Exercise 13

I. Translate into Russian the following bits from the same book by J. R. R.

Tolkien.

1. They had been two days in this country when the weather turned wet. The wind began to blow steadily out of the West and pour the water of the distant seas (...) in fine drenching rain. By nightfall they were all soaked.

2. But before long the snow was falling fast, filling all the air, and swirling into Frodo's eyes.

While they were halted, the wind died down, and the snow slackened until it almost ceased. (...) But they had not gone more than a furlong when the storm returned with fresh fury. The wind whistled and the snow became a blinding blizzard.

3. Nothing happened that night worse than a brief drizzle of rain an hour before dawn. (...) Already the fog was thinning. (...) In the mid-morning the clouds drew down lower, and it began to rain heavily.

4. The sky was utterly dark, and the stillness of the heavy air foreboded the storm. Suddenly the clouds were seared by a blinding flash. Branched lighting smote dawn upon the east­ward hills.

5. The thunder was rumbling in the distance now. The light­ning flickered still, far off among the mountains in the South. A keen wind was blowing from the North again. The clouds were torn and drifting, and stars peeped out.

6. The hurrying darkness, now gathering speed, rushed up from the East and swallowed the sky. There was a dry splitting crack of thunder right overhead. Searing lightning smote down into the hills. Then came a blast of savage wind.

7. There was another crack of thunder, and then the rain came. In a blinding sheet, mingled with hail, it drove against the cliff, bitter cold.

II. Using some of the underlined words or expressions describe a rain­storm or a snowstorm you were caught in once.