Extremes IN THE EARTH’S CLIMATE The Earth is hottest near the Equator, (0) as this is always roughly the same distance (1) __________ the Sun and receives its strongest rays. The highest shade temperature (2) __________ recorded was 58° in the Sahara Desert, in September 1922. In fact, the Sahara is (3) __________ much hotter than anywhere else that the three countries with the highest average temperatures (4) __________ the world are all in North Africa. The eastern Sahara is also the world's sunniest place (5) __________ over 4,000 hours of sunshine a year, which is nearly 11 hours each day. To the south the Sahara is actually getting bigger, with many square miles of previously cultivable land turning (6) __________ desert every year. The world's driest place, (7) __________ , is the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It is (8) __________ an arid area that until 1971 it had not rained there for 400 years. The wettest country, on the other (9) __________ is Colombia, which has an average of more than 11,000 mm of rain (10) __________ year, while the place with the record for the most rain in a month is Cherrapunji in India, (11) __________ once had 9,300 mm in a month. In parts of the Hawaiian mountains it rains so often (12) __________ there are unlikely to be more than 15 dry days a year. The coldest places are of (13) __________ near the Poles, where the sun never (14) __________ very high in the sky and its rays are relatively weak. The lowest temperature ever is -89.2°, recorded in July 1983 at Vostok in Antarctica, (15) __________ the Russians have a scientific base.

1 from 2 ever 3 so 4 in 5 with 6 into 7 however/though 8 such 9 hand 10 a/per 11 which 12 that 13 course 14 rises 15 where

wettest - Cherrapunji in India; driest -Atacama Desert; sunniest - eastern Sahara; hottest - Sahara; coldest - Vostok in Antarctica