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  • Hi, Bob the Canadian here,

  • welcome to this little English lesson about an ice storm.

  • We're currently having an ice storm here in Ontario, Canada, and

  • I thought this would be a great opportunity to come outside

  • and teach you some English words and phrases about ice.

  • (gentle guitar music)

  • Well hey, welcome to this video about an ice storm.

  • If this is your first time here,

  • don't forget to click that red subscribe button below,

  • give me a thumbs up at some point during this video

  • if it's helping you learn English.

  • Well, we're having a little bit of freezing rain

  • here in Ontario, Canada.

  • This is what we would call an ice storm.

  • If you look at the branch behind me,

  • maybe I'll give you a closer view,

  • you'll notice that we are getting rain,

  • but at the same time, it is below zero.

  • It is about minus one degree Celsius.

  • So as we get rain coming down,

  • when it lands on different surfaces it freezes,

  • and we have what we would call an ice storm.

  • So let me show you a few things that you will see,

  • and let me teach you a few English phrases

  • and words that you would use in an ice storm.

  • I know this isn't going to be a video

  • that everyone finds useful,

  • because many of you live in parts of the world

  • where there is no ice,

  • but let's have a look around anyways,

  • I think you'll enjoy the views.

  • So I don't want to stand too close to this tree,

  • because what you can see here is that the branches

  • are covered in ice and what makes this dangerous

  • is that the entire tree is covered in ice,

  • and as the ice forms it makes the tree very heavy.

  • You can actually hear this tree behind me

  • cracking a little bit,

  • because the wind is blowing the branches,

  • and some of the branches have even started

  • to fall off the tree.

  • So one of dangerous things about an ice storm

  • is the ice weighs down the branches of the tree,

  • and some of branches will actually crack

  • and fall off later today, so,

  • not a good day to stand under trees.

  • So I thought, since we're out in an ice storm,

  • I should teach you some phrases

  • that have the word ice in them.

  • The first phrase that comes to mind,

  • the first phrase I can think of is to break the ice.

  • When you break the ice with someone,

  • you're not actually stepping on ice.

  • You are doing things that help you get to know each other,

  • so that you can have a conversation.

  • For many of you, you'll want to learn

  • how to break the ice with someone,

  • in order to have an English conversation with them.

  • A good way to break the ice is to just

  • ask how someone's doing, maybe tell a small joke,

  • or ask about the weather,

  • that's a great way to break the ice

  • to start a conversation with someone

  • that maybe you haven't met before.

  • So one of the things that happens during an ice storm

  • is the rain lands on our vehicles and it freezes.

  • So you can see here that this is a lot different

  • than what we saw during the snow storm a few weeks back.

  • Right now my van is covered in ice.

  • Tomorrow when I have to go somewhere,

  • I will have to start my van early to warm it up.

  • It's very hard to scrape this ice off,

  • even with an ice scraper,

  • but one of the things you will see during an ice storm

  • is a lot of vehicles get covered in a thin layer of ice.

  • Another thing that happens during an ice storm,

  • which might not be very easy for you to see is that

  • surfaces become like skating rinks.

  • In fact we will often say during an ice storm,

  • it's like a skating rink out there.

  • A skating rink is a place where you go,

  • and you put on skates and you skate.

  • But you can see my driveway behind me,

  • there is a sheet of ice.

  • If you remember in the video in the snow storm,

  • I said there was a blanket of snow,

  • when we have an ice storm,

  • we get what we call a sheet of ice.

  • So it's kind of shiny because my driveway

  • is actually very slippery right now.

  • It is literally a sheet of ice.

  • I could probably slide on it if I tried.

  • Nope, it's not quite that slippery yet.

  • Another English phrase with the word ice in it

  • is as cold as ice.

  • We sometimes use this to describe someone.

  • It's the opposite of describing someone

  • as being a warm person.

  • So we also will say someone is a very warm person,

  • usually like a grandmother,

  • or an older person is very warm and friendly.

  • But if we say someone is as cold as ice,

  • it is the opposite.

  • It means that they are not a very kind person,

  • they don't smile a lot,

  • and maybe they're even a little bit mean.

  • Because the precipitation today is coming down as rain,

  • it actually drips on surfaces,

  • and then it forms icicles.

  • You can see here that we have some

  • really cool icicles that are forming.

  • On my tractor you can see that there is a row of icicles.

  • So there is a lot of beauty during an ice storm,

  • in fact, I think today I might go out

  • and take a few pictures,

  • I'm just looking over there because a branch

  • just fell off the tree.

  • But we have icicles forming on

  • a number of different surfaces.

  • They're really cool.

  • As a kid I used to go out and get icicles

  • and then I would eat them.

  • Tastes pretty good.

  • So I'm not planning to go anywhere today,

  • but I'm really happy because

  • the same tires that make it safer to drive in snow

  • also make it safer to drive on ice.

  • Not totally safe, but it is nice to have snow tires

  • on my van if I did have to go somewhere on a day like this.

  • So I mentioned earlier that the branches on the trees

  • are becoming heavy because they have ice on them.

  • The same will happen to our power lines.

  • So in fact, right now in the house,

  • we are making sure that we are charging

  • all of our flashlights,

  • because when you get ice on power lines like this,

  • the weight of the ice can make the power lines fall,

  • and you can have a power outage.

  • In English we say power outage to indicate a time

  • when we have no working electricity

  • in our homes or at our businesses.

  • So I'm not sure how well you can see it, but up here,

  • there is ice and icicles forming on the power line,

  • so it is incredibly dangerous on a day like this,

  • because power lines can fall,

  • and that sometimes results in a power outage.

  • I really hope the power doesn't go out today though,

  • 'cause I wanna finish editing this video.

  • I thought this branch was pretty cool.

  • Another English phrase with the word ice in it

  • is to put something on ice.

  • When we say in English that we're going to

  • put something on ice,

  • it means that we are going to put it on hold.

  • Maybe you are doing a certain project at work,

  • and you might put that project on ice.

  • That would mean that you are not going to work on it

  • for just a little bit.

  • So when you put something on ice,

  • it means you are putting it on hold.

  • So I just wanted to stop and show you this tree here.

  • Ice storms can create some really

  • beautiful things to look at,

  • this tree is completely covered in ice right now,

  • even the small berries on the tree are covered in ice,

  • and it's just really cool in an ice storm

  • to walk around and look at all of the things

  • that are covered in ice.

  • Let me give you a closer look.

  • So these puddles don't have any ice on them yet,

  • but I wanted to teach you another English phrase,

  • and that phrase is on thin ice.

  • When you are on thin ice,

  • it usually means you've done a couple of things wrong,

  • maybe at work, and if you do one more thing wrong,

  • you will probably be fired.

  • So when you're on thin ice,

  • it means you've made a few mistakes,

  • and if you make another one,

  • you will probably lose your job,

  • or someone will be very very annoyed with you.

  • So try in your life to never be

  • on thin ice with other people.

  • You wanna see something really cool?

  • Here's some icicles on this wagon.

  • Well hey, thank you so much for watching this English lesson

  • where we learned a few words and phrases about an ice storm,

  • and we learned a few English phrases that use the word ice.

  • I hope this video helped you learn

  • just a little bit more English.

  • I'm Bob the Canadian, if you are new here,

  • don't forget to click that red subscribe button below,

  • and give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn

  • just a little bit of English.

  • I almost slipped just now, by the way,

  • it's very, very slippery.

  • Oh, did I teach you that word?

  • When something is slippery, in English,

  • it means it's easy to slide on it, and lose your balance.

  • It's pretty slippery right now.

  • Anyways, Bob the Canadian here, have a great day.

  • (gentle guitar music)

Hi, Bob the Canadian here,

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