"The weather is a thing that is beyond me altogether".
Jerome K. Jerome
Objectives:
• to present and practise proverbs and expressions
• to provide opportunities for developing speaking skills in pairs
• to practise students' reading and hstening skills
Warm up
Shakespeare once reminded of the weather in sonnet 34:
"Why dids't thou promise such a beautiful day And make me travel
forth without my cloak, To let base clouds o'ertake me on the way"
Comment on Shakespeare's words.
Introducing the Topic
Vocabulary
A) Fine weather.
If the weather is fine, we say:
What a nice (fine, most lovely, glorious) day (night)!
A fine morning, isn't it?
What a balmy (clear, cloudless) night! Not a cloud in the sky! Rather
warm (cool, cold), isn't it?
I think it will keep fine. The weather's improving, I should say. It
will clear up by and by. It's clearing up.
Bad weather
It seems a dull (wet, raw, gloomy) day. What a rainy (cloudy, foggy,
windy, stormy) day!
It's a dull morning (day), isn't it? Rather nasty out! Beastly weather!
What wretched weather!
The sky is dark. The clouds are hanging low in the sky.
It's beginning to drizzle. There's a fine drizzling rain.
What a thick fog! One can almost cu tit with a knife. The fog is
clearing.
Everything is so fresh now after the rain. What a lovely rainbow!
Homework
Make up situations (sentences) using the proverbs.
В) Proverbs and expressions.
1. Try to give
Ukrainian variants of these proverbs and expressions. Against (for) a rainy day
— на чёрный день
After rain comes fair weather — поел. После горя приходит радость
Rain or shine — при любой погоде
In never rains but it pours — поел. Беда никогда не приходит одна As welcome as a storm — несвоевременный, нежелательный A storm in a tea cup — буря в стакане April weather — частая смена настроений Broken weather — неустойчивая погода
Like a weathercock in the wind — как флюгер (о человеке,
часто меняющем свои взгляды, убеждения)
То weather
the storm — выдержать шторм; перен.
преодолеть трудности.
2. Make up
sentences with these proverbs and expressions.
Speaking
Work in pairs.
Read and dramatize the dialogues.
A n n. I'm afraid you got caught in the rain. Did you get wet?
Robert. Nothing to speak of. The shower came on all of a sudden, but I
escaped the worst of it.
A n n. It didn't look like rain at all this morning, did it?
R о b e r 1.1 usually carry an umbrella all the time at this season. But
I forgot all about it this morning.
Ann. You must be careful in this weather.
Robert. Yes, it's awfully wet. See, the sky is heavy, it's going to come
down again.
A n n. I'm so glad you needn't go out any more. Robert. So, am I.
* * *
Bella. Have you heard the weather forecast, Lucy? Lucy. No, I haven't.
But I can tell you without any forecast that the weather is nasty. Look how
overcast the sky is, and there's the feel of rain in the air. Bella. Yes,
autumn is here with its slush and drizzle. Lucy. Rain or shine, I must go out.
I have some shopping to do. Bella. They say we'll have a mild winter. L u с у. It
was horrible cold last winter.
Bella. But the sunny mornings with hoar-frost on the trees and the icicles
hanging from the roofs, weren't they a real pleasure?
Lucy. Yes, they were, but I had no time to go for walks in the morning.
Besides, the streets were often terribly slippery and id made walking rather unpleasant.
Listening
A) Listen to a weather forecast for the British Isles. Mark on the map
what the weather will be like tomorrow.
THE WEATHER FORECAST
And now here's a weather forecast for the next twenty-four hours. I'll
divide the country into four. Starting with the North West and the North East
of England. Well, there'll be early morning mists, and after that it'll be
mainly dry and sunny, but quite chilly, with temperatures around six or seven.
It should stay dry all day, but there'll be quite a wind, so wrap up warm.
And now the South West and Wales. You can expect some rain in the morning
and in the afternoon. There might be some storms as well, with thunder and
lightning. There'll be quite string winds and the temperature will be lower
than yesterday, around three or four degrees. I don't think you'll see much of
the sun. Cloudy all day, I'm afraid.
The South East, the Midlands the East Anglia will see the best of
today's weather. It'll be warmer than yesterday, no winds and sunshine nearly
all day, with the temperatures around ten and eleven, so quite warm for the
time of year.
In Scotland and Northern Ireland, however, there'll be heavy rain and
maybe some snow during the afternoon, and on the hills temperatures will drop
to below freezing, minus ten.
Over much of Scotland it will be cloudy and windy, too, as the cold
front moves in over the Atlantic. Northern Ireland can expect the same, but the
rain will end before dark. But again, very cold, with temperatures not going
above freezing.
B) Fill in the information.
The North West and the North East of England: The South West and Wales:
The South East, the Midlands the East Anglia: Scotland and Northern Ireland:
Relaxation
Comment on the joke.
WEATHER FORECAST
Two men were travelling in a very wild part of America. They saw no modern
houses and no traces of civilization for many days. What they saw were only a
few huts made of wood or tents where Indians lived. One day they met an old
Indian who was a hunter. He was very clever and knew every thing about the
forest and animals living in it and many other things. He could also speak
English quite well.
"Can you tell us what the weather will be like during the next few
days?" one of the two travelers asked him.
"Oh, yes", he answered. "Rain is coming, and the wind.
Then there will be snow for a day or two but then the sunshine will come again
and the weather will be fine".
"These old Indians seem to know more about Nature than we with all
our science", said the man to his friend. Then he turned to the old Indian
and asked: "Tell me, please, how do you know all that?"
The Indian answered: "I heard it over the radio".
Reading
A) Read and translate the text.
THE WEATHER FORECAST
I remember the holiday of mine being completely ruined one late afternoon
by our paying attention to the weather report of the local newspaper.
"Heavy showers, with thunderstorms may be expected today", it would
say on Monday, and so we would give up our picnic and stopped indoors all day,
waiting for the rain. And people would pass the house, going off as jolly and
merry as could be, the sun shining out, and not a cloud to be seen.
"Ah!" we said as we stood looking out at them through the
window, "Won't they come home soaked!" And we thought how wet they
were going to get. By twelve o'clock, with the sun pouring into the room, the
heat became oppressive, and we wondered when those heavy showers an occasional
thunderstorms were going to begin.
"Ah! They'll come in the afternoon, you'll find", we said to
each other. "Oh, won't those people get wet. What a lark!" And when
the afternoon was almost gone, and still there was no sign of rain, we tried to
cheer ourselves up with the idea that it would come down all at once, just as
the people had started for home, and were out the reach of any shelter, and
that they would thus get more drenched than ever, but not a drop of rain ever
fell...
The next day we would read that it was going to be a "Warm, fine
day; much heat"; and we would dress ourselves in flimsy things, and go
out, and half an hour after we had started, it would commence to rain hard, and
abitterly cold wind would spring up, and both would keep on steadily for the
whole day, and we would came home with colds and that is beyond me rheumatism,
and go to bed.
The weather is a thing altogether. I never can understand it. George
said it was evident we were going to have a prolonged spell of grand weather
some time.
Jerome K. Jerome
Notes:
won't they come home soaked! — an emphatic way of saying: they will come
home wet to skin (wet through)
What a lark! — What fun! How amusing! out the reach of any shelter — far
from the shelter flimsy things — light (thin) clothes; summer clothes that is
beyond me — that's beyond my understanding
B) Relate the story in the third person. Phrases that may be used in
relating: to get hold of; forecast (n, v); occasional thunderstorms; weather
report;
local newspaper, a heavy shower; to stay indoors; as jolly as could be;
to look at something through the window; to get soaked (drenched); to cheer
oneself up; out of the reach of; to rain hard; a bitterly cold wind; to come
home with a cold; to be beyond one.
C) Compose short dialogues.
1. The day is fine; you go to the country, but it rains.
2. It snows hard; you stay at home, bit the day turns out fine for
skating.
Work in groups
A) Explain in English the meaning of the meaning of the italicized
words. Attention!
The italicized words and groups of words should be explained in a descriptive
way. First read the whole extract and make sure that you understand it well. If
there are words which you don't know look them in an English-Ukrainian
dictionary. Then read each sentence which include italicized words or word
groups and reproduce the sentence in your own way. Then take the italicized
part of the sentence and explain the meaning as if you were explaining them to
somebody who doesn't quite understand what those parts of the text mean.
THE RAINY DAY
The day is cold, and dark and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never
weary; The vine still clings to the mouldering wall, But at every gust the dead
leaves fall, And the day is dark and dreary...
B) Translate the poem into Ukrainian.
Homework
Make up a forecast.
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