Part One: Warm Up
Discuss the following questions with a partner or group:
- Which part of your country has the best weather?
- What about the worst weather?
- Which places in the USA do you think have the best weather? What about Canada?
- Do you think it's possible for one place to sometimes have the best weather and at other times, have the worst weather of a country?
Part Two: Listening
Exercise
Open Exercise One to begin the activity. Follow the instructions in the document. Then, go on to Exercise Two. The recording is from ELLLO.
Transcript
Person 1: What part of your country has the best weather and the worst weather?
Person 1: Well, I would say that the best part of the country with weather is Vancouver or the west coast of Canada because they have very mild summers and winters. That means that the winters aren't too cold. They're a bit cold but not very cold. And the summers don't get that hot. They stay quite cool in the summer.
Person 1: Where I'm from in Toronto, many people don't like the weather because the winters are very, very long and harsh and the summers are very, very hot and humid. I'm from Canada. So, the best weather in Canada, I would say, is the west coast. West coast in the summertime, it's sunny and warm. It's never hot. It's kind of cool actually but not cold. It's beautiful.
Person 1: The worst weather in my country is also the west coast for the rest of the year. When it's not summer, it rains every day, all the time.
Person 2: Well, I think the worst weather, some people would disagree, but I think the worst weather is up in the Pacific Northwest like Seattle and Portland. I think it rains all the time and I really get depressed in the rain. And the best weather is in my hometown, Colorado, because it doesn't rain much. It's hot and nice in the summer, not too hot. And you get a nice change of pace with a cooler winter and a nice fall.
Person 3: Well, since I'm from Hawaii, it's summer all year round. And during winter, all it does is rain occasionally. So pretty much, you can find me at the beach 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, barbecuing, enjoying the sun and catching a tan with my friends.
Person 3: Also, during the spring, it's very nice. We got nice trade winds coming in. We call it Kona trade winds. And compared to mainland America, I can't complain.
Person 4: The part of New Zealand that has the worst weather is Wellington, I think, because of the wind. And all of the houses are on the mountains. So when the wind comes, all the houses get the worst part of the weather. And actually, my Japanese teacher was walking down the street and got hit by lightning in Wellington through her umbrella.
Person 4: And the part of the country that has the best weather, I think, is where I live, which is the Bay of Islands. It's mostly subtropical, but I think it was more near tropical. Yeah, that's about it.
Person 5: I don't know if you've been to the Lake District in the northwest of England, but it probably has the best and the worst weather. It can be miserable and grey and rainy and really just the wettest and dampest place in the country. But then when the sun comes out, everything is green and beautiful. And that's why it's such a popular place for people to go walking and camping and hiking, because when it's good, it's really, really beautiful there.