Exercises on the additional vocabulary

1) Fill the gaps with a suitable adjective from a.

1) I find writing poetry very It helps me to get a truer understanding of myself and gives me a good feeling inside.

2) I enjoy selling the pictures I paint, but it's not very I only made £300 last year.

3) Gardening is very…………………. It reduces stress levels and calms you down.

4) I've had a partnership with Jane for several years: she plays the piano and I play the violin. It's been very good for both of us.

5) Doing unpaid work at the hospital has been a…………………………experience for me.

6) I would like to be on the club committee, but I've heard it's very………………..and I don't have a lot of free time.

2) Solve these riddles, based on words in b.

1. I am a vegetable that sits where humans sit. What am I?

2. I seldom sit and talk, I always act. What am I?

3. I am a bird that eats the flesh of art. What am I?

4 I do some of this and some of that, but never all of this or all of that. What am I?

3) Give more informal alternatives for the underlined words

1. My daughter's extremely interested in folk music. She buys a lot of folk CDs.

2. He isolates himself in his darkroom and does photography for hours on end.

3. She's totally addicted to ice hockey these days. She watches every competition on TV.

4 I have a long list of social appointments for the rest of the month.

4) Answer these questions:

1. What kind of obsessions or addictions do you personally have?

2. What word means 'a person who is obsessed with going out and buying things'?

3. Using the same construction, what could you call a person who is obsessed with / addicted to the following? a) working all the time b) sport c) eating chocolate

4 What are you? Invent a word for your obsession(s).

Supplementary reading

What you think it means to be an addict?

Are you hooked?

No one likes to admit they're an addict. They are sad creatures ruled by deadly substances such as tobacco or alcohol. But there are others less damaging to the health. Like it or not, large numbers of us are addicts. Addictions can be chemical (caffeine), emotional (shopping), physical (exercise) or downright strange - such as picking your spots! You're the odd one out if you don't have at least one everyday addiction. What do you do when you feel under pressure, bored or depressed? Get lost in the world of TV? Go shopping? Eat one bar of chocolate after another?

Becci has been a chocaholic for ten years. 'I just get an urge for it - a need,' says Becci. 'I really don't know why, it's just so delicious. People say that chocolate can make up for lost passion - I don't know about that, but I love the way it melts in my mouth.' Every day, Becci gets through several bars of her favourite Cadbury's chocolate (the one with the soft caramel centre is the best). But it's not only the bars she goes for - hot chocolate drinks and chocolate cakes are also essentials. Towards exam time, Becci feels she has to increase her intake to cope with all the work. 'If I get up late, I'll have chocolate for breakfast, then more and more during the day. I am addicted. It's like smoking, I suppose, but I have no plans to give it up. If I like it so much, why should I?'

Addiction to exercise can ruin your life - Janine learnt to her cost. ‘I was swimming at least fifty lengths a day, jogging to the gym and doing three aerobic classes a week. At home, I used an exercise bike and keep-fit videos. My husband said that I didn't have time for him, and he was right. But I couldn't believe it when he left me. Finally, I came to my senses, I wanted to get fit but it all got out of hand and my addiction ruined my marriage. Now, I'm seeing a counselor and gradually reducing the amount of exercise I do.'

Well-known Member of Parliament, Tony Benn, just can't live without his favourite drink. He has on average eighteen pints of tea a day and his addiction has raised concern about his health. When he collapsed recently, some people blamed his excessive tea drinking. Mr. Benn has calculated that, over the years, he has drunk enough tea (around 300,000 gallons) to displace an ocean-going liner. If he ever tried to stop, he would find it agonising.

Anne shopped for thirteen hours a day without leaving her living room - she was addicted to TV shopping. When she got home from her job as a nightcare worker at 8.30 a.m., Anne would immediately tune into a satellite TV shopping channel and buy everything in sight. Her home was soon an Aladdin's cave of household goods and trendy clothes she didn't need. When her cash ran out, she stole money from the elderly patients in her care and was charged with theft. 'It seemed so easy,' she says. 'I didn't realise I'd become so addicted.' Anne's family have now removed her satellite receiver.

Exercises on the text