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com

weather

Teacher’s Notes
Age: Adult 3 The warmer looks at a range of adjectives
Level: Upper intermediate commonly used when describing weather.
Time: 45–60 minutes They can be broadly categorised into ‘hot’, ‘cold’
Language focus: weather forecasts and descriptions and ‘wind’. Ask students to work in pairs and
Skills: listening, speaking complete the first part of the activity as quickly as
Materials: audio + worksheet exercises, internet possible. Identify the fastest finishers – did they
access preferable get everything correct? Check the answers as a
Aims: provide students with language to understand class, pointing out that cool, icy and bitter can be
mainstream weather forecasts and describe used in the context of ‘wind’ as well as ‘cold’. Can
weather conditions students identify the adjectives which describe
pleasant weather?
Teaching Tip: Tell students that they can
What are red words?
learn more about the specific meanings of these
Ninety per cent of the time, speakers of English use
adjectives (and many others) at the thesaurus
just 7,500 words in speech and writing. These words
panels at ‘hot’, ‘cold’ and ‘wind’ in the Macmillan
appear in the Macmillan Dictionary in red, and
Dictionary, i.e.
are graded with stars. One-star words are frequent,
www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus-category/
two-star words are more frequent, and three-star
british/general-words-for-warm-and-hot
words are the most frequent. ‘Language for’ lessons
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus-
are based on red words and encourage students to
category/british/cold
improve their English through communicative tasks
www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus-category/
using collocation and commonly used phrases.
british/words-used-to-describe-cold-weather

1 As preparation for the lesson, ask students to www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus-category/

watch or listen to one or two UK weather forecasts british/words-used-to-describe-windy-weather
(short videos available online at e.g. www.bbc. More information on ‘hot’ can also be found one
co.uk/weather/ or www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/ the Macmillan Dictionary blog:
weather/forecast) note down any words or phrases www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/language-tip-of-
they hear repeatedly (e.g. chilly, showers, sunny the-week-hot.
spells, weather front, brighter skies, clear (v + adj)), The subtle differences between synonyms like
and check their meanings in the Macmillan
these may be useful for students to know – e.g.
Dictionary.
sweltering is hot in an uncomfortable way, roasting
often refers to the temperature inside rather
Teaching Tip: if students have computer
than outside, balmy is warm and pleasant.
access, they could be invited to note their
findings in a word cloud platform (e.g. https://
As an extension activity or homework, ask stu-
answergarden.ch/ ), which could be displayed and
dents to order the adjectives in increasing inten-
informally looked at as the class begins.
sity, e.g.: cool – chilly – freezing – bitter; breezy
2 Make a copy of the worksheet for each student. – windy – blustery; mild – balmy – warm –
scorching, etc.

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weather

Teacher’s Notes
4 Tell students that they’re now going to listen to a 7 Exercise 3b focuses on some common noun
typical UK weather forecast. Ask them to read the collocations occurring in weather descriptions
sentences in exercise 2a in preparation. Play the and forecasts. You may want to explain that
audio. Give students time to complete exercise 2a spell in this context means ‘period of weather’.
and then replay the audio so that they can check Ask students to complete the exercise in pairs,
their answers. Check the answers as a class. reminding them that they should identify the
option which does not occur with the noun on
5 Before completing exercise 2b, explain that you’re
the right. Tell them to think back to what they
going to play the audio again and that students
heard in the audio, which may help with some of
will need to listen out for two words (just one in
the questions. Check the answers as a class.
question 5) to complete each of the sentences. Ask
them to read the sentences and briefly think about 8 Exercise 3c simulates a typical conversation on
what the words might be. Play the audio, pausing the theme of weather. Remind students that to
if necessary. Once students have completed the correctly complete it they’ll need to alter the
exercise, check the answers as a class, showing form of some of the words in the box (n.b.: for
how the questions highlight typical phrases which gap 4, they’ll need to recognise that cloud should
crop up in weather forecasts, i.e. cold/warm front, be used as a verb). If necessary, tell them that
blustery winds, remain settled (also unsettled), looking back at earlier exercises, e.g. Exercise
isolated/scattered showers, sunny spells. Explain 3a, will help them with some of the answers.
that these phrases don’t, however, tend to be used Check answers. You may wish to explain that
when people talk about the weather informally, describing the weather as mixed (Amy’s last turn)
and that later exercises will look at some typical is a common way of saying it changed a lot over a
language for this. period of time.

6 Exercise 3a highlights some typical words and Teaching Tip: Ask students to look back at the
phrases people use when describing weather. Ask conversation and underline the occurrences of the
students to carefully read the sentences and first word it. Explain that when talking about the weather
complete any answers they immediately know so informally, native speakers very often use ‘It ...’ rather
that they can be eliminated. Check the answers than saying/repeating ‘The weather...'.
as a class. Explain that phrases such as these are
9 Divide students into pairs for Exercise 4. Tell
far more likely to be used by native speakers of
them to look at the pictures, note down a few
English than some of the more basic weather
ideas and then take it in turns to informally tell
vocabulary they are already familiar with, e.g.: It
their partner about what the weather was like,
was clouding over... rather than It was becoming
e.g.: on holiday / on a particular day / when they
cloudy.... It poured down rather than It rained a
left home this morning, etc. Remind students to
lot; I hope it brightens up. rather than I hope the
look at the conversation in Exercise 3c and the
sun shines.
words/phrases in earlier exercise material to help
them, as well as the useful phrases box.

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weather

Teacher’s Notes
10 As a wind-up discussion, ask students what they 3c 1. poured
think of weather forecasts. Do they regularly 2. brightened
listen to or watch them? Do they think the 3. warm
information they provide is reliable? Are they 4. clouded
more reliable today than they were in the past? If 5. chilly
so, why? 6. blustery (or windy)
7. clear
Answer key: 8. rain
1 hot: balmy, boiling, mild, scorching, 4 students’ own answers
sweltering, warm
Audio transcript
cold: bitter, chilly, crisp, cool, freezing, icy
You might notice a different feel to the weather today.
wind: bitter, blustery, breezy, cool, icy, windy
Curtesy of a cold front which came in overnight,
describing pleasant weather: temperatures have dropped in most areas and it’s going to be
balmy, crisp, mild, warm quite a chilly day, especially in the north. Low pressure in
charge means we’re likely to have some heavy bursts of rain
2a 1. T 2. F 3. F 4. T across parts of the west this morning and some rather
5. T 6. T 7. F blustery winds, though these will ease by early afternoon and
showers will fade. Over in the east, there’s a better chance of
2b 1. cold, temperatures seeing some sunshine, though always the risk of isolated
2. heavy, winds showers, especially on the coast which could see some heavier
3. showers, downpours downpours. But if you’ve got outdoor plans then it’s not all
4. clear, skies bad; by late afternoon the rain starts to clear away and we
should see brighter skies right across the country. This
5. settled evening then, generally a dry night, turning warmer as we
6. cloud, rain head into tomorrow.
7. sunny, showers The rest of the working week remains settled; highs of
around 18 or 19 Celsius and largely dry, especially in the
3a 1. c 2. f 3. g 4. b south. Don’t pack your umbrella away just yet though, as it
5. a 6. d 7. e all goes downhill at the weekend with cloud increasing and a
band of more persistent rain heading in from the west on
3b 1. weak Friday evening. After a wet start, Saturday looks likely to be
2. strong the better day of the two, with sunny spells and scattered
3. sprinkled showers on Sunday. And that’s the forecast.
4. shiny
5. heavy
6. drizzle
7. frying
8. light

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weather

Worksheet
1 Warmer
Put these weather adjectives with the correct image.

balmy   bitter   blustery   boiling   breezy   chilly   crisp   cool
chilly   cool   freezing   icy   mild   scorching   sweltering   
warm   windy

Which four adjectives from the box above usually describe pleasant weather?

2 Audio
a Listen to the weather forecast and decide if the following
sentences are true (T) or false (F).

1 Today is going to be colder than yesterday.

2 The west will be wet all day.
3 It’ll be dry on the east coast.
4 It’s likely to be sunnier this evening.
5 Tomorrow will be warmer than today.
6 It’ll rain again before the weekend.
7 Sunday will be a dry day.

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weather

Worksheet
b Listen again and complete the sentences with the correct words.

1 Courtesy of a front which came in overnight, have dropped in most areas.

2 We’re likely to have some bursts of rain and some rather blustery .

3 There’s always the risk of isolated , especially on the coast which could see

some heavier .

4 By late afternoon the rain starts to away and we should see brighter .

5 The rest of the working week remains .

6 It all goes downhill at the weekend, with increasing and a

band of more persistent heading in from the west.

7 spells and scattered on Sunday.

3 Language in use
a Read the sentences describing weather. Look at the words in bold and match them with their
meanings a–g.

1 I hope it brightens up today – we’re planning to have a barbecue.

2 Suddenly the fog lifted and she had a fantastic view.
3 There’s no way we can go walking, it’s absolutely pouring down!
4 I think we should head back – it looks like the weather’s starting to close in.
5 The sun was shining but there was a cool breeze off the sea.
6 It was glorious when we set off for the beach but by the time we arrived it had clouded over.
7 It wasn’t raining heavily, just a bit of drizzle.

a a light wind
b to change suddenly and become unpleasant
c to become sunnier
d to become darker because clouds are forming in the sky
e very light rain
f to disappear
g to rain very hard

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weather

Worksheet
b Circle the option which does not combine with the noun to make a common phrase for
describing weather.

1 light / gentle / weak breeze

2 strong / heavy / torrential downpour
3 scattered / isolated / sprinkled showers
4 sunny / shiny / dry spells
5 strong / blustery / heavy winds
6 mist / fog / drizzle patches
7 scorching / frying / sweltering heat
8 light / bright / clear skies
c Complete the conversation with the correct form of the words in the box. There is one word you don’t
need.

blustery   
brighten   chilly   clear   
cloud   pour   rain   warm   
wind

Cat: Hi Amy. How was the camping trip?

Amy: The first night was awful. It absolutely (1)____________ down and everything in the tent got soaked.
Cat: Oh no, so what did you do, go to a hotel?
Amy: We were thinking about it, but when we woke the next morning it had (2)____________
up. We went down to the beach and it was actually quite (3)____________and sunny.
Cat: Did you go in the sea?
Amy: Oh no, it didn’t last long – after a couple of hours it (4) ____________ over again. It was
quite (5)____________, so we went back to the tent to make a cup of tea. But it was so
(6)____________ that the stove kept blowing out. In the end we gave up and drove to a cafe!
Cat: What about the rest of the week?
Amy: The weather was pretty mixed, (7)____________ skies one day and then heavy
(8)____________ the next.
Cat: Oh boy. Sounds like a typical summer in Scotland!

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weather

Worksheet
4 Communicate
Practise having a short conversation describing what the weather was like at a particular period of time.
Look at the pictures below or use your own ideas. Try to use some of the weather words and phrases from
the exercises above.

It was absolutely boiling/freezing in ... It never really poured down.

We only had a few showers/bit of drizzle. Then it brightened up in the evening.
It was chilly in the evenings. It snowed while I was ...
It was a really blustery day. It had clouded over by lunchtime.

Red Words
breeze **  clear ***  cloud ***  forecast**  pour ***  rain ***  shower **  spell **  
warm ***   wind ***

5 Discuss
• Do you listen to/watch a weather forecast every day?
• If so, does it ever change what you wear/do, etc?
• Do you think weather forecasts provide reliable information?

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