It’s raining cheer – The Hindu (June 04, 2016)
For the first time in three years, the India Meteorological Department has projected that the monsoon rains will be above normal. Rainfall during the June to September southwest monsoon season is forecast to be 106 per cent of the long period average, with a margin of error of 4 per cent. Coming as the forecast does after two years of an acute drought that has turned large swathes of the hinterland into parched dust bowls, and a scorching summer that has sent the mercury soaring past records in many regions, the prospect of abundant rains is obviously cause for cheer. For further reading, visit “The Hindu”.
Today’s Words:
- Swathe (noun) – a long strip (of land).
- Hinterland (noun) – remote areas, undeveloped regions, backwoods.
- Parched (adjective) – dried up, water less, scorched, thirsty.
- Dust bowl (noun) – dried farming land without enough rain/water, waste land.
- Scorching (adjective) – very hot, sweltering, torrid.
- Abundant (adjective) – plentiful, bountiful, large quantities.
- Peninsular (adjective) – describing a part of land surrounded by water on its three sides, but connected to the mainland.
- Augment (verb) – increase, raise, escalate, make larger/bigger/greater.
- Inflation (noun) – Increase of price level of goods & services & vice versa decrease of currency value.
- Bountiful (adjective) – abundant, plentiful, ample,
- Upstream (adjective) – moving to the source of a river/stream. against flow of a river/ stream.
- Capricious (adjective) – unpredictable, inconsistent, changeable.
- Onset (noun) – start, beginning, arrival
- Retention (verb) – possession of something, storage, holding and keeping.
- Dug well (noun) – a well made by digging into the earth with hand tools or power machinery. (unprotected dug wells are common in rural areas)
- Aquifer (noun) – a layer of sand or rock which carries water.
Note:
- Click each one of the words above for their definition, more synonyms, pronunciation, example sentences, phrases, derivatives, origin and etc from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/ .
- Synonyms provided for the words above are my personal work and not that of Oxford University Press.
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