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 if?" "Isn't the weather awful?" "It's pouring outside".

The best time of the year in England is 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.

Autumn is sometimes a time of very good weather, with clear blue skies and the sun shining every day. But spring is better because after spring comes 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 winter to follow.

Sometimes England has no snow at all in winter, but the North and Scotland 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 milkmen, 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.

But foggy weather is the very worst. The thick white fog rolls in from the sea all over London and the cities, and then mixes with pollution that is caused by industry. The fog gets thicker, dirtier, and yellower. In London this is called smog a mixture between smog and fog. Then it is dark in the middle of the day and people cannot see their way, buses and cars crawl along slowly with their lights on, blowing their horns, and everyone coughs.

Everyone in England hates to wake up in the morning and see the yellow fog through the window. They get up, eat their breakfast and put on their coats and scarves and gloves and hats.

"Terrible weather!" say twenty million Englishmen, as they go to work that morning.

b) Read the text again and answer the questions.

• What are the English famous for? 2.Why are the English always talking about the weather? 3. What is the best time of the year in England? 4.Why? Why is England such a green country? 5. What is the autumn like in England? 6. How do the English spend their short English summer? 7. What is the winter like in England? 8. What is the warmest place in England? Why? 9. Why is England a difficult country for people who work out of doors? 10. What weather is the worst in England? Why? 11. What is the difference between “climate” and “weather”?