And make me travel forth without my cloak,

VOCABULARY

I. Choose the words from the box to complete the sentences.

1. The United Kingdom is located between the Atlantic Ocean and the __________.

2. It is separated from the continent by the English______________, 34 km. wide.

3. Its total area of 244, 035 sq. km. is shared by four_______________ units.

4. The four constituent __________ are England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

5. There are also several________________ groups.

6. The best known islands are the_____ Islands, the Shetland Islands, and the Outer Hebrides.

7. The distance from the southern coast to the ___________ North of Scotland is under 1000 km.

8. The widest____________ of Great Britain is under 500 km.

9. No place in ________________ is more than 120 km from tidal water.

10. The prime meridian of 0 passes through the Old Observatory at ___, near London.

II. Complete the sentences with one of the following words.

1. The highest point in the British Isles is _____________ /1, 343 m/.

2. The highest point in England is ________________ /978 ml.

3. Wale's highest point is Mount _________________ /1, 085 m. /.

4. The longest of the British rivers is the ______________ /338 km/.

5. The highest point in Northern Island is ______________ /852 ml.

Climate and weather

The climate is for the English a stock subject for conversation, a traditional joke, and a source of delusions. Its only constant feature is its changeableness. " We ha­ven't a climate, we have only samples of weather", runs an English saying. You leave home hatless and coatless in fine autumn sunshine, and arrive in the office in pouring rain. You light a fire on a chill October morning and by midday you are trying to damp it down. No wonder that Shakespeare once reminded of the weather in Sonnet 34:

" Why dids't thou promise such a beautious day

And make me travel forth without my cloak,

To let base clouds o'ertake me on the way? "

As it is always interfering with one's plans, it is indeed a subject of the widest possible topicality. Two people who do not know each other can talk about the weather for hours. It seems that English are of a friendly nature and live in a weather brotherhood without any necessity of knowing each other. It is often said that the English manner is very cool, like their weather, but it is not so when they talk about it. The English climate is moody but not impossible. You can never give a definite idea of what is going to come, but you are sure about it in your mind – it will be a case of bringing umbrellas with you always!

The art of meteorological forecasting has in most countries gained deserved prestige. But in England, it is little more than a music-hall joke. Some time ago, the Meteorological Office re­minded the English that its forecasts had been fifty percent correct. The public, with a friendly smile, pointed out that the same degree of accuracy could be obtained by spinning a coin.

From October to March, there are many dense mists called fogs or " pea-soupers ". In cit­ies where they mix with smoke, they become " smog" and sometimes interrupt traffic.

After the Autumn rain, and the penetrating chill of Winter, the English Spring has all the more charm. The rain is always there to join in with " the sweet showers of April".

Nevertheless, the filtered sunlight smiles on the sap-filled woods and pastures. Great Brit­ain, once more the green land of legend, clothes herself in a thick mantle of green grass pierced by the first crocuses. An April madness takes hold of London when the flower girls in the street start to sell the first pale meadow daffodils.

The real reason why an Englishman can never be a townsman at heart is that his weather obtrudes itself so regularly in his daily life that his mind can never be far from the things that the weather speaks of – the seed time and harvest...

The United Kingdom has a mild and temperate climate warmed by the North Atlantic Drift /a continuation of the Gulf Stream/ and by southwestern winds.

The prevailing winds are southwesterly, and daily weather is mainly influenced by depressions moving eastward across the Atlantic.

The climate is subject to frequent changes but to few extremes of temperature. It is rarely above +32C /90F/ or below +10C /14F/. The mean annual temperature ranges from +8C to +11C. The mean monthly temperature in the extreme North, in Shetland ranges from +3C during the winter to +11C during the summer.

The annual average rainfall is over 1600 mm. in the mountainous areas and 700 over cen­tral parts. March to June are the driest months and September to January the wettest.

During May, June and July the daily duration of sunshine varies from 5 hours in Northern Scotland to 8 hours on the Isle of Wight. During the months of shortest daylight /November, December and January the duration varies from an hour and a half in northern Scotland to two hours on the southern coast.

Scanty sunshine combined with the prevalence of fogs and drizzle give rise to the prover­bial dreary English weather.