I'm Sam. And I'm Neil. It's raining again, Sam. I've had enough. It's been drizzling. That's raining lightly（轻轻地）.

  All week. I know what you mean, Neil. Living in a wet country like Britain, I sometimes wish I could push a magic（魔术的） button and stop it raining. And ironically（具有讽刺意味地）, people living in hot, dry countries need rain but don't get it. If only we could control the weather. Ah, well, it's funny you should say that, Neil, because you're not the first person to have that idea.

  In this programme, we'll be hearing about cloud seeding and geoengineering. Two controversial（有争议的） methods scientists are using to manipulate（操纵） or change the weather. And as usual, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well. Something that stops it drizzling sounds good to me, Sam. I hate to disappoint（使失望） you, Neil, but these ideas involve making more, not less rain. We'll learn the details soon, but first I have a question for you about the wettest place in the world.

  A village which gets nearly 12 metres of rain a year. But where is it? Is the wettest village on Earth found（找到） in A, Ireland, B, New Zealand（西兰岛(丹麦最大的岛)）, or C, India? Well, it rains a lot in Ireland, doesn't it? So I'll say that's where the wettest place on Earth is. OK, Neil, we'll find out if that's the correct answer later in the programme.

  The first type of weather manipulation（操纵） we'll hear about is a way of getting snow and rain out of clouds, known as cloud seeding. Airplanes fly through the clouds and spray chemicals（化学制品） to make water particles（颗粒） freeze（冻） and stick together as snowflakes. These then fall as snow, which builds up during winter, before melting（（使）融化） in spring to help water crops（农作物）. Listen as Charmaine Cozier, presenter（节目主持人） of BBC World Service programme The Inquiry（询问）, speaks with Professor Katja Friedrich, an atmospheric（大气的） scientist at the University of Colorado. The first cloud seeding experiments took place in the 1940s. In the years since, scientists are often accused（控告） of meddling（ 干涉） with nature.

  People are thinking, yeah, you're putting some substances（物质） in the atmosphere（大气） that should not be there. Usually I respond and say, every time you get into your car, every time you get on an airplane, you put substances in the air that don't belong. So you're also playing God. Because everyone needs water, cloud seeding is becoming more and more popular, with scientists from over 50 countries using the method to extract（提取） rain from clouds. But some critics（批评家） accuse（控告） these scientists of meddling（ 干涉） with nature, trying to change something which it's not their responsibility（ 责任） to change. In other words, they're accused of playing God, acting as if they have unlimited（无限制的） power and can do whatever（任何） they want.

  Unlike（不象…） cloud seeding, the next type of weather modification（更改） has never been tested and is still just a theory（理论）. Solar（太阳的） geoengineering aims（瞄准） to reduce global（全球的） warming by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth back into space. This involves putting tiny（微小的） particles（颗粒） called aerosols into the stratosphere（同温层）, the band of sky 20 kilometres above the surface（表面） of the Earth, about twice as high as airplanes fly. Although it's never been tested, the method is controversial, as Charmin Cosier discussed with Harvard（哈佛大学(美国)） University Professor of Engineering（工程） David Keith for BBC World Services, The Inquiry. How controversial is this area? There's lots of controversy（论争） around solar（太阳的） geoengineering and for good reason.

  People are, I think, sensibly scared（ 惊吓） that this could provide an excuse（借口） that allows countries or companies to avoid doing the work that has to be done to cut emissions（(光、热等的)散发）. But in fact, controversy is really waxed and waned（变小） over time. So in the early work on climate change in the 1960s and 70s and early 80s, these ideas were just part of the way we talked about what might happen about climate change. And then as climate change became more politically（ 政治上） central（中心的）, say in the 90s and 2000s, there was really a taboo（禁忌的）. David Keith believes that geoengineering could provide an excuse for inaction on climate change, a reason for countries to explain why they did not take action. He says controversy over the method has waxed and waned, an idiom connected with the cycle of the moon, which describes something that increases then decreases（减少） over time.

  In the 1960s, for example, geoengineering was uncontroversial, but by the 1990s, it had become taboo, a subject that is avoided for social or religious（宗教的） reasons. While these ideas to change the weather have potential（潜在的） benefits, other suggestions, for example, to position（安置） a giant（巨人的） floating（漂浮） mirror between the earth and the sun, are highly（高度地） controversial（有争议的）. Although personally（ 亲自）, I think the idea of a giant（巨人的） floating（漂浮） umbrella above Britain would be good. Well, just think, there are even rainier places to live, Neil, as I asked in my question earlier. In which country is the world's rainiest village? I guessed it was in Ireland.

  Which was the wrong answer, I'm afraid. In fact, Mawson Ram（公羊）, the world's wettest village, is in the Cassie Hills of northeastern（东北方的） India, with around 12 metres of rain a year. I guess it's not somewhere you'll be visiting, Neil. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned, starting with drizzling, which means raining likely. If you're meddling, you're trying to change something which is not your responsibility or without being asked to. Someone who is playing God is acting as if they control everything and can do whatever they want.

  An excuse is a reason you give to explain why you did something wrong. If something waxed and waned, it grew stronger, then weaker over time. And finally, a taboo is a subject that's avoided for social or religious reasons. Once again, our six minutes are up.