Ex. II Read and translate the text. The climate of Britain is more or less the same as that of the north-western part of the Euro­pean mainland

The climate of Britain is more or less the same as that of the north-western part of the Euro­pean mainland. The popular belief that it rains all the time in Britain is simply not true. London gets no more rain in a year than most other major European cities, and less than some.

The amount of rain that falls on a town in Britain depends on where it is. Generally speaking, the further west you go, the more rain you get. The mild winters mean that snow is a regular fea­ture of the higher areas only. Occasionally, a whole winter goes by without any snow at all. The winters are in general a bit colder in the east of the country than they are in the west, while in summer, the south is slightly warmer and sunnier than the north.

Why has Britain’s climate got such a bad reputation? Perhaps it is for the same reason that British people always seem to be talking about the weather. This is its changeability. There is a saying that Britain doesn’t have a climate, it only has weather. It may not rain very much altogether, but you can never be sure of a dry day; there can be cool days in July and some quite warm days in January.

The lack of extremes is the reason why the country seems to be totally unprepared for hot or cold days. A bit of snow and a few days of frost and the trains stop working and the roads are blocked; if the thermometer goes above 27 °C, people behave as if they were in the Sahara and the tem­perature makes front-page headlines. These things happen so rarely that it is not worth organ­izing life to be ready for them.

Due to the geographic location of the Great Britain (on the British Isles) the type of the climate is oceanic. Winters are mild and summers are cool, but long enough to produce crops. The warmth comes from the Gulf Stream. In January the average temperature is + 3, + 7 C, in July + 16, + 17 C. The prevailing winds from the ocean to the south-west bring rainfall throughout the year. The heaviest rainfall is on the west coasts, because of low, mountainous rims. Even at its lowest (about 600 mm) the rainfall is ample for crops and grass, and over many of the islands it produces dense forests. The total area covered by forests is about one sixth of Great Britain. The moisture keeps the skies rather cloudy. The sun may be obscured for several days.

The rivers of the Great Britain are abundant, and they never freeze. The main rivers are the Thames, Tyne, Number, Severn, Mersey; the biggest lakes are the Loch Lomond, Lough Neagh. A considerable area of land is covered by meadows and heaths. The favorable climate has enabled the islands to support a population which has been very large for the land area for centuries. Ample supplies of coal and iron in England, Scotland, and Wales aided the people in the 19^th century to lead in developing steam power, factories and transportation. In this industrial advances they benefited from their situation as islanders.