Методическое пособие по английскому языку (для подготовки к ОГЭ и ЕГЭ)"Времена года и погода"

TEXT 1

THE WEATHER

The English are famous for their tea and their weather. And the English are always talking about their weather. But English weather is never the same two days running. So everyone notices it. Awful day, isn’t it? Lovely weather for ducks. Did you have good weather? What was the weather like? Nice day. Fine day today. A beautiful day, isn’t it? Isn’t the weather awful? What a dreadful day! It’s pouring outside – raining cats and dogs.

The best time of the year in England is the spring and early summer. Then the cold winds and the fog and the heavy rains have all gone, and the sun is warm for the first time. Of course it rains sometimes then too, and it is often cloudy, but not so often as in winter. It rains quite often all the year round in England. That’s why it is such a green country, with long rich grass for the cattle and sheep, and beautiful lawns in the gardens.

The autumn is sometimes a time of very good waether, with clear blue skies and the sun shining every day. But the spring is better because after the spring comes the summer, the short English summer, when people go to the seaside, to the coast, to bathe in the sea and dig in the sand. But in autumn, even when the sun shines, there is the winter to follow.

Sometimes England has no snow at all in the winter, but the North and Scotland usually have some after Christmas. If there is a long frost and the ice is hard enough, then everyone who has skates gets them out and skates on the rivers and pools. The east wind is cold and blows in from the North sea. Then all England shivers, especially in the east. The Welsh are lucky, because Wales is in the west and is warmer than most of England.

England is a difficult country for people who work out of doors, people like the milkman, people like farmers, and postmen and policemen. In the morning it can be cold, in the afternoon warm and in the evening raining. One day it rains, the next day it may be sunny and the next it can be cold again.

GRAMMAR COMMENTARY

1. If there is a long frost and the ice is hard enough, then everyone who has skates gets them out and skates on the rivers and pools.

NOTE: Often a noun is uncountable when it refers to a phenomenon in general but it becomes countable when it refers to one occurrence, occasion or period of that phenomenon.

We had ten degrees of frost last night.

If there is a long frost, people skate on the rivers and pools.

We usually get forty centimetres of rain a year.

It is spring. The heavy rains have all gone.

2. NOTE: The noun wind is preceded by the definite article or by much, little, etc. when it is uncountable. When it is countable it is usually used with the indefinitre article and a descriptive attribute.

The wind blew my hat off.

We usually get a lot of wind in March.

There is a high wind blowing today.

3. NOTE: Ther is a number of nouns in English denoting objects considered to be unique. They are used with the definite article as reference is always made to the same object. Here are some of them: the sun, the moon, the earth, the sky, the world, the stars.

In spring the sun is warm for the first time.

4. NOTE: The collective noun cattle is plural, it has no singular form and always takes a plural verb.

The nouns sheep, swine, deer, fish have the same form for both singular and plural.

England is a green country, with long rich grass for the cattle and sheep.

These are sheep. This is a sheep.

5. NOTE: Present and Past continuous are used with always, forever, continually, constantly to describe frequently repeated or habitual actions. This use of the Continuous tense forms conveys an emotional colouring; very often it is a feeling of disapproval or irritation; sometimes the speaker finds the action unexpected. Compare:

a). He always does his homework. ( This means he does his homework regularly, it is his habit – a good one, the speaker thinks).

b). He is always doing his homework. ( One may be under the impression he never does anything but homework; the speaker is annoyed. The use of the Continuous form implies he does his homework very often, probably too often for the speaker’s taste).

VOCABULARY COMMENTARY

1. English weather is never the same two days running.

“ Running” after a noun in the plural means “in succession”.

I’ve been trying to get tickets to the opera for two weeks running. – Две недели подряд я пытаюсь достать билеты в оперу.

2. The English are always talking about their weather. But English weather is never the same two days running.

Translate:

The weather was fine and we decided to take a walk.

Why do people speak so much about the weather?

What is the weather like today?

What will the weather be tomorrow?

In cold ( wet, hot, rainy, foggy, cloudy, frosty, all sorts of) weather

We go for a wa.k in all sorts of weather.

You never know where you are with the weather.

3. Of course, it rains sometimes then too. Anyhow , it rains quite often all the year round in England.

Translate:

It began to rain heavily ( hard).

Do you think it will rain tommorow?

It was rianing a little in the morning.

The rain has stopped, we can go outside.

It looks like rain. I like to walk in the rain.

We went out in the rain.

We went out in the rain without our coats on.

Don’t stay out in the rain.

NOTE: the definite raticle is used with the noun “rain” when it has a modifier expressed by an adjective.

A pouring rain A drizzling rain Heavy rains

4. NOTE: The noun “time” is a polysemantic noun. In the following sentence it means “a season”, “a period”, associated with good weather. It may be translated into Russian as пора, период, время, сезон.

Spring is a lovely time. There is time for everything. Now was a time for decision.

NOTE the use of the indefinite article with the noun “time” which is used here as a countable noun. It refers not to the phenomenon in general but to one occurrence of this phenemenon.

5 After the spring comes the summer when people go to the seaside, to the coast.

Coast – the land along the sea only, regarded especially as a boundary. “Coast” is used for the division between sea and land, when we see it at a distance, or think of it as a whole ( flat - ровный, steep - крутой, rocky - скалистый coast).

I live ten miles from the coast.

Looking down from the plane, we could see the Dutсh coast.

Shore – stretch of land bordering on the sea or a large body of water.

Seashore – land bordering on the sea. ( foggy, sandy shore).

Beach the pebble or sandy shore washed by the sea or a lake; a place of rest for swimmers and sunbathers.

NOTE: “Beach” and “shore” are both used to mean the land at the edge of the sea ( we also talk about the shore of a lake). A beach is relatively flat, covered with sand or small stones, and suitable for swimming, sunbathing or landing small boats. “Shore” is more general word: it can include not only beaches, but also rocky or steep places.

GRAMMAR REVIEW

1. Impersonal sentences with the formal subject It are used to speak about time, temperature, distance, all kinds of measurements or to express attitude to the present situation.

It’s an awful day. In the morning it may be cold.

It was seven o’clock. It was dinner time.

It’s a long way from here to the station.

Exercise1.

Give a good reason for the following advice or request. ( Impersonal sentences may be of help).

1. Open the window, please. 2. Will you switch on the light. 3. Please hurry up. 4. We’ll have to take a taxi or go by bus. 5. You need’t put on your warm jersey. 6. Don’t make noise! 7. I think you should take your sun glasses. 8. You haven’t forgotten your umbrellas, haven’t you? 9. Let’s go for a swim. 10. I hope we’ll be able to go skiing tomorrow. 11. Very soon we’ll be skating.

NOTE: The state of weather can also be expressed by the construction with the introductory there.

Compare: It was raining ( verb) – There was rain ( noun).

It was frosty ( adj ) - There was frost ( noun ).

Exercise 2.

Describe the weather using the words below ( Impersonal sentences or sentences with there is/ there are may help you ).

1. to rain, rain, rainy. 2. mud muddy. 3. wind, windy. 4. fog, foggy. 5. to snow, snow, snowy. 6. to freeze, frost, frosty.

II. NOTE: The nouns weather, information, advice, money, work, hair, furniture, knowledge, progress, news, are uncountable in English. They have no plural form and are not used with the indefinite article.

Mrs. Bond always gave her children a lot of advice.

Did you have good weather?

Exercise 3.

Answer the following questions using the nouns advice, hair, information, knowledge, money, news, progress, work or the pronoun it.

1. Do you regularly read newspapers, listen to the radio and watch TV? Are you always interested in the news? When is the news on? 2. What do people do when they are not sure of how to behave? Do you always follow the advice you get? Why do you sometimes disregard it? 3. What do you spend your pocket money on? Do you earn your pocket money yourself or do your parents give you some money regularly? 4. Are you satisfied with the progress you are making in English? Why? What helps one make good progress in a subject? Do you think your knowledge of English is good enough to read books in original? To teach others? 5. What kind of weather do we have in our country in winter? What do you like to do in frosty weather? 6. What kind of person would you call learned? 7. What do we say about a person who did not know much but now knows a lot more? 8. What is the meaning of the word blonde? Brunette? When do some women start dyeing their hair? 9. What kind of work do you get tired of? What do you like to do after work?

NOTE: to express that you need or want to give not one advice but more you should use the phrase a bit of, a piece of .

I’ve bought three nice pieces of furniture for my kitchen. She always gave me so good pieces of advice. These two bits of information are very important for me.

Exercise 4.

Translate the following sentences into English paying attention to the use of uncountable nouns.

a). 1. Том говорит, что делает очень важную работу. 2. Мне нужен профессиональный совет. 3. Перестань все время говорить о деньгах. 4. Эти новости уже не новости. 5. У тебя слишком длинные волосы. Я думаю, что тебе их надо постричь. 6. В прошлом году Петр сделал большие успехи в языке. Упорная работа помогла ему добиться этого. 7. Если хотите, чтобы мы использовали сведения, присылайте их во время. 8. Разрешите дать вам один совет. Я уверен, что он вам пригодится. 9. Возьмите эти деньги. Они ваши. Вы оставили их вчера на столе. 10. Вчера была очень хорошая погода.

б). 1. Мне хочется купить новую мебель. 2. Я помню, что Анна дала тебе массу советов. Ты последовал хотя бы одному из них? 3. Михаил тратит слишком много денег на пустяки, потому что сам их не зарабатывает. 4. Я очень быстро устаю от скучной работы. 5. Мы получили эти сведения час тому назад. Они очень важны. 6. Сосчитай деньги и положи их в кошелек. Будь осторожен и не потеряй их. 7. Дайте мне другую работу. Мне не нравится эта. Я хочу работу поинтереснее. 8. Спасибо за хорошие новости. Когда вы их узнали? 9. Мне надо вымыть волосы. Они уже грязные. 10. В жаркую погоду в лесу душно.

Exercise 5.

Speak about the same things neutrally and emotionally. The adverbs always, constantly, continually, forever may help you stress your attitude.

e.g. 1. Ann sings in our choir. She has a nice voice.

1. Ann is constantly singing. She says this helps her do things.

Use the following expressions: to tell fairy tales, to come, to buy smth, to forget to do smth, to buy lottery cards, to ask questions.

Exercise 6.

Act out the following situation:

Sally and Peter often quarrel. Today they are quarrelling again. Like all people who are excited they both tend to exaggerate things.

Information about Sally: today she is late; she never comes in time; she is never punctual; today she talked on the phone to her friend and forgot about me; she thinks Peter scolds her too often; he finds fault with her all the time; he very often says unpleasant things to her.

Information about Peter : he thinks he tells Sally nothing but the truth; if he does not like something he says so in plain English; today he wants to know what made Sally late.

Exercise 7.

Find in the text English equivalents for the following Russian words and phrases. Group them according to the subject matter:

Пора хорошей погоды, славиться чем-либо, ехать на взморье, дрожать от холода, красивые газоны, ясное голубое небо, два дня подряд, идет дождь круглый год, короткое английское лето.

Exercise 8.

Find in the right hand column English equivalents for the Russian sentences given in the left hand column.

I.

1. Довольно тепло ( прохладно, холодно), 1. A fine morning ( evening), isn’t it? It’s

правда? wonderful out.

2. Стоит прекрасная ( жаркая, чудесная) 2. Rather warm ( cool, cold), isn’t it?

погода. 3. What a clear ( starlit, cloudless) night! Not

3. Какой прекрасный ( хороший, очарова- a cloud in the sky!

тельный, восхитительный) день ( ночь). 4. I expect we’ll have a fine day. The sun is

4. Я думаю, что хорошая погода постоит. coming out.

Я бы сказал, что погода улучшается. 5. What a fine ( nice, most lovely, glorious) Постепенно прояснится. Проясняется. day ( night)!

5. Какая ясная ( звездная, безоблачная) 6. We are having a spell of fine ( wongerful,

ночь! На небе ни облачка! hot) waether.

6. Чудесное утро ( вечер), не правда ли? 7. I thinlk it will continue ( keep) fine. The

На улице чудесно! weather is improving, I should say. It will

7. Я думаю, что день будет чудесный. clear up by and by. It’s clearing up.

Солнце выходит.

II.

1. Небо все в облаках. На небе низко 1. It’s beginning to drizzle. There’s a fine driz-

висят облака. zling rain. The rain is still falling. It’s coming

2. Дождь ( снег) прекратился ( перестал). down hard ( in torrents, in buckets). It’s lovely

Но погода такая неопределенная ( не weather for ducks.

установилась), переменчивая. 2. It seems a dull ( wet, damp, gloomy) day.

3. Начинает моросить. Идет мелкий What a rainy ( cloudy, foggy, windy, stormy)

моросящий дождь. Льет как из ведра. day. It’s hazy ( misty).

Дождливая погода ( шутл.). 3. I expect we’ll have rain ( a thunderstorm, a

4. Кажется, день сегодня пасмурный shower). It will turn out a wet day. It won’t

( серый, мрачный). Какой дождливый keep fine. We are in for bad ( cold, rainy,

( облачный, туманный, ветреный, freezing) weather.

штормовой) день. Туманный день 4. It’s a dull morning (day), isn’t it? Rather

( туманно). nasty out! Beastly weather! What wretched

( frightful, terrible, awful ) weather!

5. Я думаю, что будет дождь ( ливень, 5. The rain is still falling. It’s pouring ( hailing,

гроза). День окажется серым. Хорошая lightning, thundering). There goes a flash of

погода не продержится. Плохой ( холод- lightning! Do you hear the crashing of the

ной, дождливой) погоды не миновать. thunder? What a tremendous clap of thunder!

6. Мрачное утро ( день), правда? На It’s been raining off and on for a week now.

улице довольно пасмурно. Отвратитель- We’ve been having rain for a week now.

ная погода. Какая ужасная ( жуткая, не- 6. The sky is overcast. The clouds are hanging

приятеая) погода! low in the sky.

7. Дождь всё ещё идёт. Идёт сильный 7. Don’t get caught in the rain ( in a shower).

дождь ( сверкает молния, гремит гром, You’ll get wet through and through. I’m

идет град). Сверкает вспышка молнии. drenched ( soaked, wet to the skin). My clothes

Слышишь раскат грома? Какой сильный are soaking wet.

раскат грома! Всю неделю то и дело идёт 8. It has stopped ( ceased, left off) raining

дождь. Дождь идёт уже целую неделю. ( snowing). But the weather is so uncertain

8. Не попади под дождь ( ливень)! Ты ( unsettled, changeable).

промокнешь насквозь. Я вымок ( про-

мок до костей). Моя одежда насквозь

мокрая.

III.

1. Идёт жаркая волна. Установилась 1. There’s hardly a breath of air ( There’s not a

жаркая погода. breath of air ). Not a leaf is stirring. No wonder,

2. Жаркий ( душный, пыльный, зной- with such a blazing ( scorching ) sun.

ный, жаркий и влажный) день. 2. A heat wave is coming on. Hot weather has

Воздух влажный. set in.

3. Дышать нечем ( ни дуновения ветерка). 3. It’s a hot ( close, stifling, dusty, sultry, sticky)

Ни листочек не колышится. Не удиви- day. The air is humid.

тельно, такое палящее ( обжигающее) 4. The heat is unbearable ( oppressive).

солнце. 5. It’s 30 ( degrees) in the shade. The temperatu-

4. 30 тепла в тени. Температура повыша- re is rising ( going up).

ется.

5. Жара невыносимая ( гнетущая).

IV.

1. Река замерзла. Мороз сковал реку. 1. Snow is falling. What soft, fluffy, large

Установилась холодная погода. Термо- snow flakes! They are coming down thick.

метр показывает 0. Я дрожу от холода. There’s a thick ( heavy ) snowfall.

У меня зубы стучат от холода. 2. The river is frozen over. The frost has

2. Становится прохладно. Какой холод- locked the river. Cold weather has set in.

ный ( морозный) день! Ужасно холодно The thermometer is at zero. I’m shivering.

на улице. My teeth are clattering with the cold.

3. Идёт снег. Какие мягкие, пушистые, 3. It is getting chilly. What a cold ( frosty) day!

большие снежинки! Они падают очень It’s extremely ( bitterly, beastly ) cold out.

густо. Сильный снегопад.

4. Была тяжелая ( суровая, мягкая) зима. 4. A strong wind has risen. The wind is

Но в воздухе уже весна. blowing high in the air. It looks as if we’re

5. Морозит. Стоит суровый ( сильный) going to have a snowstorm.

мороз. Неожиданно установился период 5. There’s been a thaw ( it’s thawing ). The

холодной погоды. Я промерз до костей. snow and ice are melting. It’s slushy (muddy,

6. Поднялся сильный ветер. Ветер метет dirty) out. Look out for the slush and mud

снег. Похоже, что будет буран. puddles. It is still very slippery in places.

7. Стоит оттепель. Тают снег и лёд. На 6. It’s been a hard ( severe, mild ) winter. But

улице слякоть (грязно). Иди осторожно, spring is in the air.

вокруг лужи. Местами ещё очень 7. It’s freezing. We’re having a severe ( hard)

скользко. frost. We’re having a sudden spell of cold

weather. I’m chilled to the bone.

Exercise 9.

a). Read for note and then give fluent retelling.

Maintaining small talk: the weather

“Without the topic of the weather, the English would be without one of the most useful weapons in their conversation. Only the English know just how little meteorological cliches really mean. Of course, it is all so much mouth music and you can bet that the English man or woman you are talking to is merely marking conversational time and either planning an escape route or a deadly verbal thrust.

In England, if you do not repeat the phrase ‘Lovely day, isn’t it?’ at least two hundred times a day, you’re considered a bit dull. This is an ever-interesting, even thrilling topic, and you must be good at discussing the If you are a bit slow in picking things up, learn at least one conversation... Just repeat it and you’ll have a fair chance of passing as a remarkably witty person of sharp intellect, keen observation and extremely pleasant manners”.

After A. Miall and G. Mikes

Work in pairs. Take turns to read the parts. Respond as you wish. The response may be in any form ( statement, question, exclamation ) as long as it is appropriate.

1. A – Oh, goodness gracious! Now, do look up at the sky. I’ve never seen such black clouds.

Oh, we’ll get drenched!

B - …

2. A – What does it look like outdoors?

B - …

3. A – The sun is trying to come out. Shall we go to the suburbs?

B - …

4. A – The first snowfall of the season! What a beautiful sight! I’m going out. Are you?

B - …

5. A – I should like to go to the Crimea, but I’m afraid of the heat. How about you?

B - …

6. A – What’s the matter? You are shivering all over! And your clothes are soaking wet!

B - …

7. A – Has it stopped raining?

B – No, not yet. Why?

A - …

8. A – How do you like it here?

B – London is a wonderful city, but your weather is terrible!

A - …

9. A - ….

B – The weather forecast promised a dry, sunny day, didn’t it?

10. A – I must be going now and I wouldn’t like to get wet through and through.

B - …

EXERCISE 10

1. Use the correct forms of the verbs “rain” and “snow”:

1. It ___ again today. It ___ almost every day.

2. We didn’t go to the country on the weekend because it ___ all day long.

3. ___ it ___ when you left home? – Yes, it ___ heavily.

4. – When ___ it last ___? – Two weeks ago.

5. Take an umbrella. It ___.

6. It often ___ last winter, ___ it?

7. ___ it still ___? – Yes, it is.

8. ___ it ___ on Monday morning? – No, it ___.

9. It often ___ here at this time of the year, ___?

Exercise 11.

Fill in the gaps choosing an appropriate word from the list ( sea, shore, beach, seaside, coast )

1. We’ll soon be able to see the French…2. The sea was so rough that the boat was thrown onto the … 3. The … gets very crowded by 11 o’clock. 4. The Crimean … is very beautiful. 5. The children spent hours on the collecting … shells and looking for shrimps in the rock pools. 6. The hotel has its own … 7. Yalta is a … town. 8. The … is always very crowded in summer, so we prefer to stay inland. 9. Great waves were breaking on the … 10. The ship was wrecked on the Kent … 11. We went to the … every morning. 12. There are numerous islands off the … 13. We went for a walk along the … 14. The village is on the South … 15. A lot of Englishmen go to the … in summer. 16. I want to go to the … for a holiday. 17. I wish I lived at the … 18. You are lucky to have a chance of going to the … for your holiday.

Exercise 12.

Give your version of poetic or just humorous translation to the poem:

A man is a fool,

He wants it hot

When it is cool,

He wants it cool

When it is hot

He always wants

That he has not.

Share your thoughts on the idea of the poem. Does the idea only concern the weather?

Exercise 13.

Translate into English.

I. 1. Три дня подряд я пытаюсь тебе дозвониться, но безуспешно. 2. Вот уже два дня подряд идет сильный снег. 3. Сегодня опять очень ветреный день. Вот уже неделю непре­рывно дует ветер. 4. Вот уже три дня подряд я пытаюсь его увидеть, но безуспешно. Он очень занят. 5. Тебе повезло, что три дня подряд стояла сухая и теплая погода.

II. 1. Ты любишь гулять в морозную погоду? 2. Ты не знаешь, какая завтра будет погода? 3. Почему пожилые люди так много говорят о погоде? 4. Очень неприятно оказаться за городом в сырую туманную погоду. 5. В сентябре в нашем городе не всегда бывает хорошая погода. 6. Какая ужасная сегодня погода!

III. 1. Когда мы приехали на вокзал, пошел очень сильный дождь. 2. Думаю, что дождя завтра не будет. 3. Не похоже, что вечером будет дождь. 4. Мой брат очень любит гулять в дождь. 5. Не выходи сейчас. На улице проливной дождь.

IV. 1. Ранняя осень — прекрасная пора. 2. Сентябрь — пре­красная пора в Крыму. 3. Слишком холодно для этой поры. 4. Осень — пора фруктов. 5. Весна — пора чудесных первых цветов: сирени, тюльпанов, нарциссов, крокусов. 6. Ноябрь в Англии — пора дождей, туманов и сильных ветров.

V. 1. Как прекрасно полежать на пляже в жаркий летний день! 2. Мои друзья живут недалеко от побережья. 3. Как бы мне хотелось жить в небольшом курортном городке у моря! 4. Англичане предпочитают отдыхать летом на побережье.

VI. 1. Начинает дуть сильный ветер. Возможно, будет пурга. 2. Какой сильный ветер! 3. Ветер с запада обычно приносит дождь. 4. Вчера весь день дул сильный ветер. 5. Холодный ветер дует с Северного моря.

VII.1. Надень плащ. На улице идет проливной дождь. 2. Зачем ты надела такой теплый свитер? Сегодня совсем не холодно. 3. Снимите пальто. Оно совсем мокрое. Вы попали под дождь. 4. Я советую тебе надеть теплую одежду, чтобы не простудиться. 5. Надень плащ и теплый шарф. На улице моросит, и дует сильный ветер.

Exercise 14.

Translate into English.

1. Осенью погода обычно сырая. Часто идут дожди. Дуют сильные ветры. Дни стоят очень пасмурные. Небо затянуто облаками. Солнца мало. По ночам иногда бывает сильный туман.

2. Какой сырой, ветреный и мрачный день! Время от времени начинает моросить. В такую погоду совсем не хочется выходить на улицу.

3. Началась оттепель. Снег тает. На улицах лужи. На небе ни облачка. В воздухе чувствуется весна.

4. Какая неустойчивая погода! Дождь то шел, то прекращал­ся в течение недели. Со стороны моря идет густой туман. Вчера мы попали под ливень, промокли насквозь и вынуж­дены были вернуться домой.

5. Зима в нашем городе наступает рано, иногда уже в конце ноября все покрывается снегом. Замерзают реки и озера. Часто дуют холодные сильные ветры. Иногда бывает пурга. Дни становятся все короче и короче, а ночи длиннее.

Временами выходит солнце, но оно совсем не греет.

6. Каждый день облачное небо, ливни, грозы. Этот период ненастной погоды продолжается уж слишком долго.

7. На улице +30° в тени, и температура продолжает повы­шаться. Жара невыносимая. Просто нечем дышать! Так душно, что невозможно находиться в помещении.

8. Установилась холодная погода. Со вчерашнего дня моро­зит. Сегодня ужасно холодно на улице. 9. В течение дня погода б Англии меняется несколько раз, гораздо чаще, чем. на континенте.

10. Туман очень густой. Все машины медленно ползут с зажженными фарами.

SPEECH EXERCISES

Exercise 15.

Study the following texts and say what in your opinion the advantages and disadvantages of each season are. (The phrases given below will help you to express an opinion of your own or ask for somebody else's opinion)

Asking for an opinion

A.— In my opinion the pleasantest season is (the) spring,

In May the weather is finest and all nature is loveliest. The trees put forth little buds and new leaves; the meadows grow green again; the flowers begin to bloom. The collective farmers till the soil and sow the seed. The nightingale, swallow, cuckoo «and other birds come back from Italy or Africa and build their nests, all the while singing their merry songs. Meanwhile the new crop is shooting up, and if there are no sharp frosts during the night, nature looks full of promise, and the corn-fields are made bright by blue cornflowers and red poppies.

Spring flowers! The lilacs unfold their pale hearts. There shines the wild daffodil — soft, slim, yellow, there is the starry narcissus, the hiacinth almost lost in the herbs; among them stand tulips — the red bubbles of dark wine; the yellow, more cup-like; the large parti-coloured gold and red, noble and sombre.

B.— I, for one, like(the) summer, in fact, I prefer it to any other season. By the end of June, when the days become considerably warmer, summer has come. If the heat gets too oppressive, we can go and bathe in running water. And many people enjoy a game of tennis in summer. In the summer the hot sun ripens the corn and fruit, and the farmer gets ready for the harvest. There are plenty of strawberries, cherries, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, apricots, peaches, plums and blackberries, which are ripe and afford a treat for the old and the young. And what pleasure can compare with that of watching the glorious sunrise and sunset! Clouds? Rain? Well, well, it isn't always cloudy, and there is no such thing as perpetual rain.

C.— Strange as if might seem, I like (the) autumn. There are some drawbacks, I admit,— the shorter days and longer nights for instance. The weather also leaves much to be desired. But is there anything more beautiful than an Indian summer — when we have one! We miss the songs of the birds, you say. Well, I can and do enjoy the sparrow, bluebird, crossbill and the few others that remain with us. Oh, I know what you want to say. The November fogs, and mist, and sleet are not pleasant things. But what should we do without apples, pears, walnuts, grapes, which get ripe in September and October and may be picked. I, for one, could not get along without fruits or nuts, and for the sake of these I'm willing to put up with some discomforts.

D —When autumn is over and winter sets in, I dont mind it at all. I know it is the season of snowstorms, and of ice, of frozen rivers and ponds, and of slippery streets. But think of the skating on the ice, or skiing in the country, and the sledging. In snowy weather, tobogganing is my favourate pastime. Then think of the joy of the children. At the first heavy snowfall, they are out making snowmen, building snowhuts, and pelting one another with snowballs. Of course, if the winter is severe, one must take care not to get frost-bitten. To me, winter has its own peculiar interest and beauty, and there is no reason to feel bored to death when there are interesting books, theatres and concerts, and the cinema.

TEXT 2

Exercise 16.

Read the following text and explain why the author compares the weather in Washington with a winning candidate.

The weather in Washington reminds me of a winning candidate who promises everything, but you never know just when to expect it at all.

Sometimes it's Aprfl in January, and March often behaves like December or May.

Or as Mark Twain found it here: 'When you arrived (at the station at night) it was snowing. When you reached the hotel it was sleeting. When you went to bed it was raining. During the night it froze hard and the wind blew some chimneys down. When you get up in the morning, it was foggy. When you finished your breakfast at ten o'clock and went out, the sunshine was brilliant, the weather balmy and delicious, and the mud and slush deep and all-pervading. You will like the climate — when you get used to it.'

If you care to follow Mark Twain's advice, take as umbrella and overcoat, and fan, and go forth.

My advice on what to expect, season by season, regarding the weather is:

Spring — it's a wonderful, most attractive, liveliest time of the year. Mild weather usually arrives earlier than it does in most northern cities. (Prepare for possible 27°C in March), flowers burst into bloom starting with magnolia, then followed by cherry blossoms, azalea and pansies.

Summer — it can be hot, humid, sticky. Man wear tropical outfits.

Autumn — the best season except for spring; in some ways the best of all. The climate is dry, mild. If you are driving, the colour in the mountains is beautiful.

Winter— unpredictable, some years raw, cold, soggy; others short and mild. You don't have to bring your umbrella and galoshes, but come prepared to buy them.

(From Washington. A Modern Guide to the Nation's Capital by M.Frome)

TEXT 3

Exercise 17.

Read the following story and find a topic sentence in each paragraph.

Do the assignments after the text.

September Mood in England

It's Monday morning. Miss Goodbody walks into the office. Her holiday is over and she has just returned to work. She looks brown and relaxed and happier than usual. The other girls stand round her. "Where did you go?" one asks. "Italy. Little place near Naples^”. "What was the weather like?" "Hot, of course." "Where did you go?" "Oh, Eastbourne." "Did you enjoy it?" "Yes, quite. It rained a bit though."

It's September. The holidays are over and the girls are restless. Their job-changing season has begun.

Mr. Wetherington comes in ten minutes later. He is not very happy. Every Monday morning since early June he has heard the same conversation in the train on his way to the office in London. Someone is just back from holiday. Everyone else is asking where he went and what was the weather like and did he enjoy himself? A bit tedious really — especially if, like Mr. Wetherington, you had your holiday two months ago.

But it isn't only holiday talk that is worrying him. He is thinking about the winter. Five years ago he had central heating installed ia his house. Now his wife wants them to put in double glazing. She tells him it will save fuel as well as keep the house warmer.

She's right of course. But to double-glaze all the windows will cost quite a lot of money. Perhaps he can leave it for the moment. After all, it's still quite warm. May be October — or even the whole winter — will be mild and they'll hardly notice the necessity for double glazing. Mr. Wetherington isn't very good at making decisions.

At home his wife is thinking about all the jobs she has to do at this time of "year, like buying school uniforms for the children, seeing how much of their last year's winter outfits are still big enough and making sure that winter overcoats, gloves and heavy shoes are clean and ready for use.

Old Mr. Hart, the retired bank manager, who lives opposite the Wetheringtons is busy in his trim and always tidy garden. He's tying up roses just now and thinking that soon he'll have thousands of leaves to sweep up and burn and shrubs to be pruned and everything made ready fot the winter. "Autumn's a fine time", he says to himself. "No worrying now about how the plants will do. That's all over. There's lots of colour still left in the garden. The leaves will be showing their autumn colours soon and I'll see the beechwood on the hill behind all red and yellow and brown like a forest fire in the setting sun. It's a great time of year".

It's September and a typical English-autumn is about to begin.

Assignments

1. Make up .situations based on or connected with the story using the suggested vocabulary. You are welcome to enlarge on the story.

to look brown, to go to the seaside for holidays, a crowded beach, lovely weather, to improve (about the weather), uncertain (changeable weather), sultry days, there's hardly a breath of air, to keep fine, wretched weather, to drizzle, to have occasional showers, lovely weather for ducks, a spell of wonderful (rainy, nasty, wretched) weather, to enjoy oneself, to be annoyed at holiday talk, to be back (fresh) from holiday, to have central heating installed, to put in double glazing, (not) to be good at making decisions, to face a problem, to be ready for use, to make smth ready for the winter, to be busy in one's trim and tidy garden, to sweep up leaves, to prune shrubs, autumn is a fine time of the year, to set in (about a season or the weather).

2.Dramatize the text.

Role 1. Miss Goodbody returns to work after holidays feeling happier and more relaxed than usual.

Role 2. Mr. Wetherington comes to the office in a gloomy mood. He looks annoyed and worried. Role 3. Mrs. Wetherington is eager to put in double glazing. She is trying to convince Mr. Wetherington of the necessity for double glazing. But the latter isn't very good at making decisions.

3. Think of a situation around the following sentence. "A typical English autumn is about to begin."

TEXT 4

WEATHER WORDS

Rain cats and dogs: rain very heavily

Fair-wether friend: A person who is loyal in good times but not when times are difficult.

A whirlwind tour: a very quick and superficial tour without any time to go into or observe details.

To go to someplace like a tornado: to speed through somewhere causing major change and/ or destruction on the way through.

To be cloudy about something: to be unsure of or unfocused about something.

To have one’s head in the clouds: to not have a grasp or undestanding of the reality of a situation.

Lightning never strikes twice in the same spot: a bad incident will not likely happen to the same person(s) twice ( saying which unfortunately is not accurate).

To be full of hot air: to say a lot of empty, meaningless words; to not know what one is talking about.

To be windy: to be very talkative without necessarily saying much that is substantive.

To have a downpour of something: to have a delude or considerable amount of something.

To strike like lightning: to hit hard and fast either physically or verbally.

Save it for a rainy day: to save something, usually money, for possible future ned.

Under a cloud: less than entirely trustworthy, suspected of some wrongdoing.

Under the weather: ill, unwell.

Take ( give someone) a raincheck: to request that an appointment be rescheduled; to accept different time for an appointment.

Take something by storm: to rush in and take something with considerable force, often causing pain and destruction.

Shoot the breeze: to chat or to pass time by chatting, to talk idly.

See which way the wind blows: to determine what actions or words will be popular or acceptable to one’s superior, to the people who control one’s counterparts when one has something to gain by it, even through such actions or words may not be what one sincerely wants to do or say.

Rain on someone’s parade: to spoil or dampen someone’s happy feelings.

Get a second wind: to get a second burst of energy.

Dawn on someone: finally realize something that was perhaps already apparent to others.

Clear the air: to resolve hidden resentment or uncover hidden thoughts.

Brainstorm: to suggest any idea that comes into mind in an attempt to find a solution to a problem.

Give someone a snow job: to give someone a description of something or someone that is overly or unrealistically attractive and positive.

Leave someone (get left) out in the cold: to shun someone; to exclude someone from a place or activity.

Out of the blue ( meaning out of a clear blue sky): unexpectedly, and often suddenly.

Take the wind out of someone’s sails: to deflate someone’s ego or to ruin or destroy someone’s high expectations.

Steal someone’s thunder: to steal someone’s idea or words before he or she can share them.

From “English Teaching Forum”

Exercise 18.

1. Give your own interptretation of the expressions given above.

2. Make up a story using one or more expressions.

3. Make up a dialogue on any subject or occasion using the expression about weather.

4. Make up a “chain” dialogue ( group dialogue – St1 St2 St3, etc.) using given expressions. Begin your talk with the phrase: I can’t believe that I have to accomplish this downpour of work by this evening. Will you go and discover which way the wind blows.

Vocabulary:

Fair weather –хорошая погода. Whirlwind – вихрь, смерч, ураган. Superficial [su:pe`fiSl]- поверхностный. Someplace – куда-нибудь, где-нибудь. Major – значительный. Unfocused –[…`eu…] – несосредоточенный. Grasp of understanding – спосбность быстрого понимания. Substantive – существенный. Downpour [ `daunpo: ] – ливень. Delude [`dеlju:dз] – потоп, лавина, перен. очень много. Wrongdoing – проступок. Raincheck – обещание принять приглашение как-нибудь в другой раз. Reschedule – переносить на другое время. Rush in – врываться. Talk idly – болтать праздно. Determine – решать, определять. Superior – начальник. Counterpart – коллега. Gain – иметь выгоду. Dampen – обескураживать, подавлять. Dawn [ do:n ] – рассвет, осенять (кого-либо), приходить в голову. Apparent – очевидный. Resolve – разрешать (проблему). Resentment – чувство обиды. Brainstorm – внезапная идея. Overly – чрезмерно. Shun – избегать, остерегаться. Exclude – исключать, выгонять. Deflate [,di:`fleit ] – умалять (важность). Ego [`i:geu ] – собственное “я” , собственная персона.

TEXT 5

Pre-reading task:

Exercise 19.

1. Work in pairs, discuss nature signs you know. Read the following nature sings and “weather laws”, give your translation.

2. What sayings about weather do you know?

Wisdom and Sayings

A long time ago when people lived mostly out-of-doors, they were close to nature. They noticed that plants, mammals, insects and birds sensed the coming of storm sooner than people did. All living things have a natural instinct to save their own lives, and so they look for shelter just before a storm. When ancient people saw animals seeking shelter, they acted the same.

Of course, plants and animals do not actually forecast weather, but they are good weather indicators. The elements that make up weather – atmospheric pressure, moisture, temperature, and wind – affect living things in special ways, and their reactions give clues to weather changes. The people of long ago called these clues “weather sign” and those who knew how to read the signs were often just as correct in their predictions as modern meteorologists, the scientists who study weather and collect weather information with special instruments.

Meteorologists tell us that during fair weather the air usually contains very little moisture. But just before a rain the air becomes damp and has a higher relative humidity. Humidity is the amount of moisture in the air compared to how much it could hold. When the air has all the moisture it can hold, it is saturated. You might compare it to a sponge. When a sponge is damp it is wet, but has relatively little moisture in it. When it is dripping wet, it is saturated.

Now meteorologists use special instruments to measure relative humidity, but in earlier times, people relied on nature to tell them when the humidity was high. Spiders were one of their best humidity indicators.

Normally, spiders spin their webs between 6 and 7 p.m. During calm, clear weather they don’t bother to make large webs or to take them in.

But when there is high humidity and a drop in air pressure, spiders work overtime building more and larger dragnets. Somehow they seem to know that insects will be easier to catch when the humidity is high. The moisture in the air soaks the insects’ wings, making it difficult for them to fly. However, since a heavy rain would ruin the net and wash away the bugs caught in it, spiders will take down their nets before a storm. And an old saying warns:

When spiders take in their net,
The ground will soon be wet.

Frogs and toads come out and feast on the easily caught insects when the air is cool and moist. Toads seldom come out when the air is dry. This is also true of frogs, and it is another reason why you can hear more of them before a rain.

Some people watch ants form weather clues. Anytime you see ants industriously building huge mounds around their holes, prepare for rain. About two hours before a downpour, all kinds of ants – but especially large black or red ones – will break up their caravans, scurry into their nests, and begin building dams around the ant hill. These mounds, which are sometimes several inches in height, prevent rainwater from running into the ant hills.

Bees give weather clues, too. They are usually active several hours before a rain, but as the humidity increases, they return to their hives. Some American Indians say that the longer the increased activity lasts, the longer the rain will be.

There is a saying which says:
If bees stay at home, rain will soon come;
If they fly away, fine will be the day.
Other insects are also good humidity indicators.

Butterflies usually flit from flower to flower all day long. When they suddenly disappear and can be found hiding on tree trunks or on the underside of leaves, they are seeking shelter to protect their fragile wings from a hard rain. Fireflies fly very low when there is a high relative humidity. But an old saying states:

When fireflies are about in large numbers,
The weather will be fair for the next three days.

Watching birds people also understand what kind of weather is coming and some sayings prove it well:

Crow on the fence
Rain will go hence.
Crow on the ground
Rain will come down.

When the cuckoo comes to the bat thorn,
Sell your cow and buy your corn,
But when she comes to the full bit,
Sell your corn and buy your sheep.

When the peacock loudly calls,
Then look out for rain and squalls.

When sea birds fly to land,
A storm is at hand.

If chickens roll in the sand
Rain is at hand.

If a rooster crows when he goes to bed
He’ll get up with rain on his head.

If the cock moult before the hen,
We shall have weather thick and thin,
But if the hen moult before the cock,
We shall have weather hard as a block.

Domestic animals and plants are also very good at prompting weather and these sayings prove it:

When a cow tries to scratch her ear,
It means a shower is very near.
When she thumps her ribs with her tail,
Look out for thunder, lightning, and hail.

It is time to cock your hay and corn,
When the old donkey blows his horn.

Onion’s skin very thin,
Mild winter coming in.
Onion’s skin thick and tough,
Coming winter cold and rough.

Plants are especially good at humidity indicators. They are affected in different way. Just before a rain many flowers – like the daisy, tulip – close their blossoms, and clover plants draw their leaves together. It is believed that the absorption of moisture from the air causes a change in the leaf stalk, making the leaves turn over. It may be that the rough underside of the leaf can absorb rain better than the smooth topside.

Almost everyone knows what humidity does to hair. Curly hair gets curlier and straight hair gets limp. The reason is that hair absorbs moisture from damp air. Straight hair actually gets longer.

Some people are very sensitive to humidity. People who have arthritis are, in a sense, “living hygrometers”. High humidity causes the fluids in their tissues and joints to increase, making movement difficult and painful. That is why many older people say, “It’s going to rain. I can feel it in my bones”. They actually can.

By learning to read weather signs, you can get a few hours advance warning if a storm is headed your way. It may keep you from getting your new shoes ruined in the rain, from having a family picnic spoiled, or your garden beaten down by a storm. If you are backpacking, camping, boating or doing similar outdoor activities it might even save your life.

However here are some more sayings which may be taken into account or purely entertain you or can be just used in class activities, especially if your learners have problems with phonetics:

Calm weather in June,
Sets corn in tune.

Hot July brings cooling showers,
Apricots and gillyflowers.

If you plant turnips on the 25th of July,
You will have turnips, wet or dry.

St. Swithin’s day, if thou does rain,
For forty days it will remain;
St. Swithin’s day, if thou be fair,
For forty days’ twill rain na mair.

Dry August and warm
Doth harvest no harm.

Warm September brings the fruit;
Sportsmen then begin to shoot.

Ice in November to walk a duck,
The winter will be all rain and muck.

Pale moon doth rain,
Red moon doth blow,
White moon doth neither rain nor snow.

When the dew is on the grass,
Rain will never come to pass.

A red sky at night is a shepherd’s delight,
A red sky in the morning is a shepherd’s warning.

Evening grey and morning red
Are the signs of a bonny day.
Evening grey and morning red
Bring down rain on the farmer’s head.

• If you kill a daddy longlegs spider, it will rain.

• If you cut your hair during a full moon, it will grow fast.

• When it rains, say, “Rain, rain, go away; little Donald wants to play.”

Vocabulary:

Moisture – влажность, сырость; влага

Saturate [`sэetSэreit]– насыщать, пропитывать

Humidity – влажность, сырость; влага

To spin web – прясть, плести паутину

Toad – жаба

Feast – пир, празнетство, банкет

Ant – муравей

Mound – холмик, горка

Scurry – беготня, суета, быстрое стремительное движение

Bee – пчела

Flit – перелетать, порхать, легко и бесшумно двигаться

Firefly –светляк (летающий)

Crow – ворона

Тhorn – шип, колючка

Tissue [`tiSu:]– ткань

To backpack – нести груз на спине (в походе)

Turnip – репа, репка

Na mair – (from Scot word) no more

Muck – навоз, разг. грязь, дрянь, мерзость

Doth – уст. 3 лицо ед.ч наст. вр.глагола to do

Squall – шквал, волнение, беспорядрк

Rooster – петух, задира, забияка

To crow – кричать, издавать радостные звуки, кричать кукареку

Thump – тяжелый удар; гухой звук (удара); наносить удар

Hail – град

Hay – сено

Limp – хромота, прихрамывать; мягкий, нежесткий; слабый

Post-reading task:

Learn the tongue-twisters by heart and take part in your group contest on the best “Chatterbox”

TEXT 6

23 March – World Meteorologists’ Day.

Weather extremes.

The recording of extremes in weather is made from comparisons of weather observations kept by worldwide weather stations for many years. The following are some established world records for extreme weather.

Longest tornado track: On May 26, 1917 a tornado yraveled from Missouri to Indiana, leaving a track 293 miles long (471 km).

Record winds: were recorded on April 12, 1934 and clocked at 230 miles ( 371 km) per hour as they swept across Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

Greatest number of wet days: Mount Wai`ale`ale in Hawaii holds the record for rainfall, 350 days a year.

The driest place in the world: theAtacama Desert in Chile. It has less than 1/250 inches (0.1mm) of annual rainfall.

The coldest place: on July 21, 1983, Vostok Base, Antarctica set the world’s record for the lowest temperature at minus 128.6`F (-89.2`C).

The highest temperature in the world: 136.4`F ( 58`C), was recorded at Al Aziziyah in Libya on Septemeber 13, 1992.

The world’s most extreme temperature range: Verhoyansk, northeast Siberia. Temperatures there can fall to as low as –90`F (-68`C) in winter and rise to as high as 98`F (37`C) in summer.

The greatest measured annual rainfall: 1,1860 to July 31, 1861 in Cherapunji, Meghalya, India.

The largest hailstone: was 2.25lbs (1kg) and fell on Aptil 14, 1986in Gopalganj district, Bangladesh.

The greatest 24-hour rainfall: 73.5 inches (1,869.9mm) on March 15-16, 1952 at Chilaos, La Re`union, Indian Ocean.

Water spout: On May 16, 1898 a waterspout with the heigh of 5,012ft (1,528m) and a diameter of 10ft (3m) was spotted off the coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Vocabulary:

Clock – показывать время, хронометрировать. Sweep – проноситься. Chile – Чили. F=Farenheit – по шкале Фаренгейта. C.= centigrade – по стоградусной шкале. Libya [`libie] – Ливия. Temperature range – колебания температур. Hailstone – градина. lb=libra – лат. фунт (= 373,2г). La Re`union – о-в Реюньон. Waterspout – водяной смерч, ливень. ft=foot (pl. feet) – фут (=30,48см). Spot – заметить, увидеть.

TEXT 7

Thunderstorms

Moisture, instability and lift are the three main ingredients needed: rain, strong winds, accompanied by bright flashes of lightning and the crack of thunder – a thunderstorm is born. There are more than 40,000 thunderstorms happening around the world everyday. The most severe thunderstorm can produce hail and spawn tornadoes.

The life cycle of a thunderstorm occurs in three stages: developing, mature, and dissipating. In the developing stage, a cumulus cloud (low-level and puffy) begins to grow and vigorous updrafts develop which prevent any precipitation from falling. The mature stage sees downdrafts developing and occurences of lightning, thunder and violent down-drafts called “microbursts”; rain showers or hail may fall also. In the final stage, the cooler downdraft increases cutting off the suply of warm moist air to the thundrestorm. Rains begin to cease and altocumulus (mid-level) and cirrus (high-level) clouds may appear over the shrinking cumulus clouds.

Thunderstorms may last from 15 minutes to sevral hours.

Vocabulary:

Moisture – влажность. Lift – водяной столб. Flash – вспышка. Severe – сильный. Spawn [spo:n] – порождать. Mature [me`tSue]- зрелый, созревший. Dissipate – рассеиваться. Cumulus [`kju:mjules] – кучевое облако. Puffy - набрякший, пышный, пушистый. Vigorous – сильный. Updraft – поток воздуха, направленный вверх. Precipitation – осадки. Occurrence – случай, явление. Violent – сильный, интенсивный. Supply – поступление. Cease [si:s]- прекращаться. Altocumulus – высококучевое облако. Cirrus[`sires] – перистое облако. Shrink – сокращаться, уменьшаться.

TEXT 8

Tornadoes

Part 1

Tornadoes are storms with very strong turning and dark clouds. These winds are perhaps the strongest on earth. They reach speeds of 300 miles per hour. The dark clouds are shaped like a funnel – wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. The winds are strongest in the center of the funnel. Tornadoes are especially commomn in the USA, but only in central states. A hot afternoon in the spring is the most likely time for tornadoes. Clouds become dark. There is thunder, lightning, and rain. A cloud forms a funnel and begins to twist. The funnel moves faster and faster. The faster the winds, the louder the noise. Tornadoes always move in a northeastern direction. They never last longer than eight hours. A tornado’s path is narrow, but within that narrow path a tornado can destroy everything. It can smash biuldings and rip up trees. Tornadoes can kill people as well.

The worst tornado swept through the states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana in 1925, killing 689 people. Modern weather equipment now makes it possible to warn people of tornadoes. People have a much better chance of protecting themselves. But nothing can stop tornadoes from destroying everything in their path.

How do the Totnadoes Start?

Part2

Of course we are all quite accustomed to thunderstorms. These are usually local storms. But there are certain kinds of storms that may cover thousands of square miles. One such type is called a “cyclonic storm” or “cyclone.” In a cyclone, the winds blow toward the center of an area of low pressure.

A curious thing about them is that the winds blow in spiral fashion. In the northern hemisphere such storms turn counterclockwise, in the southern hemisphere they turn clockwise!

A tornado is simply a special kind of cyclone. A tornado arises when the conditions that cause ordinary thunderstorms are unusually violent. There is an updraft of air. There are winds blowing in opposite directions around this rising air. This starts a whirling effect that is narrow and very violent. When this happens, centrifugal force throws the air away from the center. And this leaves a core of low pressure at the center.

This low-pressure core acts like a powerful vacuum on everything it passes. This is one of the destructive things about a tornado. It can actually suck the walls of a house outward in such a way that the house will collapse. The other destructive thing about a tornado is the high winds that may blow around the edges of a whirl. These winds can reach 300 miles per hour and blow anything down.

 Vocabulary:

Destruction – разрушение, уничтожение, разорение

Such – всасывание, всасывать

Outward – внешений, наружный, поверхностный, направленный наружу

Collapse – обвал, разрушение, крушение,крах

Edge – кромка, край

Core – центр, сердцевина, ядро

Counterclockwise – против часовой стрелки

Clockwise – по часовой стрелке

Cyclone [`saiklэun] - циклон

Exercise 20 (on 6, 7, 8 texts).

1. Using the material of the texts # 6, 7, 8 and weather reports from the TV programmes and newspapers make your own report for the programme “Weather Extremes” or “ The Catastrophe of the Week”

 

Exercise 21.

1. Explain the followng proverbs:

“ After a storm comes a calm”, “ Any port in a storm, “Every cloud has a silver lining”, “If there were no clouds, we should not enjoy the sun”, “ In a calm sea every man is a pilot”, “ It never rains but it pours” ( “ It never rains without pouring’), “ Keep something for a rainy day”, “Make hay while the sun shines”, “ Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind”, “ The sun is never the worse for shining on a dunghill”.

3. Find other proverbs containing references to the weather.

1. Write a story in which a proverb about weather will be used as a conclusion.

Exercise 22.

1. Listen to the text ( tapescript 11, Headway intermediate ) about the weather forecast.

2. Make up a scheme of districts and weather forecast ( temperature, precipitation, etc.) mentioned in the text.

3. Listen to a weather report in a news programme or other programmes on TV and prepare the weather forecast for the following day.

Exercise 23.

Read the following weather reports published in newspapers and use them while acting out the following situations:

I. April: Saturday: mainly cloudy, occasional rain with sleet or snow over hills slowly dying out, hill fog patches, wind NE fresh or strong, max temp 5C.

(There are some styles in which articles are dropped, for instance in weather reports: Dull day, wind NE strong to gale force).

Outlook for Sunday: Bright weather with sunny intervals showers will spread slowly S during Saturday, replacing the mainly cloudy weather with occasional rain or drizzle. On Sunday all districts will have sunny intervals and showers.

March: Dull misty start with rain at times; becoming dry and brighter, wind SE light, max temp 10C.

Planning an Outing

Role 1. Phone up B. Ask him how he/she is. Comment on the weather. Invite your friend for an outing. Ask him/her If he/she knows the weather forecast. Say that you don't feel like getting caught in the rain and getting wet through and through. Appoint the date for your outing.

Role 2. A. phones you up. You're well. Discuss the weather with him/her. Describe the weather forecast to him/her which you've heard over the radio. Cheer him/her up. Express your hope that it will clear up and you will have a lot of sunshine. Agree upon the date for your outing.

Here are some useful phrases to express:

a) one's likes and preferences.

I'd like to; I like to; I’d rather (do smth); I've always wanted to; I would love (doing smth); I would much prefer;

b) making suggestions

What about: Why not do (smth); Why don't you; Listen, let's

II. December: Sunny intervals, snow showers, chiefly near coasts, wind N light or moderate; max temp 3C.

Outlook for next week: very cold, snow showers, chiefly in the N and E.

Sea passages: wind NE strong to gale force, snow showers, visibility good, sea state rough or very rough. January: Bright at first, rain spreading from W preceded by sleet or snow in places, max temp 6C.

Outlook for next week: Cold, with scattered sleet or showers and sunny intervals.

Sea passages: Wind NW backing 3 moderate, occasionally fresh; mainly fair; visibility good; sea moderate.

Discussing a future business trip to England in December

Role 1. Phone up В., your colleague, who happened to have worked in England as a newspaper correspondent for three years. Ask him/her about the weather in London in December (January), Ask him/her for advice concerning clothes and things which may come in handy there.

Role 2. A. phones you up. Не/she tells you about his/ her business trip to England in December (January). You describe the weather in London in December (January) and give him/her advice concerning clothes and things he/she should take with him/her. Warn him/her about the peculiarities of English winter. Here are some useful phrases to express

a) giving advice

I think you should ... (do..,); You'd better (do smth); If I were you I would (do...); Why don't you ...

b) accepting advice, considering advise, rejecting advice politely

Yes, that's just what I'll do; Thanks for the advice

Well, I could do that, I suppose. I’ll think about it. No, it's no good doing that, I've tried it before. But thanks for the advice anyway.

c) warning d) askimg for advice

Don't... Do you think I should ... (do smth)

Don't... otherwise .

1 warn you Would you advise me ... (to do…)

Remember that...

Remember not to What do you think I should...

I wouldn't... Do you think it's advisable to...

You might find that... If you were in my position would you…

III. Discussing the plans for the forthcoming holidays.

Make use of the language material given in parts I, II.

Role 1. Plone up В., your friend. Ask him/her how he/she is.

Tell him/her you are going to Latvia for уоur holidays in April. You know that your friend has been to Latvia many times in all the seasons. Ask him/her about the weather in Latvia in April.

Role 2. A. phones you up. You are quite well. You're glad to help your friend. You've been to Latvia many times in all the seasons. You describe the weather in April which may be very changeable. You advise your friend not to go to Latvia in April.

TEXT 9

“IT’S NEVER FAIR WEATHER”

I do not like the winter wind The frozen daffodils.

That whistles from the North. Let other poets gaily sing;

My upper teeth and those beneath, I do not like the signs of spring.

They jitter back and forth.

Uh, some are hanged, and some are I do not like the foggy fall

skinned. That strips the maples bare;

And others face in winter wind. The radiator’s mating call,

The dank, rheumatic air.

I do not like the summer sun I fear that taken all in all,

That scorches the horizon. I do not like the foggy fall.

Though some delight in Farenheit,

To me it’s deadly poison. The winter sun of course, is kind,

I think life would be more fun And summer wind’s savour,

Without the simmering summer sun. And I’’ll merrily sing of fall and spring

When they’re on their good behaviour.

I do not like the signs of spring, But otherwise I see no reason

The fever and the chills To speak in praise of any season.

The icy mud, the puny bud,

( by Ogden Nash )

Exercise 24.

Activities:

1. Make the poetic translation of the poem above.

2. Try and compose your own poem about seasons and weather .

Vocabulary:

Jitter [dзite]– дрожать. Hang – висеть. Skin – содрать кожу. Scorn – обжигать. Simmer – кипеть, закипать. Fever – лихорадка. Puny [`pju:ni]– слабый. Bud – почка. Fall = Autumn. Strip – обнажать. Maple – клен. Bare – голый. Mate – зд. дружеский. Dank – прпомозглый. Savior [`seivje]– спаситель. Otherwise – в противном случае. Praise [preiz] – хвала, похвала.

TEXT 10

Great London Fog

Fog! The poetry and the misfortunes of London, its pride and its curse; the bleak fog overloaded with dark gloom, bitter cold and hidden danger. Fog, fog everywhere – down the river where it spreads among the ships, in the streets, creeping into the houses, lingering before the door; fog in the eyes and throats of chance passers-by, its thick veil all around them. Cars move along at snail’s pace but still street accidents are frequent in the fog. People cannot see each other at their arm’s length, they collide in the streets, they creep along the houses touching them with their hands for fear of losing their or for fear of being run over by car.

An old anecdote comes to my mind: in a fog a young man wanted to cross the street, but he was afraid of being run over. At that moment he saw quite near the figure of a man walking with a firm step. The young man eagerly ran up to him, caught his hand and they crossed the street together.

“ How do you manage to find your way in the fog so well?” – asked the young man.

“ My dear sir, fog or not fog, it makes me no difference. I am blind,”- answered the man.

The fog begins with a transparent veil through which you can clearly see the sharp outlines of the Parliament, Big Ben, the Tower; then it becomes thicker and thicker, sometimes coloured yellow by the smoke of innumerable chimneys: a thick yellow suffocating fog of this kind is called “smog” or a “ pea-soup” or a “London particular”. This is a real disaster, especially for people with weak lungs. But smog does not happen very oftern.

If you walk along London streets in the evening, you cannot help noticing that the lamplight in different streets is of different colour; blue, milk-white, yellow, purple or orange, and it is no whim: the Londoners experiment which of the lights is better seen through the fog.

Along some central streets and thoroughfares glaring bits of glass are inserted into the asphalt; we call them “cats’ eyes”; you have most probably seen such “ eyes’ in our country, too, on road signs: “ beware! an engine” or “turn to the right”. They flash as soon as light illuminates them.

In Britain they are invaluable in foggy weather. Fog is often the gloomy background against which the action develops in many English novels or films. Perhaps you can remember some of them? Dickens often used it, and Galsworthy too.

The fog is one of the most typical features of London and the Londoners cannot imagine their capiltal without it.

Comments:

Haze/ hazy – light mist, usually caused by heat

Mist/ misty – light fog, often on the sea, or caused by drizzle

Fog/ foggy - quite thick, associated with cold weather

Smog –mixture of fog and pollution ( smoke + fog )

Exercise 25.

1. Retell the text above. Use your own imagination.

Vocabulary:

Curse – проклятие. Bleak – унылый, мрачный, бесцветный, бледный. Linger – медлить, мешкать, тянуться. Veil – вуаль, занавес. At snail’s pace – со скоростью улитки. Collide – сталкиваться. Run over – переехать ( кого-либо, что-либо). Transparent – прозрачный, просвечивающийся. Suffocate – душить, удушать, задыхаться. Whim – причуда, прихоть, каприз. Thoroughfares - оживленная улица, главная артерия города, проход, проезд. Insert – помещать, вставлять. Invaluable – неоценимый, бесценный.

Exercise 26.

Retell the following text in English:

Раньше я скептически относился ко всем разговорам о лондонских туманах. В конце концов туманы бывают и у нас. Поэтому первый лондонский туман я не воспринял серьезно. «Ну вот и знаменитый английский туман»,— сообщил я своим детям, и они запрыгали: «Туман, туман...» Жена казалась серьезнее: «Как же я в магазин пойду?» Она все-таки пошла и даже вернулась. Но мы ждали ее два часа, хотя до магазина было рукой подать /round the corner/. Туманы останавливают транспорт, даже железные дороги_э закрывают предприятия и... убивают людей. Нет, не только на дорогах, хотя в туманные дни происходит много аварий. Гораздо больше людей убивает «смог» — туман, смешанный с дымом и сажей от каминов и выхлопными газами. Знаменитый «киллер» — «смог» 1952 года унес жизни 435 человек, страдающих астмой /asthma/. Смог в декабре 1962 года убил более 200 человек. Лондонцы надевают в такие дни марлевые повязки /gauze bandages/: они становятся серыми через четверть часа.

Туман приносит много бед. Но не весь год в Англии только туманно, сыро и ветрено. Надоедают дожди и сырость. Но человек ко всему может привыкнуть. Привыкаешь посте­пенно и к английской погоде.

/По В. Осипову, «Британия глазами русского»/.

TEXT 11

To the Top of the World

(extracts)

by Cross Country Skier Mark Jenkins

Up a Sleeping Dragon. Arriving at Greenland, our plane belly-flopped onto an unnamed glacier. Putting on our skis, we took a bearing. We skied off one by one like camels in the desert. Nobody was talking much. It was a time formoving, letting your body talk and your mind walk. By midnight, when the Arctic is still bright as a cloudy summer day in July, we’d been skiing for six hours, and Gunnbjorn was in full view. We stopped, set our tents and fell asleep crawling into our bags.

At 4:30 we crawled out. The sun was happily sweeping around us. The snow was hard and brilliant, like a mirror turned toward the sun. White upon white upon white surrounded us. There was no sound, no movement but us. Here we were skiing up the smooth belly of a sleeping dragon, without a care in the world.

… Sometimes a glacier can be like a wide-awake dragon. It snaps its enomous glacial tail, and ice cracks and a tiny insect-size skier is crushed or impaled or buried alive by ice; or it bares its teeth and a crevasse sudenly opens and skiers die falling into it. But when the world is silent and kitchen-clean and friendly, you tend to forget.

… I climbed – steady, fluid, graceful. I had only feet and fingers. I put cold fingers in snow-filled cracks, feet into holes in the rocks. On all of earth there were only the rocks I touched. Suddenly the world returned. I was on top of a mountain on top of the world. The earth curved away in all directions, rough and white and uneven. Peaks everywhere, unknown, unnamed, unclimbed.

… Rising above the surrounding pinacles were two peaks. The Dome and The Cone. The words flashed through my memory. Journal notes. Members of a 1969 expedition had seen these peaks. But weather so vicious the leader said it “ very nearly cost us our lives” had kept them from exploring the two. I could not believe it. I suddenly felt a world of fear and stress and exhaustion roll on top of me.

… The next morning we chose to attempt The Dome first. The first few hours we made swift progress by walking on our skis. Then, as conditions worsened, we used crampons and ice axes. Metal teeth biting concrete snow, ice axes used more for balance than ascent, we cruised up the snow ridge to a notch that cleft the east ridge cleanly. There was steep snow going down, then steep, possibly unstable snow going back up.

…On the summit side of the notch, the ridge narrowed to a knife-edge. I had our altimeter around my neck. We reached 3790! We were there. What “there” was is still a matter of debate among geologists. Due to heavy snowfalls in the Arctic, summit heights can vary annually.

Vocabulary:

Belly-flop – шлепнуться на брюхо. Glacier [`glэesje]– ледник. Bearing – определять положение, ориентироваться. Smooth – гладкий, ровный. Snap – хлопать, шлепать, цапнуть. Enormous – громадный, огромный. Glacial [`gleisjel] – ледяной. Crack – трещина, трескаться. Impale – прокалывать, пронзать, напороться на что-то. Bare – обнажать, раскрывать. Crevasse [kri`vэеs]- расселина в леднике. Steady – спокойный, равномерный, осторожно. Fluid – подвижный, меняющийся. Curve - изгибаться. Uneven – неровный, шероховатый. Pinnacle – вершина. Vicious – ужасный, норовистый, злобнвй, порочный. Exhaustion [ig`zo:stSэn]– измождение, истощение. Swift – скорый, быстрый. Crampons [krэempэns] – шипы на подошвах обуви или на подковах. Аxe – топор. Ascent – восхождение, подъем. Cruise [kru:z]– “плыть”. Ridge –

гребень горы, хребет, гряда. Notch – выемка, метка, зарубка, амер. горный перевал, теснина, ущелье. Cleave (clove, cleft)– раскалываться, пробиваться, разрезать. Cleft – трещина, расселина. Steep – невероятный, неправдоподобный, чрезмерный. Unstable – неустойчивый, изменчивый, колеблющийся. Summit – вершина. Altimeter [`эeltimi:tэ]– высотомер.

Exercise 27.

1. Pick out the words from the text above describing the weather and nature of the north.

2. Pick out the words describing the difficulties of ascent.

3. What was the aim of Mark Jenkins and his group?

4. What was the result of the expedition?

5. What makes people take such great risk?

TEXT 12

Exercise 28.

Scan the following text for the new words on the topic. Inlarge your vocabulary.

SEASONS AND WEATHER, CLIMATE

As we know the weather, depends on the season and the climate of the country, and the latter depends on the geographical position of the country.

Our country, Ukraine, has a moderate-continental climate. England has a rather damp climate due to the effect of the warm current of the Gulf-Stream. The British Isles are surrounded by the ocean and have an insular climate.

The USA have an equable continental climate, except for Florida and the Mexican coast, where the climate is tropical and subtropical. The weather changes with the changing of the season. Consider autumn, for example. In autumn the sky is ofhen, cloudy, the sun hides behind the clouds and then appears again. Its rays have already lost their strength and the sun is not so bright now as it was in summer. The air is moist. Days get shorter and the nights longer. As autumn is a rainy season, the weather is mostly dull. And, of course, it is not attractive. As a matter of fact, I don't like rain of any kind even if it just drizzles. But there is a spell of sunny weather in late September, which we call Indian summer, when the sun shines brightly, the sky is rather cloudless and there is a carpet of multicoloured leaves on the ground. Dew glitters in the sun and gossamer is flying in the air, it is left by spiders in the trees, on the grass and bushes. It is really golden autumn, as the poets have sung it. But in any case, nature begins to fade away. Later the frost will cover the ground at night and remind us about winter coming. As for me, I am not fond of autumn, but there are a lot of people trying to look at the reverse side of the medal. Strange as it may seem, they prefer autumn to any other season. As they say, it is the time of harvest, tasty fruit and vegetables, the time of beautiful golden leaves, the time when nature is very attractive. But many men — many minds.

Some people are fond of winter. They consider winter to be the healthiest season. In winter we can go in for winter kinds of sports: skating, skiing, tobogganing. In winter the sun shines rarely, its rays are pale, it sets early and rises late. The air is frosty, hard frost sets in, large snowflakes slowly fall to the ground, the streets are slippery with ice. The rivers and lakes are covered with thick sheet of ice, they are frozen. The icicles glitter in the sun, the temperature falls and the snow may fall thick. Going out in such weather is not pleasant and the old people prefer to stay at home. But children enjoy being out-of-doors. They like to make a snow man and to throw snowballs. Their cheeks are bunting with frost. How bitterly cold it is!

By the end of the winter the temperature rises and the snow begins to melt. Thaw sets in. The sun grows warmer and soon there won't be any ice but plenty of water. The rivers are in flood.

Nature awakens from its long winter sleep. The birds come back from the warm lands, the trees begin to bud and soon tiny green leaves will appear. Thin new blades of grass come up, the fruit trees begin to blossom. "April showers bring May flowers", as the proverb goes. Everything looks covered with green carpet. The farmers till the soil and sow the seed. We are all welcomed and advent of spring. Nature looks full of promise. Spring is the season of hopes, it's the season of revival of nature and people's dreams. It's my favourite season, I must admit.

After spring the summer comes. As the great Russian poet Pushkin said, "Oh, summer fine! I'd love you, but for the heat, the mosquitos and flies!" In fact, sometimes the heat is oppressive. But people usually like summer, because they have their holidays. It's a good time for going to the seashore or a river beach, to bask in the sun, to become sunburnt, to swim, to pick berries and mushrooms, to gather flowers. We try to spend much time out-of-doors. But the weather is changeable in summer. It is the time of showers, rains and thunderstorms. The days become longer and the nights shorter. We can enjoy resting after hard work during the whole year.

To cut the long story short, I must confess that every season is beautiful and attractive in its own way. And as one of the famous poets says, "I see no reason to speak in prize of any season".

TEXT 13

Exercise 29.

Read the following extract and explain how the description of the weather helps to bring out the emotional state of the characters.

A Farewell to Arms (extract)

by Ernest Hemingway

Introduction

"A Farewell to Arms" is the story of an American ambulance officer, Frederick Henry, serving with the Italian Army during the 1914-18 war. He falls in love with an English girl, Catherine Barkley. He is wounded. On returning to the front he finds himself part of the desorganized retreat. Henry makes up his mind to desert from the Army. As he runs the risk of being arrested in Italy he and Catherine cross the border and find refuge in Switzerland. Catherine is expecting,

* * *

We had a fine life. We lived through the months of January and February and the winter was very fine and we were very happy. There had been short thaws when the wind blew warm and the snow softened and the air felt like Spring, but always the clear hard cold had come again and the winter had returned. In March came the first break in the winter. In the night it started raining. It rained on all morning and turned the snow to slush and made the mountainside dismal. There were clouds over the lake and over the valley. It was raining high up the mountain. Catherine wore heavy overshoes and I wore Mr. Guttingen's rubber-boots and we walked to the station under an umbrella, through the slush and the running water that was washing the ice of the roads bare, to stop at the pub before lunch for a vermouth. Outside we could hear the rain.

"Do you think we ought to move into town?"

"What do you think?" Catherine asked.

"'If the winter is over and the rain keeps up it won't be fun up here. How long is it before young Catherine?"

"About a month. Perhaps a little more".

"We might go down and stay in Montreux^”.

"Why don't we go to Lausanne? That's where the hospital is".

"All right. But I thought maybe that was too big a town¹'.

"We can be as much alone in a bigger town and Lausanne might be nice",

"When should we go?"

"I don't care. Whenever you want, darling. I don't want to leave here if you don't want".

"Let's see how the weather turns out."

It rained for three days. The snow was all gone now on the mountainside below the station. The road was a torrent of muddy snow-water. It was too wet and slushy to go out. On the morning of the third day of rain we decided to go down into town.

"That is all right, Mr. Henry", Guttingen said. "You do not have to give me any notice. I did not think you would want to stay now the bad weather has come."

"We have to be near the hospital anyway on account of Madame", I said.

"I understand", she said. "Will you come back some time and stay, with the little one?" "Yes, if you would have room."

"In the spring when it is nice you could come and enjoy it. We could put the little one and the nurse in the big room that is closed now and you and Madame could have the same room looking out over the lake."

"I'll write about coming", I said. We packed and left on the train that went down after lunch. Mr. and Mrs. Guttingen came down to the station on a sled through the slush. They stood beside the station in the rain waving good-bye. "They were very sweet", Catherine said. "They were fine to us".

We took the trian to Lausanne from Montreux. Looking out the window toward where we had lived you could not see the mountains for the clouds. The train stopped in Vevey, then went on, passing the lake on one side and on the other the wet brown fields and the bare woods and the wet houses. We came into Lausanne and went into a medium-size hotel to stay. It was still raining as we drove through the streets and into the carriage entrance of the hotel. The concierge with brass keys on his lapels, the elevator, the carpets on the floor, and the white washbowls with shining fixtures, the brass bed and the big comfortable bedroom all seemed very great luxury after the Guttingens. The windows of the room looked out on a wet garden with a wall topped by an iron fence. Across the street which sloped steeply, was another hotel with a similar wall and garden. I looked out at the rain falling in the fountain of the garden.

Catherine turned on all the lights and commenced unpacking.

Exercise 30.

Retell in English.

I. В первые четыре дня, которые я провел в Англии, там сияло солнце. «У вас здесь не так плохо»,— сказал я своим товарищам-корреспондентам. «Эти четыре дня,— ответили они мне,— англичане будут вспоминать лет десять». «По­мните, летом 1953-го, в июне, четыре дня подряд не было дождя?»

Два года спустя я снова приехал в Англию. В Шереметьеве была снежная вьюга и температура 12° ниже нуля. В Лондоне + 9° и опять солнечно. «Недурно для февраля», подумал я и... сглазил /to overlook smth, to bewitch smth with the evil eye/.

Два дня спустя шел дождь, потом было холодно и туманно, потом снова дождь, потом пасмурно, ветрено м холодно. И я с досадой думал об англичанах: «Что их заставляет жить на этих промокших насквозь островах, когда столько сухих стран на земле...»

II. Зима пришла — весна не за горами /winter heralds the coming of spring/ — говорят англичане. А весна в Британии — чудное время. Она вся цветет /to be in bloom/. Цветет в городах, цветет в пригородах. Нежные /delicate/ розовые цветы вишен. Белые цветы яблонь.

Чтобы по-настоящему увидеть весну в Англии, надо побывать в яблоневых садах графства Кент. На шоссе стоят указатели «дорога в цвету». Вы можете ехать по ним, этим провинциальным, узким и петляющим /winding/ дорогам милю за милей и наслаждаться белыми и розовыми в цвету деревьями.

Англия прекрасна в эти весенние недели. И дождь щадит ее красоту. И солнце делает яркими ее краски.

Нет, думаешь про себя, гуляя по покрытым белыми и желтыми нарциссами лужайкам лондонских парков, англи­чане все-таки знают, где надо жить.

А потом появляются тюльпаны, от которых оторвать взгляд. А впереди — лето, белые свечи каштанов, цветущие розы, с их тонким /delicate/ ароматом, цветущие липовые аллеи /lime-tree alleys/.

Но дождь к тому времени уже потерял терпение. Он начнет напоминать, что это в конце концов Британские острова, а не Сахара. Дождь сделает эту страну прохладной, и даже в июле здесь не пожалуешься на жару. Но дождь сделает еще более красивой английскую зелень /foliage/.

Не повезло англичанам с летом. Море, окружившее их со всех сторон, широкие, мягкие песчаные пляжи Корнуэла, только дразнят. Даже на самом южном из Британских островов Уайте /the Isle of Wight/ не всегда искупаешься. Море и летом остается прохладным. И только закаленные люди /physically fit, hardened/ осмеливаются поплескаться неподалеку от берега. Большинство же отдыхающих просто смотрят на купальщиков.

Сентябрь и октябрь в Англии превосходны. Бабье лето здесь долгое, солнечное, теплое. Трава стала лишь чуть менее яркой. Деревья только слегка пожелтели. В лесу очень много грибов, но англичане их никогда не собирают. Они едят только шампиньоны.

В погожие осенние дни не хочется думать, о надвигающей­ся зиме. Здесь она, как правило, бесснежная, дождливая, ветренная и туманная. На лыжах катаются только в Шот­ландии. В Лондоне всего два закрытых катка. А многочис­ленные пруды, реки и озера замерзают только раз лет в двадцать.

Есть, однако, в таком климате свое преимущество. Он дешев. Можно обойтись без шубы и теплой шапки. В девятнадцати из каждых двадцати домов нет центрального отопления.

Впрочем, мне случилось провести «исключительно суровую» зиму в Англии. В январе 1963 года снег в Лондоне лежал три недели. Температура падала до -5° С. Ничего подобного не случалось в Англии последние... 150 лет или около того. У нас в России такой морозец не назвали бы даже бодрящим /invigorating/. В Англии он вызвал хаос /to cause, a mess/ на транспорте. Только одним железным дорогам эти три снежные недели обошлись в пять миллионов фунтов стерлингов. Но подобные зимы в Англии случаются не чаще, чем раз в полвека.

/По В. Осипову, «Британия глазами русского»/.

Answer the following questions:

1. Why is spring a beautiful time in England?

2. What is "A road in blossom"?

3. What flowers can one see in London parks in spring and in summer?

4. Why are the English unlucky as far as the summer is concerned?

5. What is the Indian summer like in Great Britain?

6. What is the author's impression of the English winter?

7. What does the author mean by saying that the English climate is cheap?

FOR ADVANCED READING

TEXT 14 Exercise31.

Pre-reading task:

1. Have you ever thought about the reason of the different colour of skin of the people inhabiting different parts of our planet? Try to discuss with your groupmate the following matters:

a). why people of different parts of the world (Africa, Europe, America, etc. ) have different colour and tints of colour of skin, different colour of eyes, hair;

b) whether climate has any influence on this difference; if “yes” - in what way;

b) share your ideas with your group;

2. While r8.ading the following text use the map of the world and try to make a scheme of correlation of climate and tint of peoples’ skin, colour of eyes.

CLIMATE AND EVOLUTION

Climate clearly has put its imprint on the tint of our skin, the size of our noses, and other physical traits.

The study of skin color and racial differences has been a touchy matter in Western science ever since the mid-19th century, when naturalist Louis Agassiz asserted that whites had bigger brains than others, and promptly concluded that they must therefore be more intelligent. Today, scientists differ over what a “race” is. During the late 1960s, for example, anthropologist Grover S. Krantz of Washington State University distinguished between “climatic races” – groups that share traits, such as skin color, which can change over generations in response to climate – and “descent groups”, which share ancient and immutable genetic traits, such as blood type. Climatic races have evolved separately from descent groups, Krantz maintained, and the two should not be considered “inherently connected”.

Amid such discussions, however, a consensus exists that climate has influenced the evolution of the human physique.

Skin color, for example, is determined largely by the amount of melanin, a dark pigment, in the outer layer of the skin. (Carotene imparts a yellow tint.) In sunny climates close to the Equator, natural selection has favored dark, melanin-rich skin, which protects its owner by absorbing harmful ultraviolet rays before they penetrate to lower layers. But some ultraviolet light must penetrate the skin so that the body can produce Vitamin D. Thus, at higher latitudes, where sunlight is less intense, pale skin with little melanin is the norm.

Among dark-skinned people, moreover, there are great variations in skin color. The drawback of dark skin is that, like dark cloth, it absorbs more heat from the sun than does lighter skin. In prehistory, anthropologists explain, those who roamed the savannah “traded off” some protection from ultraviolet rays for the reduced heat retention of lighter skin. For forest-dwellers, living in less extreme heat, a darker complexion was an evolutionary advantage.

Melanin also determines eye color. The human eye appears blue when there is no melanin in the outer iris, and turns darker as melanin increases. In the iris, as in the skin, melanin absorbs light, protecting the eye from glare. Thus, dark eyes are generally favored by nature. In Europe, however, almost 50 percent of the population has blue, green, or gray irises. Such people may see further in dim light, but scientists still do not fathom the evolutionary logic of blue eyes – or blond hair, for that matter.

The eyes of the Chinese, Japanese, Eskimos, and other people of Mongoloid descent – one third of the world’s population – are protected by epicanthic folds. These folds, composed of fatty tissue, probably evolved among their forebears inhabiting the Arctic in order to insulate the eye against freezing, and to provide an additional shield against glare from snow and ice.

Even the human nose adapts to climate. Inside the nose, a series of wet, mucus-lined air chambers “conditions” inhaled air before it reaches the throat and the delicate air sacs of the lungs, warming it to about 95 degrees Fahrenheit and raising its relative humidity to 95 percent. Humans in cold climates – or in hot, dry ones – thus have the greatest need to condition the air they breathe. Natural selection in such climes generally favors larger noses with more mucus lining: flattened, to protect against frostbite, in frigid environments; long and narrow in arid regions.

Over thousands of years, cooler climates tend to produce larger people. The reason: their extra mass helps them retain heat. In a like manner, the size and shape of the human form help the body regulate internal which heat can escape, the tradeoff still works to their advantage. As the body grows larger, mass becomes greater relative to skin area.

The Alakaluf Indians on the frigid southern tip of South America, for example, are 25 percent taller than the Ituri Pygmies of Central Africa. Yet, the Alakalufs are more than two times heavier – and thus store much more body heat.

Variations in body shape complicate the picture. A tall, skinny man has more surface area – and heat loss – than does a shorter, huskier man of the same weight. Thus, cold territories closest to the North and South Poles tend to be populated by stocky folk.

In southern Africa, Pygmies, the world’s shortest people, dwell very near the Nilotic tribes (e.g., the Dinka), the tallest. But the Nilotic tribes live in the dry, open savannahs, the Pygmies, in the shaded forests. The Nilotics’ environment puts a premium on having more skin surface to release heat, thus their extremely tall, slender build. And, occasionally, there appear uniquely adapted humans. A notable example: the Khoikhoi women of the open African savannah, who have thin torsos suited to the hot climate, but also protruding buttocks (steatopygia) containing storehouses of fat to draw upon in times of famine.

Just as it is difficult to prove a correlation between past climatic change, and, say, the demise of an ancient civilization, so today’s anthropologists are not certain that all their inferences about climate and human evolution are well founded. Very few of the world’s peoples in all their variety now inhabit the same territories where, long ago, their ancestors presumably developed certain characteristics in response to climate. Often, notes Grover Krantz, anthropologists resort to “pulling people out of areas where their... traits don’t fit the environment and putting them back where they do fit”.

Wilson Quarterly

Vocabulary:

Imprint – отпечаток

Tint – краска, оттенок, тон; бледный, светлый, ненасыщенный тон

Asserted – утверждать, заявлять

Descent – происхохдение, поколение, передача по наследству

Immutable – неизменный, неприложный

Evolve – эволюционизировать, развиваться

Physique – телосложение

Ultraviolet [ altэ`vaiэlit] – ультрафиолетовый

Latitute – широта

Roam – бродить, странствовать, скитаться

Trade off – обменивать, сбывать

Retention – удерживание, удержание, сохранение

Iris [`aiэris]– радужная оболочка

Glare – яркий свет

Dim – тусклый, неясный, матовый, слабый, туманный

Fathom – вникать, понимать; морская сажень, изобата

Epicanthic folds – a prolongation of a fold of the skin of the upper eyelid over the inner angle or both angles of the eye

Tissue [`tiSu:] – биол. ткань

Forebears – предок

Mucus [`mjukэs]- слизь

Inhale – вдыхать

Sac – биол.мешочек, сумка

Clime – поэт. климат, страна, край

To favo(u)r – благоволить, благоприятствовать, поддерживать, покровительствовать

Frigid [`fridzid] – холодный

Arid [`эerid]– сухой, засушливый, безводный

Retain – удерживать, поддерживать, сохранять

In a like manner – в некотором смысле, в рекоторой сте9ени

Skinny – тощий, кожа да кости

Husky – рослый, сильный, крепкий, здоровяк

Stocky – приземистый, коренастый

Put a premium [`primjэm] – поощрять

Torso [`tosэu] – туловище

Buttocks [`batэks] – ягодицы

Draw upon – черпать, брать

Storehouse – склад, кладовая

Famine – голод

Demise – передавать по наследству

Inference – вывод, заключение, подразумеваемое, предположение

Presumaly – предположительно

To resort – прибегать, обращаться за помощью, (часто) посещать

Steatopygia – an excessive development of fat on the buttocks that occurs esp. among women of the Hottentots and some black peoples

Exercise 32 Post-reading task:

Answer the following questions:

1. Do the white people really have bigger brain? Can you find the grounds “for” and “against”? Can the climate be the reason for bigger or smaller brain?

2. What are the factors to form the blood type? ( Here is the classification of people according to their blood type, given by some scientists: 1 – “hunters”, 2 – “agrarians”, 3 – “nomads”, 4 – mixture of “ agrarians” and “nomads”. Use this classification to answer the question ).

3. What can you say about your iris and skin ( peculiarities, substance ), using all possible information of the text?

4. What is an “epicanthic fold”? What is it composed of? What for?

5. Describe the functions of mucus-lined air chambers. Why are the people of cold and cool areas larger? Give examples.

6. What information of the text seems to be the most interesting for you?

7. Write out the biological terms as “natural selection” and give the translation.

8. Write down a plan of the text. Retell the text according to your plan.

9. Now, after reading the text, discuss the matter of “beauty”. Can a Khoinkhoi woman win “Miss Universe” contest or other contest of beauty? Are there any standards of beauty? Who creates them?

10. Write an essay on the topic “Beauty and Climate”.

TEXT 15

Pre-reading task:

Work in pairs. Discuss the influence of weather and climate changes on people’s health.

HEAT, COLD, AND THE HUMAN BODY

Although most climatologists are reluctant to draw broad conclusions about climate’s effects on human societies, the study of its impact on individuals has flourished since World War II. “Human health, energy, and comfort are affected more by climate than by any other element of the physical environment”, observes Howard Critchfield of Western Washington University.

“Bioclimatology” attracts researchers from a variety of specialties, with markedly different interests – industrial psychologists, physicians, space scientists. They have linked climate to everything from homicide to human fertility to mental acuity.

At the extremes of hot and cold, climate’s effects are relatively easy to measure – and to avoid. In the United States, heat stroke and hypothermia together claim only about 325 lives each year. Yet W. Moulton Avery, of the Center for Environmental Physiology, contends that it “would be front page news” if federal researchers has actually collected data on the thousands of heat-related deaths (e.g., from stroke) among elderly Americans last summer.

Climate exerts its influence in subtler ways. According to one study, for example, “excessive aggressiveness” begins to manifest itself between 82.4 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit, when the relative humidity is 100 percent. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lists climate as one of a dozen factors that influence crime rates.

Some researchers have tried to link climate-induced physiological changes to physical and intellectual performance. As temperatures rise above 86 degrees, they note, the body cools itself by increasing blood flow to the skin and reducing the flow to the brain and muscles. One result: a loss of energy and ability to concentrate. When the thermometer drops below 68 degrees, the body conserves warmth by restricting blood flow to the skin. Yet, some groups, such as Eskimos, may have developed different tolerances through evolution; individuals undergo short-term adaptations to harsh climates.

Most studies suggest that comfort and mental vigor are not entirely synonymous. Andris Auliciems of the University of Toronto found that English schoolchildren performed best on a variety of tests at temperatures of 58.5 to 62.9 degrees. Some bioclimatologists have put the optimum temperature as high as 82 degrees; others dismiss such correlations as worthless.

Science does confirm much folk wisdom. Winter in the temperate zones of the world means more flu, partly because the cold depresses the body’s immune system, but mostly because it drives people indoors, where microbes spread easily. Other sicknesses plague the tropics because certain disease-bearing organisms flourish in heat and humidity.

Climate has other, unexpected, effects. Wolf H. Weihe, a Swiss biologist, reports that the fertility rate of women in Bombay, India, drops by more than 50 percent during the monsoon season. In the United States, he says, statistics indicate that fertility is lowest during the winter – except, for some reason, in Kansas, where it jumps when the temperature drops to 18 degrees below zero.

Vocabulary:

Reluctant – неохотно

Markedly – заметный, отмеченный

Homicide – убийца, убийство

Acuity [э`kju: ti]– острота, острый характер ( болезни)

Contend – бороться, соперничать, состязаться; утверждать, заявлять

Exerts – напрягать (силы), оказывать давление, влиять

Subtler – тоньше

Climate-induced – вызванные климатом

Blood flow – приток крови

Harsh – грубый, жесткий, резкий, неприятный

Vigor – сила, энергия; законность

Dismiss – отпускать; отделываться

Confirm – подтверждать, утверждать

Plague – разг. беспокоить, досаждать; зачумлять, насылать бедствие

Monsoon [ mon`su:n] – муссон, дождливый сезон

Fertility – плодородиe

Post reading task:

1. Express the topic of the text.

2. Give the title to every paragraph of the text.

3. What does “bioclimatology” study?

4. Can we, judging by climate and weather changes, determine less criminal and the most criminal area in the world, in the country? Why not predicting the increase or decrease of the level of criminality, then?

5. In pairs discuss every paragraph.

TEXT 16

WHY DO WE HAVE DIFFERENT SEASONS?

Pre-reading task:

Give your own idea on the matter in the title of the text.

Since earliest times, man has been curious about the changing of the seasons. Why is it warm in summer and cold in winter? Why do the days gradually grow longer in the spring? Why are the nights so long in winter?

We all know the earth revolves around the sun, and at the same time it revolves on its own axis. As it moves around the sun, it’s also spinning like a top. Now if the axis of the earth (the line from the North Pole through the South Pole) were at right angles to the path of the earth around the sun, we would have no such thing as different seasons, and all the days of the year would be of equal length.

But the axis of the earth is tilted. The reason for this is that a combination of forces is at work on the earth. One is the pull of the sun, the other is the pull of the moon, and the third is the spinning action of the earth itself. The result is that the earth goes around the sun in a tilted position. It keeps that same position all year, so that the earth’s axis always points in the same direction, toward the North Star.

This means that during part of the year the North Pole tilts toward the sun and part of the year away from it. Because of this tilt, the direct rays of the sun sometimes fall on the earth north of the Equator, sometimes directly on the Equator, and sometimes south of the Equator. These differences in the way the direct rays of the sun strike the earth cause the different seasons in different parts of the world.

When the Northern Hemisphere is turned toward the sun, the countries north of the Equator have their summer season, and the countries south of the Equator have their winter season. When the direct rays of the sun fall on the southern hemisphere, it is their summer and it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The longest and shortest days of each year are called “the summer solstice” and “winter solstice”.

There are two days in the year when night and day are equal all over the world. They come in the spring and fall, just halfway between the solstices. One is the autumnal equinox, which occurs about September 23, and the other is the spring equinox, which occurs about March 21.

Vocabulary:

Revolve – вращаться, крутиться

Pull of the sun (moon) – сила притяжения солнца ( луны)

Tilt – наклон, положение, наклонять

Winter ( summer) solstice [`solstis] – зимнее ( летнее) солнцестояние

Autumnal (spring) equinal [`ikwinэl]– осеннее ( весеннее) равноденствие

Post-reading task:

1. Simplify the language of the text and retell it to your little sister or brother.

2. Present the information of the text for your “ teacher of geography”.

TEXT 17

Pre-reading task:

Give your own idea on the matter in the title of the text

WHAT MAKES THE WEATHER?

What is the weather anyway? It is simply what the air or atmosphere is like at any time. No matter what the air is – cold, cool, warm, hot, calm, breezy, windy, dry, moist, or wet – that’s weather. Weather may be any combination of different amounts of heat, moisture, and motion in the air. And it changes from hour to hour, day to day, season to season, and even from year to year.

The daily changes are caused by storms and fair weather moving over the earth. The seasonal changes are due to the turning of the earth around the sun. Why weather changes from year to year is still not known, however.

The most important thing to “cause” weather is the heating and cooling of the air. Heat causes the winds as well as the different way in which water vapour appears in the atmosphere.

Humidity, the amount of water vapour in the air, combined with the temperature, causes many weather conditions. Clouds are a kind of weather condition, and they are formed when water vapour condenses high above the ground.

When the cloud droplets grow larger and become too heavy to be held up by the air currents, they fall to the ground and we have the weather known as rain. If the raindrops fall through a layer of air which is below freezing, the drops freeze and our weather is snow.

One of the ways the weather forecaster studies the weather is to look at the “fronts” that exist. Fronts are boundary lines between the cold air moving southward from the north, and the warm air moving from the tropics. Most of the severe storms which cause rain, snow, and other bad weather are in some way related to these fronts.

Vocabulary:

Vapour – пар. Boundary – граница. Droplet - капелька

Post-reading task:

1.Make a list of factors to cause weather changes and give the explanation to these factors.

 2. What is ‘front’?

TEXT 18

WHAT MAKES WIND?

Pre-reading task:

Give your own idea on the matter in the title of the text

Sometimes when we are outdoors, a sudden and mysterious thing takes place. A wind begins to blow. We cannot see it, but we feel it, and we have no idea what started it.

A wind is simply the motion of air over the earth. What causes the air to move? All winds are caused by one thing – a change in temperature. Whenever air is heated it expands. This makes it lighter, and lighter air rises. As the warm air rises, cooler air flows in to take its place. And this movement of air is wind!

There are two kinds of winds, those that are part of a world-wide system of winds, and local winds. The major wind systems of the world begin at the equator, where the sun’s heat is greatest.

Here the heat rises to high altitudes and is pushed off toward the North and South poles. When it has journeyed about one-third of the distance to the poles, it has cooled and begins to fall back to earth. Some of this air returns to the equator to be heated again, and some continues on to the poles.

These types of winds, which tend to blow in the same general direction all year round, are called “prevailing winds.” But these world-wide winds are often broken up by local winds which blow from different directions.

Local winds may be caused by the coming of cold air masses with high pressure, or warmer air masses with low pressure. Local winds usually do not last long. After a few hours, or at most a few days, the prevailing wind pattern is present again.

Other local winds are caused by the daily heating and cooling off of the ground. Land and sea breezes are examples of this kind of wind. In the daytime, the cool air over the ocean moves inland as the sea breeze. At night, the ocean is warmer than the ground, so the cooler air moves out to sea as the land breeze.

 Exercise 32

Complete the following sentences:

1.The local winds are caused by … 2. The “prevailing winds are … 3. There are two kinds of winds, they are … 4. …. Are caused by daily heating and cooling off of the ground. 5. The heat rises to high … and is pushed off toward the… 6. Local winds usually …. Long. 7. The world-wide winds …. By local winds. 8. At night the air is … and moves … 9. A wind is simply … 10. The major wind systems begin at …., where the … is the greatest.

TEXT 19

WHAT CAUSES HAIL?

Pre-reading task:

Answer the questions:

1. What is “hail”? 2. Is hail typical for our town, peninsular, region? 3. Have you ever seen or got into hail? What are you impressions? 4. Can you imagine what causes hail?

One of the most unusual weather conditions we can experience is a hailstorm. It is quite a thing to see and hear hailstones coming down, sometimes with such force that great damage is done. Animals, and even men, have been killed by hail! A hailstorm usually occurs during the warm weather and is accompanied in many cases by thunder, lightning, and rain. Hail is formed when raindrops freeze while passing through a belt of cold air on their way to earth.

Single raindrops form very small hailstones. But an interesting thing can happen to such a raindrop. As it falls as a hailstone, it may meet a strong rising current of air. So it is carried up again to the level where raindrops are falling. New drops begin to cling to the hailstone. And as it falls once more through the cold belt, these new drops spread into a layer around it and freeze, and now we have larger hailstones.

This rising and falling of the hailstone may be repeated time after time until it has added so many layers that its weight is heavy enough to overcome the force of the rising current of air. Now it falls to the ground.

In this way hailstones measuring three or four inches in diameter and weighing as much as a pound are sometimes built up. Snow, too, freezes around hailstones when they are carried into regions where it is forming. So the hailstones are frequently made up of layers of ice and snow.

Frozen rain is sometimes called hail, but it is really “sleet”! And soft hail which sometimes falls in winter is only a form of snow.

Vocabulary:

Layer – слой

Inch – дюйм

Hailstone – градина

Sleet – снег с дождем, крупа

Cling – цкпляться, прилипать

Build up – наращивать, накоплять

 Exercise 33

Choose the right answer:

1. A hailstorm usually occurs in _________________ weather.

a) cool b) warm c) cold

2. The raindrops __________ while passing through the belt of cold air.

a) fall down b) evapourate c) freeze

3. Very small hailstones are formed from ______________

a) a single raindrop b) a single snowflake c) crystal of ice

4. New drops clung to the hailstone spread into ___________ around it.

a) another hailstone b) double hailstone c) a layer

5. The raindrops freeze on their way ___________.

a) up to the sky b) westward c) through the cold belt

6. A hailstone is carried up again when it meets _________.

a) another hailstone b) raindrops that cover it c) rising current of air

7. Only when hailstone is __________ enough it can overcome the rising air current.

a) light b) heavy c) solid

8. Yhe hailstones can even be _____________ in diameter.

a) several pounds b) several inches c) several pints

9. The hailstones are frequently made up of layers of _____________ and snow.

a) water b) sleet c) ice

10. A hailstone is closer to _________.

a) ice b) snow c) sleet

TEXT 20

WHY DON'T ALL CLOUDS PRODUCE RAIN 

Pre-reading task:

1. Give your own explanation on why don’t all the clouds produce rain.

Have you ever flown through clouds in the airplane, or perhaps been high up on a mountain where the clouds swirled all about you? Then you must have got a pretty good idea of what a cloud is: just an accumulation of mist.

As you know, there is always water vapour in the air. During the summer there is more of this vapour in the air because the temperature is higher. When there is so much water vapour in the air that just a small reduction in temperature will make the vapour condense (form tiny droplets of water), we say the air is saturated.

It takes only a slight drop in temperature to make water vapour condense in saturated air. So when saturated warm air rises to an altitude where the temperature is lower, condensation takes place and we have a cloud. The molecules of water have come together to form countless little droplets.

What happens if all these water droplets in a cloud meet a mass of warm air? They evaporate - and the cloud disappears! This is why clouds are constantly changing shape.

The droplets of water in a cloud have weight, so gravity gradually pulls them down and they sink lower and lower. As most of them fall, they reach a warmer layer of air, and this warmer air causes them to evaporate. So here we have clouds that don’t produce rain.

But suppose the air beneath a cloud is not warmer air? Suppose it’s very moist air? Naturally, the droplets won’t evaporate. Instead, the droplets will get bigger and bigger as more and more condensation takes place.

Pretty soon, each tiny droplet has become a drop and it continues falling downward and we have rain!

Vocabulary:

Swirl [swэ:l] – водоворот

Reduction – уменьшение, сокращение

A slight drop – небольшое снижение (температуры)

Evaporate - испариться

Exercise

Find the word which is used in a wrong way. Give your comments.

1. A cloud is just a meeting of mist. 2. There is always water vapour beside the air. 3. During the summer there is less of this vapour in the air because the temperature is higher. 4. A small reduction in temperature will make thewater condense. 5. The molecules of water have come together to form a couple of little droplets. 6. If all these water droplets in a cloud meet a mass of warm air they grow bigger and the cloud disappears! 7. The water in them is changing again and again from water to liquid. 8. They evaporate long ago the drops can reach the earth as rain. 9. The droplets will get bigger and bigger as more and more acceleration takes place. 10. So, the cloud in the sky doesn’t always mean that it will fall down.

TEXT 21

Origins of Calendar Words

EXERCISE 34.

This exercise deals with calendar words which come from Roman and Norse mythology. For each group of sentences, fill in the blanks with the three best words from the set at the left.

THE MONTHS

readjusted
reassured
reestablished
reinforced
represented

January was named after the Roman god Janus, the god of beginnings and of doors and gateways. Janus was ___________ as having two faces so that he might guard both entrances and exits. This has ___________ the mistaken belief that January was so named because it was the first month of the year. In fact, however, when the ten-month Roman calendar was ____________ about 700 B.C., January was added as the eleventh month and so named because it contained a feast day in honor of Janus. In 153 B.C. it began to be counted, as the first month and January 1 quickly became a popular festival.

denoted
denounce
deprived
derived
desist

February is ___________ from the Latin februo which means “to purify.” February 15th ___________ an important festival for the Romans. On this day priests ran through the streets, touching or striking everyone they met with strips of skin from sacrificed goats. Women prayed that the priests would not ___________ from this activity until they had been touched or struck, for the goat skins were thought to be charms against childlessness. It lost a day to the newly-created August.

incomparable
inconsistent
inconvenient
indefinite
indisputable

March was the first month of the year according to the ancient Roman calendar which contained only ten months. Beginning the new year in the spring is ____________ with the calendar we use, but the Romans started the new ___________ year in the spring because it was the beginning of the planting season. It is an ____________ fact that the very early Italians worshipped Mars as the god of agriculture, and they dedicated the coming of spring to him and to the ___________ blessings of planting and rebirth.

believed
befall
beside
besides
beyond

April’s name is ___________ to come from the Latin word aperire to open. Spring is, indeed, a time of openings for military adventures ___________ the northern borders where the winter was longer and harsher than in Italy. ___________, the Romans were thinking of the opening of the buds on the trees and flowers in warm spring weather.

intend
increase
instrumental
intense
inadvisable

May is thought to have been named after the goddess Male. This goddess was __________ to growth and represented spring. The custom of holding May Festivals probably dates back to pagan times when ___________ celebrations were held to beg protection from the gods for thе ___________ of the new crops.

protegee
proposed
protectress
prospective
proclaimed

June may have been so ___________ in honor of another goddess, Juno, who was the wife of Jupitar and, therefore, queen. Though her marriage was not a happy one, her month was associated with ___________ young brides, since Juno was the __________ of women. May and June may have been months which honored age and youth from the Latin “Maiores” (elders) and “iuniores” (youths).

predominant
prevailed
previously
predecessor
preference

July and August commemorate two great Roman emperors, Julius and Augustus Caesar. _________ these two months were called “Quintilis” (5th month) and “Sextilis” (6th month) originally being counted from March. In the year of Julius Caesar’s assasination, Mark Anthony persuaded the Roman Senate to make the change. Nephew and heir of Julius, Augustus Caesar changed the name of the following month himself, based on his title “Augustus”. This was a lucky one for Augustus Caesar. In it he ___________, winning a number of victories, celebrating three triumphs, and put an end to the civil wars. In boosting his position, Augustus wouldn’t have a shorter month than his __________, Julius, so he added a day to his month borrowed from February.

enumerate
numerals
numinous
nominally
numerable

September, October, November and December are the remaining four months which retain their original names based, on ___________. Interestingly, Nona and Decima (ninth and tenth) were Roman gods of a special function, here watching over the critical months preceding childbirth. Both Caesars made __________ changes in the lengths of these months in their balancing acts. December was the traditional month for great festivals among both the Roman and Teutonic (Germanic) peoples and some of these traditions mixed with later Christmas symbols and activities and are accepted as _________ Christian today.

Answer Key:

January: represented, reinforced, reestablished
February: derived, denoted, desist
March: inconsistent, indisputable, incomparable
April: believed, beyond, besides
May: instrumental, intense, increase
June: proclaimed, prospective, protesters
July & August: previously, prevailed, predecessor
September, October, November & December: numerals, numerous, nominally

APPENDIX

POETRY

Exercise 35.

Read the poems written by a famous American poet Robert Frost.

Learn the poem your like most of all by heart.

Translate the poem you want into Russian.

Pay special attention to new lexical material, enlarge your vocabulary.

NOTE: R. Frost loved and felt nature. Both readers and critics think that never has there been such a fine understanding of nature in the works of any other American poet. In describing nature, Frost may be compared only with the British poets, with Robert Burns and Keats, though his poetry is American to the core.

This is the way he describes spring:

Nothing Gold Can Say

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can say.

(The decription of summer):

A Tuft Flowers

I went to turn the grass once after one

Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.

The dew was gone that made his blade so keen

Before I came to view the levelled scene.

I looked for him behind an isle of trees;

I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.

But he had gone his way, the grass all mown,

And I must be as he had been, - alone.

‘As all must be,’ I said within my heart,

‘Whether they work together or apart.’

But as I said it, swift there passed me by

On noiseless wing a bewildered butterfly,

Seeking with memories grown dim o’er night

Some resting flower of yesterday’s delight.

And once I marked his flight go round and round,

As where some flower lay withering on the ground.

And then he flew as far as eye could see,

And then on tremulous wing came back to me.

I thought of questions that had no reply,

And would have turned to toss the grass to dry;

But he turned first and led my eye to look

At a tall tuft of flowers by a brook,

A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared

Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.

The mower in the dew had loved them thus,

By leaving them to flourish, not for us,

Nor yet to draw one thought of our’s to him,

But from sheer morning gladness at the brim.

The Butterfly and I had lit upon,

Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,

That made me hear the wakening birds around,

And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground,

And feel a spirit kindred to my own;

So that henceforth I worked as with no more alone;

But glad with him, I worked as with his aid,

And weary, sought at noon with him the shade;

And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech

With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach.

‘Men work together,’ I told him from the heart,

‘Whether they work together or apart.’

(From “A Boy’s Will”)

Vocabulary:

Mow ( mowed, mown) – стог, скирда, скирдовать. Dew – роса. Blade – лист, былинка, тонкий росток. Whetstone – точильный камень. Swift – скорый, быстрый. Bewildered – смущенный, в недоумении. Dim – тусклый, туманный, потускневший, неясный. Tremulous – дрожащий, робкий, трепетный. Toss – подбрасывать, кидать, метать, подниматься и опускаться. Tuft – пучок. Brook – ручей. Scythe [sai -]– коса, косить. Spare – жалеть. Reedy – тростниковый, камышёвый. Bare – голый, обнаженный, простой, неприкрашенный. Sheer – полнейший, легкий, прозрачный. Brim – край. Kindered [`kindrid] – кровное родство, родственники, родственный. Henceforth – с этого времени, впредь. Weary – утомленный, уставший, утомительный. Seek (sought, sought) - искать, разыскивать.

My November Guest

My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,

Thinks these dark days of autumn rain

Are beautiful as days can be;

She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.

She talks and I am fain to list;

She’s glad the birds are gone away,

She’s glad her simple worsted grey

Is silver now with clinging mist

The desolate, deserted trees,

The faded earth, the heavy sky,

The beauties she so truly sees,

She thinks I have no eye for these,

And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know

The love of bare November days

Before the coming of the snow,

But it were vain to tell her so,

And they are better for her praise.

(From “A Boy’s Will”)

Vocabulary:

Wither – вянуть, сохнуть, осдабевать, уменьшаться. Sodden – промокший. Fain – принужденный. Worsted – [-э:-] самое худшее, [-u-] - ткань из гребенной шерсти. Clining – цепляющийся, удерживающийся. Desolate – заброшенный, необитаемый, покинутый, одинокий. Vex – досаждать, раздражать, сердить.

Dust of Snow

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hеmlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

Vocabulary:

Crow – ворона. Hemlock – тсуга ( американское хвойное дерево)ю Rue – раскаиваться, сожалеть, печалиться, горевать.

Looling for a Sunset Bird in Winter

The West was getting out of gold,

The breath of air had died of cold,

When shoeing home across the white,

I thought I saw a bird alight.

In summer when I passed the place

I had to stop and lift my face;

A bird with an angelic gift

Was singing in it sweet and swift.

No bird was singing in it now.

A single leaf was on a bough,

And that was all there was to see

In going twice around the tree.

………

( From the book “New Hampshire”)

Vocabulary:

Alight – спускаться, садиться ( о птицах), освещщенный. Angelic – ангельский. Bough [bau]– сук.

TEXT 22 Prepreading task:

1. What do you know about a famous American poet Henry Wordsworth Longfellow? (prepare information about him).

WOODS IN WINTER When winter winds are piercing chill, And through the hawthorn blows the gale, With solemn feet I tread the hill, That overbrows the lonely vale. O’er the bare upland, and away Through the long reach of desert woods, The embracing sunbeams chastely play, And gladden these deep solitudes. Where, twisted round the barren oak, The summer vine in beauty clung, And summer winds the stillness broke, The crystal icicle is hung. Where, from their frozen urns, mute springs Pour out the river’s gradual tide, Shrilly the skater’s iron rings, And voices fill the woodland side. Alas! how changed from the fair scene, When birds sang out their mellow lay, And winds were soft, and woods were green, And the song ceased not with the day! But still wild music is abroad, Pale, desert woods! within your crowd; And gathering winds, in hoarse accord, Amid the vocal reeds pipe loud. Chill airs and wintry winds! my ear Has grown familiar with your song; I hear it in the opening year, I listen, and it cheers me long. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Note:

1. The following essays were written by the 3d year students of Moscow State Pedagogical University. This is the way the students feel the poem of Longfellow “Woods in Winter”. Read the essays and try to do your best in describing a winter ( spring, summer, autumn) day. Prepare the pictures as illustrations to the essays.

2. Make the list of new words and expressions on the essays below.

I. A dark and misterious winter forest was waking up. A grey sky was hanging over it. The trees stood terribly tired carrying heavy snow lying on them. A virginal white snow was having a rest at the feet of the trees. The tree tops greeted each other after a deep sleep. Everything became alive looking at the smiling sun. The snow-flakes were dancing with the wind giving joy to everything around. Birds ware singing a wonderful song. That was the beginning of a new unbelievably beautiful day.

Zlata Shangina

II. It was a chilly winter morning when we entered the forest. The path led us among the sleeping trees. We looked around us as though we entered a fairy tale. The trees were dressed in white magic clothes. The snow was crunching under foot and the air was so fresh the crunching sounds were scattered everywhere.
The sky was so crystal clear that I thought that if I touched it with a stick it would jingle like a vase. But suddenly it started to snow. The snowflakes were flying and falling to the ground like petals of white roses.

Alexandra Peterson

III. When in the rays of bright but not hot sun every drop, every snowflake shines as a diamond. And My favourite season is winter, I especially like the winter forest. It is an unimaginable sight, trees like little children at rest-time, covered with white warm counterpane, have fallen asleep till the coming of spring.
What beautiful little fir-trees and bullfinches with red breasts stand out against the background of snow as white as a lily.
Every twig, every root – everything has gone into a deep sleep, only snow underfoot sings a melody of winter and snowflakes dance in the fresh, frosty air.
Winter has smothered everything with a white veil. The brushes of the trees shoot out on the bushy branches.
The forest alertly keeps silent, but sometimes whispers with the wind. Under the blue heavens, magnificent carpets, shining in the sun, the snow lays.

Olga Lebedeva

IV. How beatiful winter forest it is. The snow is falling in large blotches as if to cover the carpets and bridge a river. The flecks of snow as light as air fly wanton in the wind and alight on the paths through the woods. The trees stripped of their leaves are wrapped by powder as if by circlet. The old trees crack from the ringing frost. The snowdrifts glare like diamonds. The bullfinches sit in the trees like rose apples. The clouds are drifting across the sky. A wizard forest is in repose waiting for the spring.

Natalya Sinyagina

V. My blue dream is to walk in a winter forest. To see the eternal pinetrees with their snow hats. I imagine that I touch the branch of one of these giants and snow rains crash on me. A gust of wind carries a new wave of snow. Everything is covered by this downy and silver snow and it looks like a white desert. Feet are swamped in this cold and tender carpet. The tile revives on my eyes. The silence is so impressive, that it rings in my ears.

Tatyana Sadykhova

VI. The whole forest sleeps in winter at the end of a long year. Trees stand still and silent. They guard all inhabitants of the forest. The earth lies still under the silver carpet of snow waiting for the coming of spring.
On frosty quiet days the golden merry sun looks out of the fluffy clouds and lights the motionless sleeping forest, and at once red-breasted bullfinchs start to chatter. A white fluffy hare appears from behind the snow-drift, sits for a while listening attentively and runs away. And when the night comes everything gets quiet and still and only the lonely moon producing no sound examines the dumb forest below.

Olga Korzsh

VII. A flight of imagination makes me burn with desire to visit the winter forest.
Marvellous foxes and lovely squirrels are running around. The air is sparkling fresh. I have a triumphant smile on my face. This is my golden opportunity to take a picture of this beauty, and I don’t let it turn to brass. “Oh, heavy lightness!” Said my friend. I was so impressed that asked my friend: “Is life worth living?”
And she answered me: “It depends on the liver”. She dropped a tear and her handkerchief. Then we saw a hunter. He was as drunk as a lord. “Oh, damn your eyes!” said my friend and threw a snowball at the hunter.
He looked at us and began to approach us. “A thousand pardons”, I told him, frightened to death. He stopped. His grey face was so long that he could wind it twice around his neck. With his presence we continued to admire the beauty of the winter forest.

Tatyana Shaporeva

VIII. The winter forest always played jokes with him. It covered him with its spidery kind and calm hands of big trees. He always pictured and even saw the damp (for him, I was snow) laying on the ground as if some goblin has been crying there all night or he saw the damp laying on the bare bushes like a coarser sort of spiders’ web; draping itself from twig to twig. So, all that seemed to run at him at once. The forest was high and the fourth was broad and the forest was the entire world forever and forever. Sounds like music and sounds like flying tents filled the sky.
He spent his green years in the winter forest. He always called it “my wonderful, passionate, sensible, frightening and terribly charming friend”. He forgot all misfortunes there. His soul coincided with the soul of the winter forest. When he was at a mass, had some troubles, he came there and a cry of pain escaped him, the forest screamed in return, only screamed in silence. His life was like the past of this old forest, full and deep. It was as remote as his own life yet such a baby of a thing, hopelessly ignorant and innocent. He used to say that trees in the forest rose sheer from the blue green plain, as if out of a sea. The winter forest was the only place where he could be happy.

Ludmila Orekhova

IX. Through the blinding brightness of the sunlight reflecting from the mirror of snow there can be seen the naked leafless trees. The birds sitting in Hell-freeze don’t even make a move like small feathered toys. There is no food in this glittering white wilderness. A lonely woodpecker hollows the trees and echoes overflow the sound of the winter forest. Beside it, there are a lot of sounds, practically a wall of noise, including the howling of wind, the creaking and moaning of trees bowing to the earth, the distant sound of civilization and happy shouting of children sledding all day long. A small river that by wonder hasn’t been trapped under ice bears her currents to unknown lands, gathering forces to overflow in spring. But now it is calm, shy, hidden and can be found only by hearing the quiet warbling of the stream. The thick blanket of snow covers everything. Nature is sleeping like a child in its bed.

Denis Golovatch

X. The winter forest is surprisingly beautiful. Winter decorates trees with white sparkling lace. Silver snow looks marvellous on the tops of the trees and makes them look like crowned heads.
First the forest greets you silently. Snowflakes fly slowly as small butterflies. The playful rays of sunlight penetrating through the majestic crowns of the trees try to involve you in their mystery.
The huge dazzlingly white snow-drifts stand guard protecting the peace of their master – the kingly winter snowy forest.
Then sudden wind makes the silent brunches dance and tell their secrets.

Oksana Bayuk

XI. The face of any forest is very beautiful in winter. There are a lot of wonderful snow caps on the trees. Bright threads of light came through the firs. Snow-flakes fall on the earth like shooting stars. When it’s fine and the eye of heaven shines the snow plays like jewels, but when the weather is bad you see an angry gloomy sky and feel a gusty wind. The silence in a winter forest is so deafening that it rings like a bell in your ears. On any day you can have a walk between the firs and enjoy the best faces of the winter forest with admiration. Here you can see a red-breasted bullfinch, a whiter-tailed hare, a red fox and a smart squirrel. In this soundless and lonely place you feel calm and peaceful.

Olga Ivlieva

XII. The dark gloomy forest looks at me with widely opened eyes. The trees whisper something frightening in their language. I try to understand what they tell but the only thing I can hear is the roaring of the wind. The wind cries as hysterical as a child, then his cry changes to a hysterical laughter of a crazy old woman. I just stand inside the forest and fear fills me from hand to heals. But the only thing I can do is to go straight on. I carefully step on the snow and it creaks like a rusty wicket. The forest seems to be an unfriendly old castle disturbed by an uninvited guest. All his nature is against me. But I try to be as careful as a mouse running near a cat. I go through the invisible paws of the darkness and they embrace me cold and terribly. But now I have no strength to go – I lay in the snow-drift. It is the only creature who understands me here in the forest – it is always ready to serve as a bed for a tired traveller. I close my eyes and fall asleep waiting for the sunlight.

Ksenia Bessonova

XIV. The snow blanketed the ground, wrapping the earth for a long winter nap. A sleepy winter wood calls to show its mysterious beauty. The trees have lost their dresses, and now silver covers their branches. The grass is captured by the snow. The white trunks of birches disappeared in the pearl snow of the morning light. The silent pines are missled up in winter greatcoats. Nothing breaks the magic silence of winter wood. The sun rays touched the ground and a flying snow played sparkles with cheerful stars.

Katya Menshova

XV. Especially in deep night, a winter forest looks like a magic kingdom. Trees, proud and solemn, are dressed in white soft fur coats and the cold, lonely and silent moon is blaping with light, which falls unreal on the shrubberies and makes thin elongated glints upon a fluffy counterpane, covering the land. Falling snowflakes, as light as feathers, are like twinkling stars and it seems that it’s a silver rain. Not a breath of wind is heard; nature is sleeping like an innocent child.

Margaret Souproun