An Evergreen topic in British classical literature, children’s poems and everyday speech: patterns of climate in the British isles — страница 6

- The rain … I don’t like the rain. - Just I think – a day like this is July. It rains in the morning, then a bit of sun and then rain, rain, rain all day. - I remember the same July day in 1936… - Yes, I remember too. - Or was it 1928? - Yes it was. - Or in 1939? - Yes, that’s right. * * * - It’s a lovely day, isn’t it? - Yes, isn’t the day fine? - The sun … not a cloud in the sky… - It’s so nice and warm. - Isn’t it wonderful? Although the last two conversations are humorous, one must follow a very important rule: you must always agree with other people when you talk about the weather. If it is raining and snowing and the wind is knocking down trees, and someone says “nice day, isn’t it?” one usually answers “isn’t it wonderful?” There are a

lot of jokes and stories about the British weather in common use. A good example of English humor is the following story: “A Londoner, who was going to the west of England for a holiday, arrived by train at a town and found that it was pouring with rain. He called a porter to carry his bags to a taxi. On the way out of the station, partly to make conversation and partly to get a local opinion about the weather prospects for his holiday, he asked the porter: “How long has it been raining like this?” – “I don’t know, sir, I have only been here for fifteen years”, was the reply. One can also read lots of humorous stories about the British weather in books by Jerome K. Jerome: “There you dream that an elephant has suddenly sat down on your chest, and that the volcano

has exploded and thrown you down to the bottom of the sea – the elephant still sleeping peacefully on your bosom… Sometimes a westerly oily wind blew, and at other times an easterly oily wind, and sometimes it blew a northerly oily wind, and may be a southerly oily wind; but weather it came from the Arctic snows, or was raised in the waste of the desert sands. The rain is pouring steadily down all the time”. But we must say that the British are very optimistic in spite of the weather which is very changeable. When the weather is wet We must not fret. When the weather is cold We must not scold. When the weather is warm We must not storm. But be thankful together Whatever the weather. * * * Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold,

Whether the weather be not, We’ll weather the weather Whatever the weather Whether we like it or not. So, all dialogues prove our hypothesis because people often talk and discuss the weather. One must follow a very important rule: you always must agree with other people when you talk about the weather. It’s a part of polite conversations. The results of our research To support or disapprove our hypothesis we have studied such books as “Pygmalion” by Bernard Shaw, “Three men in a boat to nothing say about the dog” by Jerome K. Jerome, “Stories for children” by Vera Colwell, Eileen Colwell and Leila Berg, “Easy English” by Vyborova, “The ABC fun” by Burlakova, “Tales from Shakespeare” by William Shakespeare and other literature. We found out that in the

“Stories for children” there are a lot of descriptions of different seasons and weather: “How cold it was! The yard was white and smooth. Flakes of snow were falling” (Vera Colwell); “Then one day spring came. Blue and white and yellow flowers came out in the garden, and the sun shone more warmly every day” (ibid); “It was a bright, sunny day… (Leila Berg); “One day it was raining. It rained and rained. Pete put on his raincoat with the hood, and his big wellingtons, and went outside to see what happening. It was a heavy rain. And it made great puddles in the street” (ibid); “It had rained all night long. But now the sun was shining, and the wind was blowing all over the pavements, blowing the rain away. The pavements were white and clean where the wind had

dried them” (ibid); “It was a beautiful October morning. Everything was golden. The trees were golden in the sun, and the roads were gold” (ibid); “It was springtime the birds were flying and new exciting things were happening every day” (ibid); “It was a lovely hot day. The sun shone all the time. The children on the beach ran in and out of the warm water” (Eileen Colwell); Also, we have found in the story “Three men in a boat to nothing say about the dog” by Jerome K. Jerome. “Sometimes a westerly oily wind blew, and at other times an easterly oily wind, and sometimes it blew a northerly oily wind, and may be a southerly oily wind; but weather it came from the Arctic snows, or was raised in the waste of the desert sands. The rain is pouring steadily down all