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A. Study the vocabulary from Exercises B, E.
| island | a piece of land completely surrounded by water |
| isle | a word for an island, used in poetry or in names of islands: the British Isles |
| peninsula | a piece of land almost completely surrounded by water but joined to a large mass of land |
| mainland | the main area of land that forms a country, as compared to islands near it that are also part of that country |
| coast | the area where the land meets the sea |
| off the coast | in the sea near the land |
| latitude | the distance north or south of the equator measured in degrees |
| mild | not to cold or wet, and sometimes pleasantly warm |
| temperate/moderate | a type of weather that is never very hot or very cold |
| extreme n | something that goes beyond normal limits, so that it seems very unusual and unacceptable |
| rainfall | the amount of rain that falls on an area in a particular period of time |
| spell n | a period of a particular kind of activity, weather etc, usually a short period: sunny spell |
| shower | a short period of rain or snow |
| gale | a very strong wind |
B. Read and translate the text.
The British Islesis the geographical term for a group of about 5,000 islands off the north-west coast of mainland Europe. The largest island is Britain or Great Britain, which is also the largest island in Europe. It consists of England (south eastern part), Wales (south western part) and Scotland (northern part). The next largest island is Ireland, which is made up of Northern Ireland (or Ulster) and the Irish Republic (also known as Eire). Britain and Northern Ireland, together with a number of small islands, form the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland, more commonly known as the United Kingdom. With a total population of 58 million people the UK ranks about fifteenth in the world.
Britain has a generally mild, temperate climate. The weather, however, tends to be very changeable as a result of constant influence of different air masses. South-western winds bring warm air from the Atlantic. There are few extremes in temperature, which rarely goes above 32˚C or below - 10˚C. In summer southern Britain is warmer than northern Britain because of its latitude but, in winter a warm sea current keeps the west milder than the east. Consequently Wales and the south-west peninsula have the most moderate climate and eastern England is the most extreme. The west and the north of Britain get more annual rainfall than its eastern and central parts. The reason is that western areas are more mountainous and higher than the rest of the country and therefore they get more rain.
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