Fall in Ontario

Hello and welcome to the tenth article in the series "Postcards from Toronto". These articles are written to help you learn about life in and around Toronto and teach you some useful vocabulary and expressions for improving your spoken and written English skills.

Fall is coming, the nights are getting longer and the temperature is dropping (1) _______________. For many people, fall, or autumn as it is sometimes called, is a depressing season. Such people tend to focus on the fact that winter will soon be here. However, of course fall has many advantages, especially in Ontario. Probably the most famous part of fall is the beautiful colours of the leaves. In Canada people tend to talk about ‘fall foliage' (foliage is a formal word for leaves), ‘fall colours' or ‘autumn colours'. In the USA, (2) _______________ says ‘fall' not ‘autumn', and the word ‘colours' is spelled without a ‘u': ‘colors'.

If you are staying in Toronto during the fall, you should take the opportunity to see some of the beautiful fall colours. In Toronto itself there are numerous parks and ravines that you can visit. My (3) _______________ is to visit High Park, in the western part of the city and Scarborough Bluffs, on the shore of Lake Ontario in Scarborough. Both of these parks are (4) _______________ public transport, though High Park is easier to reach. Take a walk around these parks one sunny fall day and enjoy the sun shining on the scarlet, red, yellow, gold and amber leaves. Don't forget your camera! Visit the "Toronto parks website" for more information about parks you can visit.

If you can go away from Toronto for a couple of days or (5) _______________ , there are also numerous places you can visit north, east and west of Toronto to see amazing fall foliage. Algonquin Park, of course, is probably the most famous place to visit and probably also the most spectacular. The Georgian Bay area, around Collingwood and the Blue Mountains, is also famous and is accessible by Greyhound bus. There are also many great driving routes in the countryside around Toronto. "Check the internet for more information" : many websites are (6) _______________ providing (7) _______________ information on the current fall colour situation.

During fall in Ontario, the weather is likely to be quite mild, (8) _______________ about 10 to 20 degrees centigrade. However, the weather is (9) _______________ in this season, especially if you go north of Toronto, so make sure you have a sweater and a toque in your bag (‘toque' is a Canadian English word for a special type of hat). Towards the end of the season, the temperature can (10) _______________ , and there is usually some snow in Toronto by the end of November. So, enjoy the fall colours while you can!

Vocabulary Challenge
Choose the most natural answer from each pair of answers to complete the article.

(1) day by day / day and day
(2) almost of everyone / almost everyone
(3) personal recommendation / personal suggestion
(4) accessing by / accessible by
(5) a long weekend / a lengthy weekend
(6) devoted to / devoted for
(7) updated / up-to-the-minute
(8) ranging for / ranging from
(9) quite changeable / quite changing
(10) drop quite quickly / drop quite sharply