II. Vocabulary and speech Exercises

SEASONS AND WEATHER

Text 1

On English Climate and Weather Through the Eyes of a Foreigner.

One has written so much about British weather and climate that I can hardly have the courage to add anything else. I can only share with my own summer experiences.

Without no doubt I can assert that in Great Britain the weather is the most favourite and compulsory subject common to any good friendly company as well as to complete strangers. It’s quite true to say that the English have no climate, they have only weather. The weather on the British Isles is so changeable that all kinds of jokes are well spread throughout the United Kingdom. Very many foreigners laugh at the British climate and weather. Perhaps its changeability made the weather the necessary and compulsory subject of the British communication. It is a safe topic to start a conversation with, a harmless way to put a word in, and a good chance to show that you are also a connoisseur on the problem. Also the weather speculations give a brilliant opportunity to keep the ball rolling, particularly when you have very little to speak about. But the most significant point in the weather discussion is its inexhaustibility: you may chew it all day long (which is probably the main advantage) as the weather may turn out quite different from what it was at the beginning of the conversation. Rain at seven, fine at eleven, as the English proverb says. The weather is so changeable in the UK!

Really, you never know what to wear, what clothes would suit you for the whole day. The morning sun shining brightly in the sky may turn out very treacherous in the afternoon. And if in the morning you put on a light t-shirt, canvas trousers and sandals anticipating gorgeous weather in the afternoon your mood is sure to be spoilt slightly when you see the sun hiding behind the clouds unexpectedly overcastting the blue sky of which in the morning you had no idea, and you feel shivering in your summer clothes and regret not having put on a windbreaker, warmer pants and rubber boots. Of course, the umbrella is your best and reliable friend, no matter what the morning or the forecasts may promise you. Don’t be under that delusion! Within a single day you may have different kinds of weather: rain in the morning, a spell of fine weather afterwards which is changed by an unexpected storm and then again a spell of bright sunshine. However you never know what an unpredictable outcome the evening may have: it is either pouring cats and dogs or you are rewarded by a spell of fair quiet weather for your patience.

If you go to the UK on holiday, prepare for the worst and then you may have the best English weather: not too hot, not too damp, not too foggy and not too cold. Take as many warm clothes as possible to be on the safe side, then you’ll be having a great holiday. Sometimes you’ll curse yourself for having such a large and heavy suitcase, but a great time you are going to have there will make up for such a little inconvenience during your journey.

Dialog

Mary and David are going for the weekend to Sheffield. Mary wants to have their trip enjoyable so she is going to pack their suitcase and wants to have David’s advice on what to take.

Mary: David, do you happen to know the weather forecast for the weekend? I can’t make up my mind what to take. Did you listen to the radio in the morning?

David: Yes, I did. But I am afraid it won’t help us much.

M: What do you mean?

D: Mary! Don’t pretend you cannot catch what I am driving at. You have always been such a sensible girl. Our weather forecasts are so unreliable that it’s hardly worth listening to them.

M: Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. Sometimes they say reasonable things which are quite worth believing.

D: Mary, are you sure that one can promise you fine weather for two days?

M: Why not? Two days is not so much.

D: Right, but not for our typical English weather. I can’t remember a weekend with fine weather. It is spoilt either at the beginning or at the end.

M: David, you sound so pessimistic that I feel that you were not born in this country.

D: I was. I suspect you were not born here as you believe all stuff and nonsense they usually predict in their weather forecasts.

M: What is eating you, my darling? Do you want to have our weekend spoilt by talking nonsense about the weather? OK, I’ll take two suitcases for all kinds of weather probable … and improbable if you don’t want to tell me what you’ve heard on the radio.

D: I am OK, but I am realistic. I can tell you the weather forecast if it can help you. 

Here’s the weather forecast from the Guardian Weekly. . Showery rain in places at first, but there may be drier interlude with some sunny spells. However, further heavy showers with hail and thunder are likely later. A brisk south-west wind. Max temperature 19-21 C. Tonight, showers. Minimal temperature 12-14C.

M: It doesn’t sound encouraging… and for Sunday?

D: Unsettled and breezy with sunshine and showers, some heavy and prolonged.

A very good forecast. By the way, not very unusual: in places…, are likely and so on. But the main thing they guarantee is showers. I am sure we’ll have plenty of them, they aren’t mistaken about heavy and prolonged showers. So, Mary, don’t leave the umbrellas and have something warm to wear!

M: Come, come, my dear. The devil is not so black as he is painted. You have just told me that the weather forecasts aren’t worth believing. I am going to take the umbrellas and warm clothes, just in case, but I don’t think we’ll need them.

D: That can’t be helped, anyway.

Text 2

SEASONS

There are four seasons in the year - spring, summer, autumn and winter. Spring is the season of hope and happiness. It is the season when nature awakens from her winter sleep — the ice is broken, the grass is beginning to shoot, here buds are showing, there the trees are already bursting into leaf, fresh, green and lovely. Spring has come!

Summer is the hottest season in the year. The bright sunshine scorches the earth. Not a single cloud is in the sky. It is pleasant to get out of town where one is so oppressed with the heat and ramble through woods, among hills and valleys, following winding paths that are hardly seen to the naked eye in the thick green grass. The fields are green and shorn — here and there big stacks of hay are seen. The days are long in summer.

But on moves the earth in its race round the sun. The days are becoming shorter, the sun rays are losing their glittering force — autumn is approaching. The beautiful nature has thanked the laborious farmer for his toil in the fields, meadows and orchards. The trees that not long ago bloomed with flowers are laden with ripening fruit. But the beautiful "Indian summer" is over — it is deep autumn now. We don't hear any more the sweet melody of birds in the woods and forests — they have flown away to far distant warm countries. Everything is beginning to take a different colour and garment in the lonely quiet of the countryside — the trees look bare, for they have cast off their leaves, the fragrant flowers have-faded away. The sky is overcast with low, black, heavy clouds — the period of rains has set in. It is unpleasant to be out in the drizzling piercing rain that is accompanied by a cold wind.

December is approaching. There is a breath of winter in the autumn air. It is getting colder day by day. The cold makes the hands cold and stiff. It is on a morning in December that you get up and look out of the window, and lo!.. the ground, the roofs of the houses are thick with snow. In the woods the branches of the trees are also feathered with snow. Everything around looks so beautiful! Winter has set in.

II. Vocabulary and speech Exercises