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WotD: Warm spell
Winter is back again.
The southern parts of Japan just enjoyed a lovely warm spell for a few days.
Unfortunately, Hokkaido and the northern parts of the main Japanese island never had an opportunity to enjoy it.
They never got out of the depth of winter, and now Japan will be experiencing its version of a polar vortex this weekend.
Now that I’ve put it into context, you probably better understand what a warm spell is.
It’s a period of unusually warm weather.
You may, however, need clarification on the usage of the word spell.
In building up your English language skills, you’ve more than likely realized that English words are not always what they seem to be.
English words often have entirely different meanings depending on the situation.
Yes, the word spell can mean to put the letters of a word into their correct order.
This is the definition that most students are familiar with.
Another possible meaning is ‘a spell,’ a period during which you do another activity or rest.
When I was a child, cutting firewood in the forest with my father, his friends, and their sons, we didn’t take a break; we took a spell.
The critical thing to understand about this meaning of spell is that the length of time is not set.
It could be long or short, whatever you want it to be.
What I can tell you is that it’s common to say a warm spell, but if the weather suddenly turns cold for a while and you feel like you’re going to freeze your butt off, we call it a cold snap.
To segue to another related topic, I have to say it was a pleasant surprise that the warm spell in Japan coincided with the beginning of baseball spring training.
It’s great to see the boys of summer greeted by a taste of spring when they finally come out of hibernation.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 70.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.