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Exercise 4
Write an essay on one of the following topics:
1. My Self-Portrait.
2. What Kind of People Do You Get On with Best?
3. Looking through a Family Album.
Exercise 5
Write:
1. about your first meeting with someone who later became your close friend. What were some of the
things you noticed about him or her when you first saw him or her?
2. your first letter to your imaginary English pen-friend. Give him or her a good idea of your appearance,
personality and interests.
3. about one of the books you have read, explaining which of the characters you admired or liked and
which of the characters you found less/least attractive.
LESSON 10 WEATHER
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.