Reading 1
THE WATER CYCLE
we call our planet Earth,
but many people say that we should call is it Water.
Water covers more than 70 percent of our planet.
Water is essential to life on Earth.
We drink it, swim in it, clean with it, and use it in many other ways.
Surprisingly, the amount of water on Earth does not decrease even though we use so much of it every day.
This is because nature recycles water in a process called the water cycle (also called the hydrologic cycle).
The water cycle is the movement of water from Earth into the atmosphere and back to Earth again.
What are the steps of the water cycle?
Evaporation is the first step in the water cycle.
This is the process that changes water form a liquid to a gas.
Energy from the sun produces evaporation.
When the sun heats water, some of the water turns into a gas called water vapor.
Water evaporates anywhere there is sun and water.
Most evaporation of water on Earth is from the oceans, but there is also evaporation from lakes, rivers, and even from wet skin and clothing.