Weather questions look easy but reward precise description of seasons, temperatures and how the weather affects your plans or mood. Listen for comparisons and hypotheticals, which call for different grammar from a simple description.
Answer each one aloud before you read the model — two to four sentences, then stop.
Written to be spoken, at about band 8. Useful phrases are in bold. Borrow the structure and the phrases — never the whole answer.
We get long, hot summers and fairly mild winters. In the middle of summer it can be scorching, and there's a short rainy season near the end of it, when we get heavy downpours most afternoons. It rarely gets properly cold, though.
I'd say autumn. The heat finally eases off, the evenings get cooler and it's pleasant to sit outside again. It's also when a lot of local festivals take place, so there's a really lively atmosphere in the streets.
Definitely. A few grey days in a row can make me feel sluggish and a bit unmotivated. Bright, clear weather has the opposite effect: I've got much more energy, and I'm far more likely to go out and see people after work.
If it's pouring down, I'm happy to stay in, make a hot drink and catch up on a book I've been meaning to finish. The heavy rain here usually passes fairly quickly, though, so I rarely have to cancel my plans completely.
Honestly, I think summers feel hotter than they used to. I remember playing outside all afternoon as a child, whereas now it's often too hot to do that in the middle of the day. Mind you, that might just be because I spend more time indoors these days.
Surprisingly, I prefer cooler weather, even though I grew up in the heat. You can always put on another layer when it's cold, but there's not much you can do when it's sweltering and humid, apart from staying somewhere with air conditioning.
I'd probably choose somewhere with four distinct seasons, maybe a town near the mountains. I've never lived anywhere with a proper winter, so I'd love to see snow for more than a day or two, although I suspect I'd miss the sunshine fairly quickly.
Now answer them with the clock running.
Timed Part 1 practice with an AI band for each criterion.