotating Earth, tilted on its axis and covered in sun-absorbing land masses, and the winds of the Earth begin to swirl like a Van Gogh painting. So begins the swirling cycle of heating, cooling and rotation that drives everything from gentle breezes to destructive hurricanes. Sometimes a little science can just… blow you away.

Vocabulaire

Bitingly – unpleasantly cold
(un froid désagréable)

Searingly – very hot
(très chaud)

Turbines – an engine that has a part with blades that are caused to spin by pressure from water, steam, or air.
(Turbines – un moteur qui a une partie avec des lames)

Giant – very large: much larger or more powerful than normal
(Géant – très grand: plus grand ou puissant que quelque chose de normal )

Colliding – to hit something or each other with strong force : to crash together or to crash into something
(Entrer en collision – frapper quelque chose avec une très grande force : se cogner ensemble ou s’écraser sur quelque chose)

Bouncing – going up and down and up and down
(Qui rebondit – qui monte et qui descend, qui monte et qui descend)

Bashing – to hit (someone or something) very hard or forcefully
(Cogner – frapper (quelqu’un ou quelque chose) très fort ou énergiquement)

Squished – to press (something) into a flatter shape
(Écraser – appuyer sur quelque chose en l’aplatissant)

Dense – having parts that are close together
(Dense – des parties qui sont proches les unes des autres)

Sinks – to move down to a lower position
(Couler, baisser – qui se déplacer vers le bas)

Attached – connected or joined to something
(Attaché – connecté ou joint à quelque chose)

Tilted – to lift or move (something) so that one side is higher than another side
(Penché, incliné – soulever ou bouger (quelque chose) et faire qu’un côté soit plus haut que l’autre)

Merry-go-round – a large round platform that turns around in a circle and has seats and figures of animals (such as horses) on which children sit for a ride
(Carrousel – une plateforme ronde et grande qui tourne en cercle et qui est composé d’animaux de bois (chevaux, par exemple) où les enfants s’assoient pour un tour de manège)

Axis – the imaginary straight line that something (such as the Earth) turns around
(Axe – la ligne droite imaginaire où les choses tournent autour (comme la Terre))

Gentle – having or showing a kind and quiet nature: not harsh or violent
(Léger, doux – avoir ou montrer une nature douce et calme : pas dure ni violente)

Breezes – a gentle wind
(Brise – un vent léger)

Destructive – causing a very large amount of damage : causing destruction or harm
(Destructif – qui cause beaucoup de dégâts, destruction ou préjudices)

Mini Documentaire

N’oubliez pas de mettre les sous-titres anglais pour la vidéo si vous en avez besoin.