Writing

Ex.10. Give the description of Mona Lisa’s appearance.

Ex.11. Choose one of the writing tasks below.

1. Choose a photo or a picture of a person and use it to write a description of about 200 words of the person in the same way as in the passage on Mona Lisa.

2. Write a letter of approximately 200 words to the author of the passage on Mona Lisa saying what you think of this interpretation of Mona Lisa’s character and why.

Discussion points:

1. Do you find Mona Lisa’s face attractive?

2. Do you think the idea of an attractive face has changed through the centuries?

3. How do you make your initial judgments of people? What things do you listen or look for?

4. Do you agree that people form 90% of their opinion of someone in the first 90 seconds?

5. Try to remember the moment when you first met your fellow students. What were your first impressions? Has your opinion changed?

6. What would your first impressions be if you met these people:

• A man who wears an earring in one ear.

• A woman with an earring in her nose.

• A man with a beard or moustache.

• A woman who wears heavy makeup.

• A 60-year old man with long hair.

• Someone who wears lots of jewelry.

• Someone who’s always laughing.

• Someone who bites their nails.

• Someone with red hair.

• Someone who has tattoos.

• A young lady with piercing in her nose, lips and ears.

Ex.12. Read and translate the poem. Express the main ideas of it.

Appearance

We place much on appearance.

Less on what it conceals.

Does a beautiful face

In equal measure a heart reveal?

And those with beautiful hearts,

Encased within life’s

Less than idyllic form.

A no lesser gift indeed!

By appearance and a shallow wanting

We so easily can be deceived!

Willis Martyn

Ex.13. Read and retell the following joke.

A Joke

A young man walking in the street saw a girl in front of him whose figure seemed very beautiful to him. He ran forward to look at her face, and it was beautiful too.

“I have fallen in love with you,” the young man cried. “Let me kiss your hand. I want to hold your hand forever. I want to marry you.”

“Wait!” the young woman answered. “Go and look at my sister. She is walking there in front of us, and she is more beautiful than I am.”

The young man immediately ran to look at the other woman. But finding her old and not beautiful at all, he ran back to the girl. “You didn’t tell me the truth!” he said. “Aren’t you ashamed to tell lies?”

“And aren’t you ashamed to use the word ‘truth’?” the girl answered. “You said you loved me, but you were quite ready to run to any woman you thought was more beautiful. You don’t know what love is. I’ll never marry such a man!” And she turned and walked away from him.

Ex.14. Read and translate the quotation. Do you agree with it? Why / why not?

“It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”

Ex.15. Comment on the quotations of the lesson. What message does each of them convey to the reader?

Section VII

Text IV

Reading for Detail

Ex.1. Since ancient time people liked decorating their bodies. Read the text about the reasons of this.

Why Do People Decorate Their Bodies?

1. People decorate their bodies for many reasons. They also decorate in different ways. Some groups of people have decorated their bodies for thousands of years. Other people want to look attractive. Other people want to belong to a group.

2. Some people decorate their lips, ears, and neck to be beautiful. For example, in Africa, the Surmese women wear a plate in their bottom lip. How do they do this? First, a mother makes a hole in her daughters bottom lip. Then she stretches the lip. Then she puts a small plate in it. As the daughter gets older, she puts in bigger and bigger plates. Other people in Africa put plates in their ears. They want the bottom of their ears to hang to their shoulders.

3. The Pa Daung women in Myanmar are called "giraffe women." They have very long necks, like giraffes. The women wear metal rings to stretch their necks. They wear more rings as they get older. Their necks become longer. Their necks are sometimes two or three times the normal size. Some women die if they take off the rings.

4. People also decorate their teeth to be beautiful. Many Americans and Europeans like white, straight teeth. They spend a lot of money to fix and clean their teeth. This is not true in other parts of the world. In east Africa, some people pull out their bottom teeth. They want their top teeth to stick out. In some parts of Asia, women used to paint their teeth black to look beautiful. Today, young people do not do this. In Indonesia, boys and girls file their teeth. A person with filed teeth will have a good and healthy life.

5. People around the world always liked tattoos. Europeans learned about tattoos around 1770. A famous English explorer named Captain Cook went to Tahiti. He saw people there with tattoos. The Tahitians called the decoration tattoos. From this, we get the word tattoo. The Tahitians taught Cook and his sailors how to make tattoos. The sailors returned to England, and other people liked their tattoos. Soon tattoos spread to the rest of Europe. Many sailors still have tattoos.

5. Today, many different types of people have tattoos. For some people, body decorations are attractive. For other people, they are strange.