Seasons and Months

Magazines

Magazine is one of the major mass media. Magazine is a collection of articles and stories. Usually magazines also contain illustrations.

The earliest magazines developed from newspapers and booksellers catalogs. Such catalogs first appeared during the 1600'sin France.

Magazines provide information on a wide range of topics such as business, culture, hobbies, medicine, religion, science, and sports. Some magazines entertain their readers with fiction, poetry, photography or articles about TV, or movie stars. Magazines are designed to be kept for a longer time in comparison to newspapers and that is why they are printed on a better paper and have covers. Magazines, unlike newspapers, do not focus on daily, rapidly changing events.

There are specialized magazines intended for special business, industrial and professional groups, and consumer magazines intended for general public. There are several kinds of consumer magazines.

Children's magazines contain stories, jokes, articles on subjects especially interesting for children and instructions for making games or useful items. Hobby magazines are intended for collectors of coins, stamps, and other items; people interested in certain sports or games; photography enthusiasts. Intellectual magazines provide analysis of current cultural and political events. Many of them publish fiction and poetry as well. Men’s magazines focus on such topics as adventure, entertainment, men's fashion and sports.

Women's magazines deal with child-raising, fashion trends, romance. They offer ideas on cooking and home decorating. Many of the monthlies with big circulations are women's magazines.

A year is the average time it takes for the Earth to go once round the Sun. There are 12 months or 52 weeks or 365 days in year. Every four years there is a leap year. It has 366 days. The names of the months are: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. The days of the weeks are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. There are 7 days in a week, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in a hour and 60 seconds in a minute.

There are four season in the year – spring, summer, autumn and winter.

The Sun rises in the east in the morning and sets in the west in the evening. We tell the time by means of watches and clocks. Big Ben is the clock on the Tower of the Houses of Parliament in London.

In the times of Julius Caesar the first month of the year was March, which is now the third month. Now the first month of the year is January. It is very cold in January. The second month is February. It has twenty-eight days. Every leap year February adds on a twenty-ninth day.

The third month – March is the first month of Spring. In spring the days grow longer and the weather becomes warmer. Spring like any other season has three months.

June, July and August are the summer months of which July and August are the hottest ones. In summer I often go to see my friend, who live in the country. When my vacation is over, I return to my native town.

In autumn the days grow shorter. The weather is bad. It often rains.

December is the twelfth and last month of the year. At the same time it is the first month of winter. There is usually much snow in winter. It’s windy and frosty. But children can making a showman.

Vocabulary:

Leap year – високосний рік