Read two letters to a youth magazine and express your opinion about them. What advice could you give to these people?
“My friend has strict parents who do not like him going out to the disco. He wants me to lie for him by telling his mum that he is at my house. I don’t want to lie, but I don’t want to let him down either. What can I do? I want to help but do you think he is pushing things too far?”
“There has been a series of thefts of property and money in our group, and various things seem to have disappeared. The police have been called in, they were looking into the problem but so far nobody has been punished. The other day I called on my best friend. He was out and his mother asked me to wait in his room. As I was waiting for him to turn up, I started looking around and suddenly came across a couple of things stolen a week before. I went hot and cold. I didn’t know what to do, and when my friend finally came I said nothing. I don’t want to lose my friend or to break up his family – he already has enough trouble with his dad. On the other hand, theft is a serious crime. If I turn the blind eye, I will be letting down my other group mates. What shall I do?”
Try the following ideas on and say if you agree or disagree with the statements?
You feel safe with good friends because they never say anything that hurts you.
You need to think carefully about what you say to a good friend.
Being with a good friend is a comfort because you can say what you want.
Good friends never worry about anything that you say to them.
A good friend is someone you can count on and who will always be there when you need him.
Upper-intermediate level
Describing people: appearance
Hair, face, skin and complexion
What sort of person would you find attractive? Blonde, fair, dark or ginger-haired/red-haired?
She has such beautiful auburn hair! [red-brown]
Fair and dark can be used for hair, complexion or skin.
Height and build
Fat may sound impolite. Instead we often say a bit overweight. If someone is broad and solid, we can say they are stocky. A person with good muscles can be well-built or muscular. If someone is terribly thin and refuses to eat, they may be anorexic.
General appearance
She`s a very smart and elegant woman, always well-dressed; her husband is quite the opposite, very scruffy and untidy-looking/messy-looking.
He`s very good-looking, but his friend`s rather unattractive.
Do you think beautiful women are always attracted to handsome men? I don’t. I think personality matters most.
First impressions are always important.
Describing people: character
Intellectual ability
Ability: intelligent bright clever sharp shrewd able gifted talented brainy (colloquial)
Lacking ability: stupid foolish half-witted simple silly brainless daft dumb dim (the last four are predominantly colloquial words)
Clever, in a negative way, using brains to trick or deceive: cunning crafty sly
Attitudes towards life
Frank is pessimistic while Helen is optimistic – he always expects the worst to happen while she looks on the bright side.
It is strange that one of the twins is so extroverted while the other is so introverted – Ben loves being the focus of attention while Bill would far rather be alone with his thoughts.
I feel very tense (or wound-up/stressed-out) after a very busy day at work but, after a hot bath and a cup of tea, I`ll soon feel relaxed.
Jane is very sensible – she`d never do anything stupid. In other words, she`s very practical and down-to-earth.
Rupert is very sensitive – he gets very upset (or worked-up [more colloquial]), if he feels people are criticizing him.
Attitude towards other people
Enjoying other`s company: sociable gregarious
Disagreeing with others: quarrelsome argumentative
Taking pleasure in other`s pain: cruel sadistic
Relaxed in attitude to self and others: easy-going even-tempered laid-back
Not polite to others: impolite rude ill-mannered discourteous
Telling the truth to others: honest trustworthy reliable sincere
Unhappy if others have what one does not have oneself: jealous envious
One person`s meat is another person`s poison
Some characteristics can be either positive or negative depending on your point of view. The words in the right-hand column mean roughly the same as the words in the left-hand column except that they have negative rather than positive connotations.
determined
|
|
obstinate stubborn pig-headed
|
PRACTICE