Grab Your Umbrellas
It looked like rain. The sky was gray. It was almost noon, but the sun was hidden by a gray blanket. It was cool. There were no birds flying anywhere. A couple of birds sat on the telephone wire. Bob was standing outside talking to Bill. They both had their hands in their pockets. They knew that it was probably going to rain shortly. A sudden breeze blew some leaves off a tree onto the sidewalk.
A young woman wearing a dark blue coat and jeans walked by. She was walking a small dog. It was pure white, and pretty. It sniffed at a tree trunk. The woman waited patiently. Finally, the dog lifted its leg.
Bob said that he liked the rain. It was a nice change from the usual hot Los Angeles weather. And the plants could always use the extra water. Bill said the only thing he didn’t like about rain was that all the motor oil on the streets would get washed into the ocean, and so would all the trash.
"But that never stops the surfers," Bob said. "They don’t seem to care what’s in the water, as long as there are waves to surf on."
Vocubularies with examples:

a)blanket:1) a cover for a bed, usually made of wool.
2) a thick covering or area of something.
*blanket of
The hills were covered with a blanket of snow.
*blanket of fog/cloud
3)something that makes it hard for you to find information or the truth about something
*blanket of
The trial was held under a blanket of secrecy.

b) breeze: a gentle wind:
flowers waving in the breeze.
c) hide: to deliberately put or keep something or someone in a place where they cannot easily be seen or found.
Marcia hid the pictures in her desk drawer.

d) jeans: trousers made of denim (=a strong, usually blue, cotton cloth).

e) leaf(noun): one of the flat green parts of a plant that are joined to its stem or branches:
a flowering bush with large shiny leaves.

Leaf(verb):
leaf through something (phrasal verb)
to turn the pages of a book quickly, without reading it properly [= skim through]:
She picked up the magazine and leafed through it.

f) lift: move something upwards also lift up [transitive] to move something or someone upwards into the air:
Sophie lifted the phone before the second ring.

g) probably: used to say that something is likely to happen, likely to be true etc:
It will probably take about a week.

f) sidewalk: American English
a hard surface or path at the side of a street for people to walk on [= pavement British English].

g) sniff: to breathe air into your nose noisily, for example when you are crying or have a cold:
Margaret sniffed miserably and nodded.
Stop sniffing and blow your nose.

h) trash: American English things that you throw away, such as empty bottles, used papers, food that has gone bad etc [= rubbish British English]

Will someone take out the trash (=take it outside the house)?
Just put it in the trash.

i) trunk:1) (tree) the thick central woody stem of a tree:
He left his bicycle leaning against a tree trunk.
trunk of
the trunk of an old oak tree.
2)car American English the part at the back of a car where you can put bags, tools etc [= boot British English]
Put your suitcase in the trunk.

j) umbrella: an object that you use to protect yourself against rain or hot sun. It consists of a circular folding frame covered in cloth [↪ parasol]:
It started to rain, so Tricia stopped to put up her umbrella.
I spent the day on the beach, lying under abeach umbrella, reading.