After the Party

Bess: I say, who’s the boy I’ve been dancing with most of the time? He introduced himself but I didn’t catch the name.

Julie: Do you mean the lean stooping fellow with an awkward gait, a piercing look and a mop of sandy hair?

Bess: The one I mean isn’t like that at all. He’s tall and slender with a graceful carriage, earnest eyes and smooth blond hair.

Julie: So that’s the way he strikes you, isn’t it? Well, that’s Will, my first cousin.

Bess: Is he? Julie, say honestly, do you really find him as plain as you’ve made him out?

Julie: I was just joking. Will takes after his father, my uncle Alex, who is still very handsome, even though bald and rather stern-looking.

Bess: And as to his stooping, it was natural when dancing with a small person like myself, so much shorter than he, wasn’t it?

Julie: Well, it’s funny, but Will came up to me and asked: ‘Who’s that little bright-eyed girl with dimples in her cheeks?’

Bess: He didn’t!

Julie: He did. And he said you were the prettiest girl here.

Bess: He can’t possibly have meant it . Jane was certainly the beauty of the party.

Julie: Jane? Don’t make me laugh. Perhaps she wouldn’t look so bad if she hadn’t put on so much weight. As it is, she’s positively fat and looks rather old for her age.

Bess: No, not fat, she’s just plump. And she has wonderfully regular features and a lovely complexion.

Julie: Lovely complexion indeed! With all that powder and lipstick on you don’t see much of her natural complexion. Anyhow, I quite agree with Will that you’re much more attractive than Jane, especially now, when you wear your hair shoulder length parted in the middle.

Bess: Nice of you to say that.

Julie: Would you care to come and see me next Saturday? I’ll invite Will and two or three other girls and boys.

Bess: I’d love to, I’ll be looking forward to it. And now I’m off. Goodbye for the present.

Julie: See you again soon.

What does she (he) look like?

Handsome, ugly, attractive, plain, good-looking, near-sighted, long-sighted, beautiful, pretty.

Face:

long, oval, round, thin, square, fleshy, puffy, wrinkled, pasty, pimpled, freckled, pock-marked, sunburned, tanned, browned, clean-shaven

Features:

clean-cut, delicate, forceful, regular, irregular, large, massive, small, stern

Smile:

charming, engaging, pleasant, pleased, happy, sweet, broad, cunning, faint, ironical, sad, strained, wry, enigmatic, winning

Complexion:

dark, fair, pale, sallow, healthy

Skin:

delicate, rough, dark, rosy

Nose:

aquiline, flat, turned up, curved, hooked, snub-nosed, fleshy, a blob of nose, peak-pointed, straight

Lips:

full, thick, rosy, painted, parted, parched

Cheeks:

chubby, plump, hollow, sunken, pale, pink, rouged, ruddy, stubby (unshaven), wrinkled, dimples in one’s cheeks

Mouth:

firm, large, big, small, stern, resolute, toothless, strong, vivid, clean-shaven

Figure:

stooping, fat, paunchy, plump, stout, well-fed, lathy, lean (mostly about men), slender, slim (about a woman), slight, neat (mostly about women), graceful, solidly-built, tall, broad-shouldered, short, long-legged, long-armed

Eyebrows:

arched, bushy, penciled, penthouse, shaggy

Forehead:

broad, doomed, high (tall), large, open, low, narrow, retreating

Hair:

black, jet-black, dark, brown, auburn, fair, blond, golden, red, reddish, gray, ash-blond, grizzling (grizzled), crisp, waved, curled, curly, lank (straight), thick, abundant, scanty (thin), short, sleek (smooth), silky, luxuriant, long, dyed, bobbed (shingled), bald, braids (plaits), permanent wave, rich, a brunette (only about women)

she wears her hair: parted in the middle (on the left/ on the right), combed back, done-in-a-knot, in plaits, shoulder length, a wig

to part one’s hair in the middle ......., to have one’s hair done (trimmed), hair-do, hair-style

Teeth:

close-set, even, uneven, large, small, sparse

Chin:

double, pointed, protruding, round, massive

Eyes:

kind, good, warm, blue, brown, hazel, gray, steel-gray, green, bulging, close-set, deep-set, slanted, sunken; to be blue-eyed, cross-eyed

Eyelashes:

curving, straight, long, thick, thin

Additional phrases: to hold oneself upright, to keep oneself erect, a mop of hair, to take after smb, to put on weight, to grow thinner, to look old (young) for one’s age, to look one’s age, to be as like as two peas, to be a picture of health, You can’t judge a book from its cover, To throw dust in one’s eyes