5. Seasons. Weather.

to awaken – пробуждать(ся)

to be in blossom – быть в цвету

to be oppressed – томиться

to bloom - цвести, расцветать

to cover – покрывать(ся)

to fade – увядать

to feather – украшать(ся)

to freeze (froze, frozen) – замерзать; морозить

toripen– зреть, созревать

toscorch–нагревать

toshear(shorn,sheared) – стричь, срезать, убирать (поля)

toshoot(shot,shot) – выбрасывать ростки

tosled– кататься на санях

tosledge– возить на санях

to sow(sown, sowed) – сеять, насаждать

totill– возделывать землю, пахать

totoboggan– кататься на санках

cornflower– василёк

garment– покров, одеяние

heat– жара, зной

lo– о чудо!

nightingale– соловей

orchard– фруктовый сад

path– тропинка

poppy– мак

puddle,mud,slush– грязь, слякоть, лужа

ramble– прогулка

sleet– дождь со снегом

swallow– ласточка

toil– тяжелый труд

fragrant– ароматный, благоухающий

perpetual– непрекращающийся, нескончаемый, бесконечный

piercing– пронизывающий

ripe– спелый

slippery– скользкий

stiff– окостеневший, одеревеневший

winding – извилистый

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

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

There are plenty of strawberries, cherries, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, apricots, peaches, plums, 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! It isn’t always cloudy, and there are no such things as perpetual rain.

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

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

Yes, 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 children’s favourite pastime. Of course, if the winter is severe, one must take care not to get frost-bitten. Nevertheless, winter has its own peculiar beauty, and there is no reason to feel bored to death when there are interesting books, theatres and concerts, and the like.

Ответьте на вопросы:

1. What weather do we have in spring? / in autumn? / in winter?

2. Why do people try to spend more time in the open air in summer?

3. Is summer the best season for tourism?

4. How does the weather change in autumn? / in spring?

5. Do you like “Indian summer” and why?

6. What do you usually do on a nasty rainy day?

7. Most people prefer summer to any other season of the year. What about you?