Meaning of READ in Fortran

Question

What does READ() do in Fortran?

For example:

READ(1,82)

Answer 1

It reads from "unit" (opened file) number 1, according to the FORMAT statement at label 82. However since the statement doesn't list any variables it has no place to put the data it's reading, which is unlikely to help; READ(1,82) FOOBAR would more usefully put the data it's reading in variable FOOBAR.