About Seasons and Weather in Britain

There are four seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter. Spring officially starts in March, summer in June, autumn in September and winter in December. But sometimes they have weather from each season all in one day.

Because English weather changes so often, there is always something to talk about. A remark to a stranger about the weather such as: " Not a very nice day, is it? " can often lead to an interesting conversation.

Even poets talk about weather. For example, Lord Byron once said: " I like weather, when it's not raining. That is, I like two months of every year".

(from " Blueprint" by B. Abbs and I. Freebairn.) Why we Learn English

Most of us learn English because we want to get a good job and because it is useful when we travel, especially in Britain or the USA. Some of us want to read and enjoy English literature and a few of us learn English because they want to understand the words of pop songs.

(from " Blueprint" by B. Abbs and I. Freebairn.)

Approximately 350 million people speak English as their first language. About the same number use it as a second language. It is the language of aviation, international sport and pop music. 75 per cent of the world mail is in English, 60 per cent of the world's radio stations broadcast in English and more than half of the world's periodicals are printed in English. It is

an official language in 44 countries. In many others it is the language of business, commerce and technology. There are many varieties of English, but Scottish, Texan, Australian, Indian and Jamaican speakers of English, in spite of the differences in pronunciation, structure and vocabulary, would recognize that they are all speaking the same basic language.

(from " Streamline" by B. Hartley and P. Viney)

I didn't learn English at school but I studied it for 5 years in evening classes. I work as a tourist guide and so I have to speak English a lot. I feel fairly confident about communicating in English but I do have difficulties if the person I'm speaking to has a strong or unusual accent. I think it's helpful to listen to English as much as possible - on the radio in films or recordson television. I've got a lot of English cassettes and videos at home and listen to them almost every day.

(from " ThirdDimension" by P. Mugglestone and R. O'Neill)

Sports

I'm interested in sport, especially athletics, and I run seven or eight kilometres every day. I particularly enjoy cross-country running, where you have to run across fields, jump over streams and so on. While I am running I think about all sorts of things, and at the end of a run I'm sometimes surprised to find that I've managed to solve a problem that was on my mind.

Next year I'm going to try the London Marathon. It's a long, hard race - 26 miles, or 42 kilometres - and you have to be tough to finish, but I very much want to do it.

I'm interested in mountaineering as well as running. I'll never become an expert climber, but I know what I'm doing in the mountains. I've done a series of climbs in the Alps during the last few years.

(from " The Cambridge English Course" by M. Swan and C. Walter.)

Physical fitness can help you to live longer, feel healthier and cope with life's problems. Various activities can help you keep fit: from running marathons to climbing mountains. For the average non-sporting person without much time to spare, activities like these are not very practical and, to be frank, they are a waste of time. It is much betterin my view to devote no more than half an hour every other day to doing exercises. The important thing is to stick to a routine so that you don't say to yourself, " I won't bother today! " or " I'll do it later! " If you haven't got the willpower to establish a routine like this, a sport like tennis might suit you better. Your partner will help you to remember to play regularly and

you'll be able to get your exercise outdoors, too.

Another good way of keeping fit is jogging: the important thing here is to build up slowly and not tooverdo it. It's best to keep away from roads so as not to breathe in traffic fumes instead of fresh air and in case you get run over!

Taking exercise can be time-consuming butthe feeling^-of being fit and healthy makes up for the few minutes a day it takes.

(from " Progress Towards First Certificate" by Leo Jones)

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