地道美语听力播客:Winter Weather

I grew up in Minnesota where the summers are hot and humid and winters are bitterly cold. Living in Los Angeles now, it's sometimes hard to describe to people how winter weather can be in chillier¹ climates. In L.A. most of the year, the weather is sunny , clear, and warm. In one of my favorite movies, LA Story, the weathercaster pre-recorded his weather forecasts because the weather was the same everyday!

Well, that's an exaggeration, because even in L.A., it can sometimes be quite cool in the winter and some areas around the beaches can have dense² fog and occasionally drizzling³. But, that's nothing compared to Minnesota. In winter, they get snow flurries and blizzards⁴, when as much as 3 feet of snow can fall. As I kid, I would build snowmen and make angels on the ground. That part was fun. But I also froze my buns off!

And, of course, one thing that Minnesota has a lot of in the wintertime is snow. Sometimes, we get so many inches of snow, we have to shovel⁵ and plow⁶ our way out of our houses. The worst is when there is freezing rain and sleet⁷ and the roads are slippery . Needless to say, there are a lot of fender benders on the road with this kind of weather. Luckily, Minnesota doesn't get any hurricanes that far north, but other parts of the country are hard hit by those every year.

Well, I have to say that it's nice not to have to scrape ice off my windshield in the mornings, but I do miss the white Christmases.

 

1 chillier   

adj.寒冷的，冷得难受的( chilly的比较级 )

参考例句：

• Something colder and chillier confronted him. 他正面临着某种更加寒冷、更加凄凉的东西。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

2 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

3 drizzling   

下蒙蒙细雨，下毛毛雨( drizzle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The rain has almost stopped, it's just drizzling now. 雨几乎停了，现在只是在下毛毛雨。
• It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨，天气又冷又湿，令人难受。

4 blizzards   

暴风雪( blizzard的名词复数 )； 暴风雪似的一阵，大量（或大批）

参考例句：

• Even in the summertime we might be struck by blizzards. 甚至在夏天，我们也可能受到暴风雪的袭击。
• Blizzards battered Britain for the third day. 大风雪袭击英国已进入第三天。

5 shovel   

n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出

参考例句：

• He was working with a pick and shovel.他在用镐和铲干活。
• He seized a shovel and set to.他拿起一把铲就干上了。

6 plow   

n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough

参考例句：

• At this time of the year farmers plow their fields.每年这个时候农民们都在耕地。
• We will plow the field soon after the last frost.最后一场霜过后，我们将马上耕田。

7 sleet   

n.雨雪；v.下雨雪，下冰雹

参考例句：

• There was a great deal of sleet last night.昨夜雨夹雪下得真大。
• When winter comes,we get sleet and frost.冬天来到时我们这儿会有雨夹雪和霜冻。