Both are correct but you are looking at the idea from different points in time: * Weather forecast said it was going to rain later today -> You describing that in the PAST, the weather forecast said that it was going to rain in the FUTURE. There is no reference to the present. This sentence does not tell you that it will still rain, just what was said in the past. In fact, if you say it this way, you are usually uncertain of the future. * Weather forecast said it is going to rain later today -> In the PRESENT, you are looking at the PAST when the weather forecast said it is going to rain the FUTURE. If you say it this way, it usually means you still believe that the rain will happen. However, both can be said to simply mean the same thing. English is a very subtle language that a lot of its speakers don't think about too much.

Former is used when listing 2 things and then referring to the first one you mentioned (the second is then called the "latter"). Seeing as you are not doing that here, "former" is not correct and "preceding" or "prior" is, as Hilary said. Here is how you would use former: I visited 2 houses today: one in London and one in Oxford. The former had a lovely living room but the latter had a beautiful garden. And specifically for your sample sentence: If you are uncertain whether to look for the subject of a pronoun in sentences preceding or succeeding the current paragraph, the former would be a better choice.

The sentence is correct IF that is what you actually want to say. It means you watched your mom and now you can try making some dished yourself to MAYBE (could) get the hang of it in the FUTURE. If you got the hang of it WHILE you were watching your mom, then it is not correct and you have to use "got" as safaa said.

Oxford gives a nice definition: Treating serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humour. In more simple words: Making jokes "on purpose" that "should not be done in the current situation". For example: making a joke about someone's dead wife when they died recently. Or: making fun of a judge when you are in court I also want to point out that of the synonyms that Mehmet suggested, only mocking, derisive and wry are related but cannot be used in place of facetious. Cynical and ironic are completely different words.

@Marek Zhang That's funny because as a British English speaker, when I hear revise, I think of going through what I have studied before and review means to look through something for mistakes to correct. The exact opposite of what you said :D

I would like to point out that "he thought like a general" makes no suggestion at all about how he thinks now. In English, most stories are told in the past tense and so the sentence is about what happened at that exact moment in time. How he thinks now is not important to the sentence. If you want to indicate that he doesn't think like a general right now but did in the past, you could say "He used to think like a general". That definitely tells you he no longer does.

Should is used to indicate that it will lead to the best outcome but you have a choice not to do it. It is used as an encouragement to get you to do it.