Hello again, and welcome back to LuLu's Happy Hour!欢迎你回到璐璐的小酒馆！
In the past couple of days, I've got a few requests asking for an episode about snow. And it just suddenly dawned on me that apart from Beijing, many cities in China have been experiencing snowfall in the past week. So whether you are sitting in a comfort of your home, watching the snow outside or you are actually out, enjoying the snowy world or you are like me secretly hoping to see those delicate snowflakes, this is an episode for you. So the topic of the day is snow. 今天小酒馆里的关键词就是snow。
And in today's episode we are gonna look at how to describe snow and what we can do on a snowy day , and also some interesting and useful idioms and phrases relating to snow and ice. We've learned the word snow since very early on, since we were in school. But how to describe it? A very important word here is snowflakes(雪花). Sometimes, people say it in English,"No two snowflakes are alike", it means each snow flake is unique, just like everyone of us, we are all unique in our own way, like a delicate snowflake. We use the word snowfall to talk about snow in general, and to be more specific, you can say flurries to mean very light snow, where you can say snowflakes falling from the sky. It's a quite picturesque scenario. But of course, we experience heavier snow, for instance, snowstorm or blizzard. Snowstorm or blizzard, these are heavy snow usually with very strong wind. 暴雪，暴风雪叫 Snowstorm or blizzard, personally I like the idea of snow in general. But one thing I don't really like is sleet, I think I have mentioned it in a precious episode, sleet is a mixture of snow and rain. In some places, it doesn't really snow but it sleets, so you can say it has been sleeting all day (整天雨夹雪). Usually it's miserable, it's cold, it's wet and you don't have snow to play with by the end of it. Another thing I don't particularly like, even though I quite like snow, is when the snow starts to melt, and you get slush, slush is essentially the melting snow(融雪). You can say the snow started to melt and turned into slush. If you have experienced it, you should know when snow turns into slush, it's extremely cold, much colder than when it is snowing, and also the ground is really wet, and sometimes you have the bad luck of stepping into the slush and it makes your shoes all wet. So we talk about snowfall, flurries, snowstorm, blizzard, sleet and slush, and of course snowflakes.

Now, let's move on the fun stuff. What we can do when it's snowing. For most of us, snow is a very rare experience and sports and games we can play relating to snow or a snowy day. First of all, two sports, both are getting more and more popular these days. One is ski(滑雪), a very special word because it ends with'i' , ski [ski]. So the sport is called skiing [ˈski:ɪŋ]. not [skin], but [ˈski:ɪŋ]. You can say I love skiing. Another sport would be snowboard(滑雪板). If I'm being completely honest, I haven't tried skiing or snowboarding, but I really would like to try them. For those of you who are equally interested or have tried it, there is a cute word for skiing, the word is snow bunny, bunny is a rabbit, snow bunny usually are girls who just started to learn how to ski. The can't really control their movement yet, so they're kind of like bunnies and they're hoping under snow, they are called snow bunnies. For most of us, what we can do is we can make a snow man(堆雪人), or even have a snowball fight(打雪仗). One thing you probably don't see very often in China or hear very often in China is a snow angel(雪天使), and this is a very popular children's game in parts of English speaking countries where there is a lot of snow. The way to make a snow angel is when there is fresh snow, you lie on your back in the snow and then you stretch your arms and legs and you start moving your arms up and down and your legs from side to side to form the shape of an angel(躺在地上呈大字形的摊开，然后挥动手脚在雪地上画出天使的形状). Make a snow angel. One of the crazy things I have tried a few years ago was on a snowy day, I went to the The Forbidden City, 去了故宫，because there was heavy snow, not that many people were there, so not only did I get to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the Place, I got to make a snow angel in the fresh snow. And one more activity you can do on a snowy day might not be that much fun, but it's quite necessary is to shovel snow(铲雪). Obviously to clear the path, for everyone else, you need to shovel snow.
Moving on from what we can do to useful idioms and phrases, the first one is called snowball effect(滚雪球效应). I think we say the same in Chinese, when things start to increase at a faster and faster speed, it's called a snowball effect. For instance, you can say 'Her debts started to snowball', if she keeps borrowing money and never pays it back. Then her debts started to snowball, starts to get more and more at a faster rate.那这里我喜欢我的粉丝数量也starts to snowball. The second phrase is to be snowed under. Imagine that you are under a huge pile of snow, you would feel a lot of pressure, right? This is exactly what the phase means. To be snowed under means to be under a lot of work and to have a lot of pressure. You can say I have been so snowed under with work(完全不胜任工作的重负). In Chinese, when we describe someone innocent and pure, we used the word 冰清玉洁, we would use jade and ice. In English there is a similar image but instead of ice they use the word snow, as pure as the driven snow. As pure as the driven snow means someone is so pure and innocent, they are like the fresh snow. However, you have to be very careful, because in English this is usually used in an ironic way(很多时候都是用于讽刺的). For instance, we can say 'Yeah, I'm sure she is as pure as the driven snow'. Listen to my tone, this is actually meant the opposite way(其实是在说反话，哼，好像她有多冰清玉洁一样). I'm sure she is as pure as the driven snow. So keep this irony in mind. In the end, LuLu will throw in two more idioms with ice, because when we talk about snow, we also would talk about ice. The first very common expression is 'Break the ice'. Break the ice, usually we break the ice when there is uncomfortable silence,打破沉默break the ice. Think about the first day you are in a new class or at a new job or with a group of people you have never met before, then usually you will need an icebreaker, a joke, a story, a game, an activity that would help break the ice, 一个打破沉默的话题或者活动，都可以叫icebreaker. Usually with my new class on the very first day I meet them, I will organize a game as an icebreaker. The other idiom about ice is to be on thin ice. In Chinese, we have exactly the same, 如履薄冰。Generally means you are in a very risky situation, we can say the boss is watching you, you have to behave yourself because you are walking on thin ice at the moment.
So, that's the end of today's episode, we have looked at how to describe snow or we can do with snow, and some phrases and idioms about snow and ice, and to finish off today's episode, here is a piece of music, that is voted as classic, and one of the most popular songs for a snowy winter day. This is from The Mamas and Papas 'California Dreaming''. I hope you enjoy today's episode, if you like my show, please don't forget to follow and subscribe and share with your friends. I'm waiting for you in a comment section, so feel free to share with us your snowy day adventures. See you next time, bye!

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