INTRODUCTORY READING AND TALK

The naughtiest thing in the worid is the weather. It's like a capricious woman who always does the opposite to what you ask her.

When you want to go for a picnic in the open air you ask the skies to remain clear and the day to be fine. Nervously you switch on the radio and listen to the weather forecast. You tremble with joy to hear that it'll stay warm and dry with bright sunshine, and moderate breeze. Your imagination draws a hot summer afternoon and your­self saying: 'Nice weather we are having today!' You take a lot of food and no warm clothes, go to the countryside but... do not get anything sunny.

You get it cloudy and cool with intermittent drizzle which ends with a thundery shower. The sky is so heavily cast with clouds, the downpours follow one another with such frequency, the rumbling of thunder and Hashes of lightning are so frightening that you've got no illusions left. You throw away the food and go back hungry and an­gry. And when you are already approaching your home soaked to the skin it suddenly brightens up. Oh, Goodness!

Each summer every student survives through the best time of his or her life — an examination session. Then many students plead: 'Please, weather, stay cloudy, chilly or even cold with brisk northerly wind and nun torrents leaving pools and peddles everywhere, espe­cially on the playground. And I'll be a good student'. The radio promises: 'Patchy light drizzle with showery outbreaks of rain.' But the "patch" is never in the right place. Instead the skies send heat and excellent weather for a sun tan. Everyone knows that sun tan never helps at exams.

And it is always like this. When you go skiing and want to have frosty weather with a lot of snow, it starts thawing and your skis sink in the slush. Instead of a snowfall and hoarfrost on the trees you get excellent sleet. The weather does not feel any pangs of re­morse.

When you go in the car to the country, enjoying nice weather and a beautiful view of a rainbow in the blue sky, you pay no atten­tion to some haze on the horizon. Some time later a thin mist in the distance turns into a thick fog and you spend a lovely two hours in­stead of one at the steering wheel.

When you plant some much-cared-for flowers in the garden, ei­ther a ground frost or a hail storm kills them. Digging muddy flower­beds one feels exasperated: 'What beastly weather we've had this week! And it keeps nasty! Wretched!'

To tell the troth, sometimes the weather is ashamed and turns for the better. But not always. More often it sticks to its own pattern and after a short warm spell turns bad again. Why is it always like this? Maybe, because the weather likes surprises and wants to bring in adventures to our life, breaking the boring routine with marvel­lous happenings?

1. Do you agree that the weather is like a capricious woman? Prove your point.

2. Say what weather you like best of all and why.

3. Do you listen to the weather forecasts? Do you trust them? Have you heard the weather forecast for today? Was it right?

4. Look at the pictures and say what the weather Is like in them.

5. Explain how you understand the proverb.

Whether the weather is cold

Or whether the weather is hot

We'll weather the weather

Whatever the weather

Whether we like it or not.

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