With so many outdoor events and festivals taking place this summer you would think all the British want is a long spell of warm sunshine. But London's Olympic opening ceremony next month will see fake clouds hovering over the stadium providing a dampening just in case the real stuff fails to rain on the parade.
But despite our familiarity with precipitation our vocabulary to describe it is limited. The Inuit people allegedly have 50 words to describe snow because they see so much of it, although Geoff Pullman, a linguist from Edinburgh University says "…the idea is neither empirically true nor practically necessary… as humans we experience lots of variety in everyday life but we don't try to bring it under linguistic observation."
Given that, the British could be forgiven for having just a handful of words. However colloquial English gives meteorological terms a bit more colour. A few drops of rain is described as spitting and one of the most descriptive phrases for heavy rain is it's raining stair-rods. There's also chucking it down and bucketing down which conjures up a picture of some heavenly creature emptying buckets of water from above, drenching the miserable folk below. But the weather you might want to most avoid is when it's raining cats and dogs– a rather cruel way of describing torrential rain.
Quiz 測驗 1. According to the article, what weather do British people complain most about?
The British complain most about the rain.
2. In terms of rainfall, what is June most likely to be?
Probably the wettest June on record.
3. What will hover above the Olympic stadium during the opening ceremony?
Fake rain clouds.
4. True, false or not given: The Inuit people have 50 words to describe rain.
False. The Inuit people allegedly have 50 words to describe snow.
5. What colloquial expression is used when there are just a few drops of rain?
It's spitting with rain.
Glossary 词汇表 climatic condition天氣狀況 splashing濺水的聲音 drizzle小雨 spell (of weather)一段時間 precipitation雨水 meteorological氣象的 (raining) stair-rods傾盆大雨 bucketing down大雨傾盆 drenching全身浸透 raining cats and dogs傾盆大雨
