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Weather talk: Is there a way to make it interesting?
By Tom de Castella
BBC News Magazine
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The rain-lashed Jubilee weekend provoked a torrent of weather talk. But how can this most British of conversations be made interesting?There's only one thing more British than talking about the weather. Apologising for doing it.Samuel Johnson, the poet and lexicographer, said in 1758: "When two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather." And 250 years later
it is still regarded as the most British of traits.
The UK is often said to be blessed with "a lot of weather" unlike places with a fixed climate or predictable seasons. In 1858, The Water-Babies author Charles Kingsley wrote: "Tis the hard grey weather breeds hard English men."
Image caption
Another rainy holiday weekend
As a gambit, the weather is a reassuring icebreaker for strangers on trains and in myriad, awkward lift journeys.
It can be a crushingly banal conversational filler. "Hot enough for you?" might evoke the response "glorious, isn't it?" Or "Brrrrrrr, bit nippy today," answered by "Brass monkeys!" But assuming that weather conversation is inevitable, how can people make it a bit more interesting?Most people have a very simplistic view of weather, says Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society. "I like to fight this tendency to break it down into good weather versus cloudy weather. Clouds are one of nature's most beautiful shows." But what is a cloud? "It's water suspended in the atmosphere. It's white because it's made up of tiny countless particles, which scatter the light like a frosted glass." Not only are they attractive, they tell you about what the weather is doing. So it's crucial you can identify the different clouds.
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Cirrus clouds: Composed of ice crystals and generally see-through - visit bbc.co.uk/greatbritishweather for more information
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Altocumulus: Layers or patches of individual clumps of cloud, look similar to cotton wool balls
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Stratocumulus (pictured here with cumulus): Most widespread of all cloud types in the UK, formed from a low layer or patch of cloud with a clumpy base
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Cumulonimbus: Often described as the King of Clouds, these can reach 10 miles into the sky
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Cumulus clouds: Cotton wool puffs which tend to form a few hours after daybreak and scatter before sundown
Low in the sky there's the classic cotton wool Cumulus, the Stratus, a layer of "rather dull" cloud, and higher up Cirrus - "a translucent delicate streak as if a watercolour brush has been stroked across the blue". For real kudos people should pick up lesser known classifications. Stratocumulus is a continuous layer of cumulus that looks like a "tray of bread rolls". Altostratus is higher than stratus but beware. Alto, as in music, doesn't mean high but mid-level. If you see Cirrus joining together, then you can tell the neighbour that there's a change in the weather coming, quite likely rain. Cirrocumulus is high cloud that looks like grains of salt. It's the rarest of the 10 main clouds. Cirrostratus is a "very subtle" cloud that can be nothing more than a milky whitening of the sky. Perhaps most exciting of all are the rain (nimbo) clouds, suggests Pretor-Pinney. But they are not to be confused with each other. "Nimbostratus are a thick, dark grey layer that produces continuous rain or snow." Rather more dramatic is "king of clouds" the Cumulonimbus. It's a huge towering dark cloud, shaped at the top like a blacksmith's anvil, and responsible for sudden downpours. "The heavens open then suddenly it ends and the sun comes out." If all else fails, you can try and find symbols in the clouds, the subject of a new book edited by Pretor-Pinney - Clouds That Look Like Things. "Finding shapes is one of the great pastimes that goes back to the ancient Greeks," he says. "We get a lot of animals in the sky, quite often elephants with trunks."
Image caption
A red snapper, from the book Clouds That Look like Things
It's common in
Japan to start a conversation with "Isn't it good weather today?" or "Isn't it raining hard?" But often the answer is beside the point. Even more so than in the UK, the weather is a conversation starter not to be taken literally.
But there is a reverence for rain with many beautiful words to describe it. "A wedding day for a fox" means it's raining on a sunny day. A "teru teru bozu" is a doll that children and farmers traditionally hang by the window to bring good weather.
Iceland people are fascinated by the weather and have many sayings. There's "all hail eases eventually" and another is "beguiling is the ocean's calmness" - similar to the calm before the storm. Icelanders also personify the wind - his name is Kari, a popular male name. People say "He's coming from the north" or "He is turning himself" - the wind is changing direction.
Sources: Nahoko Mulvey, Inga Thordar
"People will talk about the weather despite not knowing anything about how it works," says meteorologist Philip Eden. One classic conversation is about how the sky looks. So why does it look blue? It's because of "Rayleigh scattering", says Eden. Light travels in a wave and when small particles are in the air it causes the light to be scattered. Because air particles are of a particular size they scatter blue light. Dust particles in turn scatter red light, causing red sunsets. A grey sky is caused by clouds. True haze is moisture, hazy sunshine not really haze at all but the effect of the clouds. But what about wind - where does that come from? There is unequal heating of the oceans and continents, the tropics and the poles. As the Earth rotates on its axis, that causes pressure differences around the world, Eden says. The wind blows from high to low pressure areas. Snow is the most "natural" form of precipitation. Nearly all precipitation starts as snow - rain is when this melts, sleet is half melted snow, and hail occurs when water droplets get sucked up to the to the top of Cumulonimbus clouds where they freeze. A thunderstorm in folklore was "God moving the furniture". It is actually caused by ice crystals moving in different directions. Eventually it will discharge and that is a lightning strike, Eden says. Literature has many evocative weather scenes for people to talk about. Marcel Proust used the changing seasons to vividly evoke time and mood in A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu. "Sometimes, on days when the weather was beyond redemption, mere residence in the house, situated in the midst of a steady and continuous rain, had all the gliding ease, the soothing silence, the inte another time, on a bright day, to lie still in bed was to let the lights and shadows play around me as round a tree trunk."
Image caption
English writer Thomas Hardy turned rain into poetry
It's often said that in Thomas Hardy's novels the weather acts like a character. But his poetry is just as evocative, says his biographer Claire Tomalin. A Thunderstorm In Town is one of her favourites. In just 10 lines a man tells the story of waiting in a hansom cab with the object of his desire while the rain pours down. It concludes poignantly: "Then the downpour ceased, to my sharp sad pain, And the glass that had screened our forms before Flew up, and out she sprang to her door: I should have kissed her if the rain Had lasted a minute more." An unexpected quotation may be amusing or pretentious depending on the context. But for Tomalin we can learn from the "acute observation" that writers like Hardy bring to the weather. "He draws these marvellous vignettes. When you're sitting in a cab and it's raining it'll come back to you," she says. A rainy day can put people off going to the shops. It may also mean less spending on ice cream and more at cinemas. Snow - as George Osborne famously argued - may dent economic growth. None of this is an exact science, says Prof John Sloman, director of the Economics Network. But April's "really bad" weather does seem to have hit retailers' footfall. Farmers want rain in the spring and a nice dry harvest. But it's complicated. Good weather for all farmers may not be good news for farmers individually. "Olive oil prices are plummeting at the moment. The reason is there's a bumper harvest." Tourism is one area where the equation is more straightforward. "Daytripper tourism is clearly affected by the weather. It's different if you've booked ahead to stay for a weekend as you're already committed." When the sun shines, we tend to spend more spontaneously, book that camping holiday and buy those hiking boots, he argues. For international tourism, perception is all-important. So certain moments like Wimbledon or the Olympics become crucial. "If it rained every day of the Olympics I'm sure bookings to the UK for summer 2013 would fall." People confuse weather and climate, says Eden. The UK has a temperate climate with variable weather but an absence of extremes. "Weather is what happens day to day. Climate is over a year or over a period of years." And people in the UK misunderstand what the normal climate is, he argues. They expect hot summers and cold, snowy winters and mostly they're not like that. "The climate is very equable. The normal British summer is unsettled, changeable and cloudy. We have hot spells but it breaks down quickly."
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once
That make ingrateful man!
The weather's influence is often crucial. The Battle of Agincourt might not have been won by the English were it not for heavy rain before the hostilities began. It caused the heavily armoured French knights to sink into the mud, handing the initiative to the outnumbered English archers. There are many similar moments throughout history, as Laura Lee outlined in her book Blame it on the Rain. Hitler's invasion of Russia might have succeeded if there'd been a late autumn. It's likely JFK would not have won the presidency if polling day had been sunny. And a "little ice age" during medieval times led women to be accused of witchcraft for changing the weather. It's not only in history that weather is decisive. The same is true in fiction, says John Mullan, author of What Matters in Jane Austen? Weather allows Austen to set out the notion of chance and to bring certain characters together. Without bad weather being followed by sun at the end of Emma, Mr Knightley would not have proposed to the eponymous heroine. "The shrewd reader will regard the final betrothal of Emma and Mr Knightley as inevitable," Mullan writes. "But the best comedy recruits chance, and the lucky change of weather in Emma is there to let us imagine how it might have been otherwise.""What did one tornado say to the other? Let's twist again like we did last summer" might not be everyone's cup of tea. But there's humour to be had from unexpected downpours and unseasonal heatwaves. "I said," wrote the Irish poet Oliver St John Gogarty, "'It is the most extraordinary weather for this time of year!'" The reply comes back, "'Ah, it isn't this time of year at all.'" Weather forecasts are full of weird jargon. A few years ago Today presenter John Humphrys picked up on the Met Office's adoption of the phrase "organised bands of rain". What did it mean? Philip Eden says such language is ripe for satire. "To most people the rain starts and then it stops. It's not organised even if that's how it looks on a weather chart." Punning is another rich seam. Eden remembers working at the radio station LBC when Sir Michael Parkinson was a presenter. "I was chatting on air with him and I couldn't resist saying 'it's a bit parky this morning'. He was not amused."
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暑假天气热？在家里学北京名师课程，
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Everything is full of yellow dust because of the sandstorm（沙尘暴）.&&&&&！A．What terrible a weatherB．What terrible weatherC．How terrible a weatherD．What a terrible weather
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科目：高中英语
题型：阅读理解
Even if& you are a good high-jumper, you can jump only about seven feet off the ground. You cannot jump any higher because the earth pulls you hard. The pull of the earth is called gravity. & &You can easily find out the pull of the earth. If you weigh yourself, you will know how much gravity is pulling you. 来源： && Since there is gravity, water runs down hill. When you throw a ball into the air, it falls back down. Because of gravity, you do not fall off the earth as it whirls (旋转) around. 来源： && Then, can we get away from the earth and go far out into space? Now you can do it, because spaceships have been invented. Then spaceship will go so fast that it can escape (逃出) the earth’s gravity and carry you into space. 来源： In this passage, the word “gravity” means_______.来源： && A. the pull of everything.&&&&&&&&&& B. the force of attraction(吸引) among objects. && C. the force which attracts objects towards the centre of the earth来源： && D. the force which attracts the earth towards the sun. When you slip(滑) you always fall to the ground because________来源： && A. the earth always turns round.&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& B. the earth has gravity && C. the earth’s gravity is greater than your weight.&&&& D. you are careless. 来源： Gravity is strong that_______
&& A. it can throw a ball into the air.&&&&&&&&&& B. it makes you jump only seven feet. && C. it can let you fly away from the earth.&&&& D. it can keep everything on earth. Because of gravity,________ && A. water flows everything.&&&&&&&&&&& B. we can go everywhere by ship. 来源： && C. water always flows downwards.&&&& D. fish can live in water.
We can get away from the earth by spaceship because________ && A. the spaceship goes very fast.&&&&&& B. the earth can’t pull the spaceship. C. the spaceship has a strong force.&&& D. the spaceship can jump higher than others.
科目：高中英语
He is strict in everything and strict with everyone.＿＿＿＿＿.
A.My father is always such
B.My father is always so a strict man
C.Such is my father
D.So a strict man is my father
科目：高中英语
题型：阅读理解
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36—55各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。 A Man Named Lawrence This is an act of kindness that happened to me one Sunday morning. It was at two o’clock in the morning. We just came out of a club and were trying to find our &&36& &back to our city. As we were trying to &&37& &the bus stop, a man came to us and said he would show us &&38& &it was. Although we were a little &&39& , we had no choice but follow him. He told us he was a homeless man and that his name was Lawrence.
When we passed some city workers &&40& the streets, they sprayed (喷溅) the homeless man. Lawrence told us that they always sprayed the &&41& &if they were &in the way&. I didn’t know why they would do that. They were human beings, &&42& , not cattle or objects.
This man had just gotten &&43& in the middle of a cold night, but &44& shouting at the workers, he asked them, &How would you &&45& if your father or grandfather were treated like this?& He then told us, &It’s &&46& use shouting at them, because they just get angry. You’re better off saying something from the &&47 &.& It is &&48& ! The world could be so different if only we put our anger& 49& , lowered our voices and tried to speak from our hearts.
He took us safely to the stop and on the way talked about everything. We &&50& him and told him that we &&51& have never found the place on our own. He said, &I have a son of your age, and I hope that if he were &&52& , someone would help him.& Not only did Lawrence clear out all the fear and distrust in our hearts, he helped us find our way, in more than one ways. &&53& , this man taught us kindness. There was &&54& we could really do to repay him. The only thing I hope to do is to &&55& other people out. A．way&&&&&& B．car&&& C．friend&&&&&& D．road A．get to&&&& B．find&& C．search for D．arrive A．how&&&&&& B．what& C．which&&&&&& D．where A．interested&&&&& B．annoyed&&& C．worried&&& D．disappointed A．wondering on&&&&&& B．washing&&& C．painting for&&&&& D．decorating A．blacks&&& B．whites&&&&& C．strangers&& D．homeless A．above all&&&&&& B．in all C．after all&&& D．not at all A．wet &&&&& B．angry&&&&&& C．sad&&& D．cold A．except for&&&& B．shortly after&&&& C．instead of& D．owing to A．think&&& B．feel&& C．tell&&& D．say A．no use& B．no point&&& C．no need&&& D．no fun A．corners B．eyes& C．bottom&&&& D．heart A．good&&& B．beautiful&& C．true&& D．funny A．aside&&& B．off&&& C．down D．up A．left&&&&& B．thanked&&& C．paid& D．brought A．should& B．could C．must& D．need A．waited for&& B．taken in&&& C．lost&& D．missed A．On the contrary&& B．On the other hand&&& C．What’s up D．What’s more A．something&& B．anything&& C．everything&&&&&& D．nothing A．help&&&& B．work C．pay&& D．check
科目：高中英语
题型：阅读理解
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36---55各题后的 A B C D四个选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。 Childish Voice When I was a young child, my parents often told me that it was time to teach a man everything. I didn’t understand and wondered why &&36& &had such a big influence &&37& &a person. I thought I could grow up quickly to find it out as an adult．But now, &&38& &I come to knock at the door of adulthood, I feel &&39& to express my own& 40&& &on this saying. I know that I’m just a high school student with very &&41& &experiences. There are still many things &&42& &me in the future, yet I would like to express myself in a childish voice.
I once read this sentence: “To make this world a happy place to live, you’d better &&43& &yourself and your heart , instead of the whole world.” I was shocked. It made me think about life &&44& &. There are so many things around us that &&&45&& &our will. We can’t force life &&&46&& &our wishes. The earth won’t stop turning no matter whether we &&47& &it or not. What we can do is just to make ourselves &48& &the world. I think we should learn to accept &&49& &life gives us, no matter whether it’s the spring sunlight or the winter snowfall, and try to be happy. Deeply moved by the pop song Grandmother (by Jay Chou), I always try to& 50& &every pleasant thing in my life, but now I see I don’t catch most of the pleasant moments. It is more &&51& &that they slip by and leave you feeling &&52& &. I realize that I’m not just living &&53& &myself and that there are the others around me I should think of .They all pay attention to my growing up, even if it’s just a little progress.
Everyone has his or her own attitude towards life, be it positive or &&54&& .It doesn’t matter, I think. There is one &&55& &that should be obeyed—and that’s to make this world better. A．man&&&&&&&&&&&&& && &&&&&B．time &&& & &C．thing&&&&& && &&&D．parent A．about&&&& &&&&&&&B．with&&&&&&& &&&& C．on&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& &&D．in A．before&&& && &&&&&B．after&&&&&&& &&&& C．as&&&&&&&&&& &&&&&D．when A．anxious&& &&&&&B．worried&&&& &&&& C．tired&&&&&&&&&&&&& &&D．glad A．beliefs&& &&&&&B．opinions&&&&& &&&&C．confidences &D．expressions A．a few&&&& && &&&&&B．little&&&&&&& &C．few&&&&&&&&&&&&& & &&D．a little A．waiting for& &&B．sticking with &C．dealing with D．doing with
A．ask&&&&&&&&&&&&&& & &&&B．change&&&&&&&&&& &C．exchange&&&&& &&& D．force A．myself&&&&&&&&& && &&B．itself&&&&&& &&&&&C．oneself&& &&&D．themselves A．go with&&&&&& && &&B．go along &&&&&& &&&&&&C．go ahead&&&&& &&&D．go against A. being followed &B. to be followed C. following &&&D. to follow A．receive&&&&&&& &B．accept&&&&&&&&&& & C．refuse&& &&&& &D．approve A．fit in&&&&&&&&&& && &&B．suit&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& & C．beat&&&&&&&&&&&& &&& D．match A．what&&&&&&&&&& && &&B．whatever&&&&&&& & C．which&&&&&&&&& &&& D．why A．miss&&&&&&&&&&& && &&B．catch&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& & C．escape&&&&&&&&& D．lose A．probably&&&& && &&B．likely&&&&&&&&&&&& & C．possibly&&&&&&&&&&&&& D．unlikely A．regretful &&& &&&&&B．awful&&&&&&&&&&&& &&&&& C．successful& D．terrible A．for&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& && &&B．by&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& & C．on&&&&&&&&&&&&&& D．with A．wrong&&&&&&&& && &&B．false&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& & C．negative&&&&&&&&&&&&& D．true A．point&&&&&&&&&& && &&B．rule&&&&&&&&&&&&&& & C．thing&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& D．word
科目：高中英语
题型：阅读理解
Stricter Traffic Law Can Prevent Accidents & From the health point of view we are living in a marvelous（不平凡的）age. We are immunized from birth against many of the most dangerous diseases. A large number of once fatal illnesses can now be cured by modern drugs and surgery. It is almost certain that one day remedies will be found for the most stubborn remaining diseases. The expectation of life has increased enormously. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the incredible slaughter of men, women and children on the roads. Man versus the motor-car ! It is a never-ending battle which man is losing. Thousands of people the world over are killed or horribly killed each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen. & It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel, his car becomes the extension of his personality. There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a man’s very worst qualities. People who are normally quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind a steering-wheel. They swear, they are ill-mannered and aggressive, willful as two-years-olds and utterly selfish. All their hidden frustrations, disappointments and jealousies seem to be brought to the surface by the act of driving. & The surprising thing is that society smiles so benignly on the motorist and seems to condone his behaviour. Everything is done for his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost uninhabitable bec towns are made ug the countryside is desecra and the mass annual slaughter becomes nothing more than a statistic, to be conveniently forgotten. & It is high time a world code were created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are notoriously lax and even the strictest are not strict enough. A code which was universally accepted could only have a dramatically beneficial effect on the accident rate. Here are a few examples of some the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made far more
all the drivers should be made to take a test eve the age at which young people are allowed to drive any vehicle should be raised to at least 21; all vehicles should be put through stringent annual tests for safety. Even the smallest amount of alcohol in the blood can impair a person’s driving ability. Present drinking and driving laws (where they exist) should be mad much stricter. Maximum and minimum speed limits should be imposed on all roads. Governments should lay down safety specifications for manufacturers, as has been done in the USA. All advertising stressing power and performance should be banned. These measures may sound inordinately harsh. But surely nothing should be considered as to severe if tit results in reducing the annual toll of human life. After all, the world is for human beings, not motor-cars. The main idea of this passage is A Traffic accidents are mainly caused by motorists. B Thousands of people the world over are killed each year. C The laws of some countries about driving are too lax. D Only stricter traffic laws can prevent accidents. What does the author think of society toward motorists? A Society smiles on the motorists.&& B Huge car parks are built in the cities and towns. C Victims of accidents are nothing.& D Society condones their rude driving. Why does the author say:’ his car becomes the extension of his personality?’ A Driving can show his real self.&&&&& B Driving can show the other part of his personality. C Driving can bring out his character.& D His car embodies his temper. Which of the followings is NOT mentioned as a way against traffic accidents? A Build more highways.&&&&&& B Stricter driving tests. C Test drivers every three years. D raise age limit and lay down safety specifications. The attitude of the author is A ironical &&&&&&&B critical&&&&&&& C appealing&&&& D militant
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