Pronunciation

2 Listen and repeat. Brainstorm and add 5 more words to each sound.

[æ] fat, handsome

[u] good-looking, moustache, brunette, tattoo

[i] slim, skin, pretty, medium

[Λ] ugly, muscular

[o] tall, short, blonde, broad

[ə:] curly

[ei] wavy, plain, straight, overweight

[ai] light, height

[eə] hair, fair

[au] brown

[ou] shoulder

[iə] beard

[] moustache, shoulder

Oral exercises

3 Practice the following sentences with the words given below until you can say them fluently.

a) he / his: He has lost his way.

I / my, you / your, she / her, we / our, they / their.

b) long: Maria has long hair.

short, wavy, curly, straight, dark, fair, red.

c) short: My brother is short.

tall, slim, overweight, of medium built, of medium height.

4 Say what the prominent features of the people in the pictures are.

a) b) c)

Example: She has long wavy hair.

d) e) f)

5 Complete the sentences in a suitable way (more than one answer is possible).

Example: She has blonde ____. – She has blonde hair.

1. He has very fair ______ .

2. They both have curly ______ .

3. I would say he was of medium ______ .

4. Her brother has got very broad _______ .

5. Last time I saw him he had grown a _______ .

6. He has very muscular _______ .

7. Both men were very good _______ .

8. All of them have dark _______.

6 Replace the underlined unsuitable words in the following sentences with suitable words. Some words are unsuitable because it is impolite to describe people with these words unless you don’t like them.

Example: He told me he met a handsome girl in the disco last night. –

handsome → beautiful

1. She’s beautiful but her younger sister is really quite ugly.

2. I think Peter is getting a bit fat, don’t you?

3. Most people want to stay slim, but not as skinny as that girl over there.

4. I think she’s hoping she’ll meet a few beautiful men at the tennis club.

7 Ask your neighbor the following questions.

1. How tall are you?

2. How would you describe your built?

3. What kind of hair do you have?

4. What color is it?

5. Do you think you have any special features?

6. Do you like bearded men?

7. Can you think of a famous woman you would describe as beautiful, and a famous man you would describe as good-looking?

8 Describe the physical features of the person sitting next to you.

9 When describing people which of the following characteristics do you usually include?

Characteristics	Description
a) Age:	baby, toddler, child, teenager, adolescent, middle-aged, elderly
b) Physical appearance:	thin, slim, small-built, medium-built, well-built, muscular, plump, overweight, obese
c) Height:	tall, medium / average height, short
d) Race:	Black, Asian, Mediterranean, Hispanic, Arab, White
e) Sex/gender:	female, male, woman, man, girl, boy
f) Eye color:	black, brown, blue, grey, green, hazel
g) Hair color:	red, black, dark brown, light brown, blonde, white, grey, highlights
h) Hair type:	long, short, shoulder length, straight, curly, wavy, bald
i) Hair style:	plait, spiky, bobbed, pony-tail, shaved
j) Facial hair:	full beard, moustache, thick eyebrows, plucked eyebrows, clean shaven, unshaven
k) Dress:	smart, well dressed, fashionably dressed, badly dressed, conservatively dressed