Focus On the Vocabulary

• monsoon - мусон
• CSIRO (in Australia) - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
• predictability - передбачуваність
• prediction - передбачення
• to predict - передбачати, прогнозувати
• impact on smth/smb (n, v) - впливати (вплив) на когось (щось)
• make a real difference - внести справжні зміни, кардинально щось змінити
• attempt (n, v) - спроба, намагатися

Focus on the Topic:

The monsoon gets a lot of its energy from the equatorial and sub-tropical Indian Oceans. Dr Susan Wijffels, an oceanographer from Australia's CSIRO, is hoping that measuring the state of the Indian Ocean in those areas, scientists will be able to learn something about monsoon predictability. Predicting the monsoon is very difficult thing and yet it impacts on millions and millions of people, and so we think that, if we can predict the monsoon usefully, we can make a real difference. We know from El Nini that it's a fully global sysstem, so you just can't study one small part of the ocean and solve these problems. You really need a global integrated observing system, and the Argo program is the first real big ocean attempt to do that, and it's the float technology that's allowed us to even think about doing this.

Articles

Indefinite (a/an)

• a+consonant/ u (when it's pronounced as 'j'): a banana, a user
• an+vowel/h (when it is not pronounced): an apple, an honest man

NB: a/an are only used with singular nouns, some with plural nouns.

We use a/an with:

• things that are not specific, we you're referring to any member of a group of things, one out of many possible things.
• countable nouns: an apple
• counting expressions: a bottle of, a cup of, a bit of, etc

Definite (the)

• when we reffer to definite specific things or one particular member of a group
• it refers to both singular and plural nouns 
• with 'first', 'second', 'last'
• in front of superlatives: the biggest apple, the best house
• with uncountable nouns: the water, the milk
• to decribe generic nouns (category or type of thing): the mansoon = mansoons
• with oceans, seas, rivers and deserts: the Indian Ocean, the Dnipro River, the Gobi Desert
• for points of the globe: the Equator, the Tropic of Capricorn, the North Pole

No article

• with plural generic nouns (nouns in general): Mansoons, coffee, happiness

Focus on the Grammar in the context:

The monsoon gets a lot of its energy from the equatorial and sub-tropical Indian Oceans. Dr Susan Wijffels, an oceanographer from Australia's CSIRO, is hoping that measuring the state of the Indian Ocean in those areas, scientists will be able to learn something about monsoon predictability. Predicting the monsoon is very difficult thing and yet it impacts on millions and millions of people, and so we think that, if we can predict the monsoon usefully, we can make a real difference. We know from El Nini that it's a fully global sysstem, so you just can't study one small part of the ocean and solve these problems. You really need a global integrated observing system, and the Argo program is the first real big ocean attempt to do that, and it's the float technology that's allowed us to even think about doing this.