Ex. 18 Read the letter and write back.

Dear Tess,

Just a note to let you know that I’m doing OK. We have had arelatively mild weather. A few good cold days and a few heavy snowfalls but they were all broken up with warm weather and melting in between. Today is almost spring like. The sky is blие, the sun is shining, the snow is melting (most is gone). The mountains look so close, as if you could reach out and touch them! But it could just be a tease. We can expect to have more cold and snow right up until April. We may even have snow in May! It is not unheard of.

How was your winter? Is it near the end yet?

Love,

Barbara

Ex. 19 Complete the conversations.

1. - Why don't you go out skating?

- __________________________

- Have you? What is it?

- __________________________

2. - What's the morning like?

- __________________________

- The puddles are all frozen_____.

- I shan't go out in that case. I'd rather stay indoors.

- So would I.

3. - Spring has come into its own at last. Everything is thawing.

- __________________________

- Yes, it's awful but I don't think it'll last long.

4. - ____________________________

- Yes, winter is over at last!

- ______________________________

- I do hope it'll keep fine.

5. - ____________________________

- I don't think it'll keep fine.

- ______________________________

- We are going to have a thunderstorm. Look at that dark cloud in the sky over there.

- ______________________________

6. - ____________________________

- It's nasty weather.

- What do you mean by 'nasty weather'?

- Well,_________________________

7. - ____________________________

- Well, you do look wretched. The weather is most unpleasant today and _______

- Isn't the weather wretched today?

- ______________________________

- It's impossible to go out.

Ex. 20 A Weather Eye Open

The British like to talk about the weather, and our weather behaves as if it likes to be talked about. Without ever reaching extremes of heat or cold, it supplies a range of surprises (hail in August, spring sunshine at Christmas) which gives us scope for daily comment. "Lovely day", and "Cold, though, for the time of the year", is a typical neighbourly exchange.

So it is natural that we draw on meteorological terms for general use.

Now look through the expression in the box and try to use them in the sentences instead those in italics. Consult a good dictionary if necessary.

sunny	frosty	have one's head in the clouds
to break the ice	be a bit wet	every cloud has a silver lining
a cool customer	under the weather	right as rain
weather a storm	a windfall	the tip of the iceberg
thunder	skating on thin ice	cut no ice
to snowball	snowed under	thunderstruck
raining cats and dogs

A character might be described as 1) cheerful or 2) unfriendly. The latter would not be the man to 3) get things going at a party. Or he might 4) be out of touch with reality. 5) Someone with a strong nerve, even impudent might be admired by some, but a person who is 6) useless, lacking in drive rarely is.

Metaphorically speaking, there seem to be more grey skies than blue. However, 7) nothing is wholly bad. Even if you are 8) unwell, with luck you will soon be 9) perfectly all right. It is good to be able to 10) survive trouble, but better to have 11) an unexpected bit of good luck -literally, fruit that has been blown down by the wind.

Commentators on current events would be lost without their weather words. How they like to 12) talk loudly and crossly, warning that some development is 13) just the beginning of a lot more trouble. They talk about 14) taking a dangerous risk, and declare that this or that policy will indeed 15) not have much effect. Sometimes things 16) grow rapidly in size, and then you might be 17) overwhelmed with problems.

It is interesting to speculate how our language might have been affected if the British Isles had been set in more southerly latitudes. These few examples, even if they don't leave you 18) amazed, demonstrate that there is more to the language of the English weather than the classic 19) a heavy downpour.

Ex. 21 Read the text and complete the sentences below with the appropriate colloquial expressions from the text.