1. Unit 5 Talking About the Weather

2. Session 3
Section III
Maintaining a Sharp Eye
Section IV
Trying Your Hand

3. Talking About the Weather
Passage Ⅱ
British People Like
Talking About the Weather

4. Warm-up questions
Do you know something about the weather conditions in Britain?
changeable

5. Warm-up questions
2. How do English people usually start their conversations? Why?

6. Talking About the Weather
Reading of the passage
British People Like
Talking About the Weather
passage

7. Find out the topic sentences and summarize the main ideas
Reading comprehension
Find out the topic sentences and
summarize the main ideas
for each paragraph.

8. Reading comprehension
Para. 1
The topic sentence:
The first sentence.
The main idea:
Weather in Britain is changeable.

9. Reading comprehension
The topic sentence:
The first sentence.
The main idea:
Some British customs are related
to the weather there.
Para. 2

10. Reading comprehension
Para. 3
The topic sentence:
The first two sentences.
The main idea:
British people talk about weather
frequently because it is interesting
and changeable.

11. Reading comprehension
The topic sentence:
The last sentence.
The main idea:
Talking about weather is an easy
way for British people to begin
their conversation.
Para. 4

12. Reading comprehension
Fill in the blanks and then read aloud.
The climate in Britain is very c_________. Sometimes it can be c___, r____, w_____ and s____ all in the same day. Generally, it
r____ a lot, especially in the north and the west. Most of the time, the weather is quite m___― never too h___ nor too c___. In summer, it is usually w____.
hangeable
old
ainy
indy
unny
ains
ild ot
old
arm

13. Reading comprehension
Role play the situation.
A Chinese student is going to study in Britain, and he is asking a British student studying in China about the weather conditions in Britain and the British student happily
gives the information.

14. Useful words and expressions
a. depend on
(1) change according to
(2) need someone or something
for help or to be able to
do something

15. Useful words and expressions
a. depend on
Whether we’ll go out for a walk
depends on the weather.
Don’t always depend on your parents
since you are an adult now.

16. Useful words and expressions
b. variable
changeable; not steady
various variety
varied variable
Many people know that the weather in Britain is ____________.

17. Useful words and expressions
c. be reluctant to do
not willing to do;
slow to act
He is very reluctant to accept the fact that his sister has married a foreigner.

18. Useful words and expressions
say or do sth. to make
people feel more relaxed
d. break the ice
Sometimes talking about the weather is a way of breaking the ice between strangers.

19. Section IV
Trying
Your Hand

20. Applied writing: Weather report
Sample analysis
A weather report or forecast is a very useful aid in our daily life. Knowing the usual format for giving a weather forecast helps us a lot in understanding a weather forecast in English.

21. Applied writing: Weather report
Sample analysis
Figures, measurement units, graphics, weather terms, and broken short passages are often used to forecast weather conditions. In general, the language used to forecast weather should be concise, clear, familiar and vivid.

22. Applied writing: Weather report
Sentences used to describe weather:
1. Tomorrow is going to be fair.
2. It’s foggy in the morning and it’ll be
clear and fine this afternoon.
3. Tomorrow will be overcast
with drizzle.

23. Applied writing: Weather report
Sentences used to describe weather:
4. It is expected to be partly cloudy
in the next two days.
5. Tomorrow we can expect cloudy,
windy and cold weather.
6. The wind will be light with little
change of the temperature.

24. Exercises Key to Ex. 2: Weather outlook for the urban area:
It’ll be cloudy today, and later turn to be
partly cloudy, the highest temperature
will be one degrees and the lowest
temperature will be four degrees below
zero.

25. Exercises Key to Ex. 2: It is expected to be partly cloudy
in the next two days.
The wind will be calm with little
change of the temperature.

26. Simple past and present perfect
Sentence Writing:
Simple past and present perfect
Sample snalysis
The simple past tense is used to prefer to a past action that does not continue, while the present perfect tense is used to show actions which started in the past and are still continuing, or actions which happened in the past, but have
an effect till the present.

27. Exercises Key to Ex. 6. The weather was terrible yesterday.
In fact, it has been awful for several days.
2. She has worked in this office for 5 years.
3. I paid a visit to the Great Wall last year
and had a very good time there.

28. Exercises Key to Ex.6. 4. We have never spoken to each other
since we quarreled last time.
5. Turn down the TV a bit. The weather
forecast hasn’t begun yet.

29. Assignments 1. Recite the first and the last paragraphs of Passage II.
2. Read and learn by heart the
new words in Unit 6.
3. Prepare the speaking activities
in Section I of Unit 6.

30. Reading of the passage
The most important thing to remember about the weather in Britain is that it often changes. You can wake up to a beautiful blue sky and then it starts raining during breakfast. Similarly, you may decide not to go for a picnic because it's too wet--then later it's fine. Because long periods when the weather stays the same day after day aren't very common in Britain, the kind of weather you get will depend not only on the time of year, but also on luck.

31. Reading of the passage
The weather in Britain may explain a lot about what you find here. For example, the opportunities for people to meet outside depend a lot on the weather, so you won't see people meeting and spending time together outdoors as much as you do in warmer countries. This may give some visitors the idea that the British are not very friendly. The weather helps to explain eating customs too; a large hot breakfast, for example, is a good idea on a cold dark morning.

32. Reading of the passage
Foreigners are often amused that the English spend so much time discussing the weather. An important reason for this is that the climate in Britain is interesting and variable. Because the weather changes frequently, there's always something to say about it, and this is probably the commonest way for strangers to start a conversation. At places like bus stop you might hear conversations start like this: 1st person: Lovely day, isn't it? 2nd person: Yes, isn't it.

33. Reading of the passage
Then they may go on to talk about what the weather has been like recently or what it'll be like next. Another reason is that the British people are reluctant to converse about personal matters with people who are not friends. Mentioning the weather is also a useful way to greet someone you pass on the street; it's inoffensive to begin a conversation with someone you don't know at a social event. A comment on a nice day or a personal complaint about the rain is an easy way to break the ice.