maturitniotazky.cz > Angličtina
6.Weather, Time
The Czech
Republic has a moderate continental climate. A year is divided into four
seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter. Each seasons lasts about three months.
Spring begins on the 21st
March. Nature begins awake from its long winter sleep and new life begins.
Nights get shorter and days get longer. There is more sunshine and it becomes
warmer and warmer. The snow melts and rivers and streams swell and there may be
floods in the regions through which the rivers pass. The first flowers appear:
white snowdrops and snowflakes, yellow marsh marigolds, dandelions and
daffodils, blue forget-me-nots, coloured crocuses and tulips, violets and
catkins and chestnuts come into blossom. Birds such as swallows, starlings, and
cuckoos come batch from the south and we can hear their singing again. The
weather in spring, especially in April is really unpredictable and changeable.
The temperatures are often below zero at night although days may be quite warm.
Sometimes the sun shines and soon after it is overcoat or it sleets, pours with
rain or it may even snow. One cannot go out without a raincoat and a thick
sweater, boots, a cap or even gloves. But when it clears up, the air is fresh
and people go far walks and enjoy the good weather.
Summer begins on the 21st
June. Schoolchildren loves this season best because have two months holidays
ahead. Everybody set out on journeys and take holidays. The temperature rises
to 25oC or more and we may many fine days in a row. In the morning
there is often dew, the sky is clear and bright, it is sunny and dead calm, no
wind blows and sometimes we suffer from a heat wave. The weather is sultry, hot
and dry. It is unbearable, when the drought lasts too long. People and nature
long for rain. In summer rain often comes in the form storm. All of sudden the
sky clouds over, it gets dark and cools down, a breeze changes into a strong
wind. Then there is a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning and heavy
downpour. Sometimes it starts hailing. After the storm a rainbow may appear a
sky. You can see pools of water and puddles everywhere.
Summer is also the time for
strawberries, bilberries, raspberries, blackberries and cranberries and the
harvest of corn.
Autumn comes on the 23rd
September. In autumn the sun sets earlier and rises later and days shorter. In
the gardens it is time of harvest, we pick apples, pears and plums and gather
potatoes and sugar beet. Grass turns yellow and gets dry. The leaves of maples,
birches, ashes, beeches, oaks and larches become tinted yellow, orange, brown
and red. Conifers (firs, pines, spruces) are evergreen. Many people go
mushrooming. The trees shed their leaves and by November they will be bare.
Birds flock together and set on the journeys to the south. In autumn the
weather is unsettled, the sky is often cloudy, mornings are dull and it looks
like rain. It usually does not clear up by day. The temperature drops, it
becomes damp, chilly, wet and rainy and it may drizzle. There may passing
showers, sometimes it rains on and off for a long time or it rains steadily.
The weather is awful, wretched and nasty.
The first frosts come and in
the morning there may be hoarfrost on the grass and haze or fog, and cold wind
blows from the north. According to calendar, winter comes on 21st December.
Typical winter weather brings snowfall, icy wind and hard frosts. We can enjoy
skiing and hills covered with a thick layer of fluffy snow and we admire the
winter landscape. Children enjoy their winter pleasers such as throwing
snowballs, building snowmen, sledging, sliding and skating on lakes. The
temperature sometimes drops some 20 below zero. Then the snow crunches
underfoot, the hands get numb and fingers tingles with cold. If people go out
without caps and mittens or gloves, they can suffer from frostbite. The roads
become icy and slippery. You can skid easily icicles hang from the roof.
Gardeners often become worried about their fruit trees and gamekeepers about
the game, which may freeze to death.
Finally the frosts lets up
and the thaw sets in, the snow melts and paths are full of mud and slush. And
the spring comes. Spring comes earlier to the lowland.