Vocabulary activator

Exercise 16. There are some definitions of facial features. Write or say what they are. If necessary, find the appropriate word in the dictionary.

1. openings in the nose

2. the soft lower part of the ears

3. flat parts on the side of the face above the cheek-bones

4. hair that grows on the chin and jaw

5. the bony case that protects the brain

6. the tissue our teeth are in

7. the passage from the mouth towards the stomach

8. the semi-poetic name for the forehead

9. the colour and state of the skin on the face

10. hair that grows above the upper lip

11. the moveable skin which opens and closes the eyes

12. the organ used for tasting, swallowing and speech

Vocabulary in categories

Exercise 17. There are some words or phrases used in the passage to describe Mona Lisa. They describe her character or her physical appearance. Use a dictionary to see if these are positive qualities or not. Write P (positive) or N (negative) or ? (it depends) beside each word.

enigmatic sinister lose one’s temper

a glint in the eyes bawdy callousness

a mole flab an unflinching gaze

plump greedy a spendthrift

fickle witty

READING FOR COMPREHENSION

Now read the passage about Mona Lisa and note down those character traits that attract you and those that put you off.

There is an endless speculation as to who Mona Liza was and what her character might have been. It has even been suggested that the lady with the enigmatic smile could be a self-portrait of the artist Leonardo Da Vinchi dressed as a woman. Her smile is the most famous in the world. Some see it as having a sinister aspect, described by the psychologist Sigmund Freud as expressing contrast between “the most devoted tenderness and a sensuality that is ruthlessly demanding”.

It is a slightly crooked smile because it is stronger on her left (on the right of the painting). The smile suggests that she told lies and traded insults whenever it best suited her or when she lost her temper, which probably occurred frequently.

The hint of a smile playing around those much-admired lips and the distinct glint in her eyes attest to her fun-loving ways and a bawdy sense of humour. But the fact that these lips are “bloodless” warns a face watcher of her callousness.

If you examine her lips in the portrait, which hangs in the Louvre in Paris, you will notice a small mole on her top lip. A mole anywhere on the lips or immediately above the corners of the mouth signals indigestion and flatulence. Whatever embarrassment this might have caused it does not detract from the appeal of her pretty, elongated rosebud mouth, a shape which normally testifies to a romantic, dreamy lover.

Mona Lisa holds her head and face straight and as erect as a pillar, her steady and unflinching gaze affirming her dominant personality and worldly ways. She was probably a woman of high status, a gifted abstract thinker, and would therefore in modern times be considered eminently employable.

No face reading can be complete without a thorough study of the ears, which in her case are hidden, but Mona Lisa’s jaw suggests that she would have been very successful in a sales career, or in publicity, public relations or in the hotel or travel industry. Moreover, a deep, smoothly rounded jaw such as hers exhibits firmness and optimism, but the beginning of flab developing below the chin together with those plump cheeks, disclose her fondness for pasta, rich Italian food, and the local, full-bodied Italian wines. Yes, she was definitely greedy.

That she was a spendthrift is evident from her nostrils, for nostrils which are visible when the face is viewed full-on, indicate their owner has a scant understanding of money, and so she should not have been given the control of the family (or company’s) budget. The nostrils, moreover, are narrow and the sides of her nose are flat, both features pointing to a rather untidy woman, who probably dropped her clothes, shoes, hairnets (in the portrait she wears one that flattens the top of her head) all over the parquet floor in the bedroom of a townhouse or palace near to Leonardo’s hometown of Vinchi, between Pisa and Florence, in Tuscany.

Because the hairnet sweeps the hair off her forehead, we can see how smoothly rounded and curved her hairline grows. This type of perfectly rounded hairline spells out a clear message: Mona Lisa was fickle, an unreliable “friend”. Her forehead is longer and wider than the part of the face known as the low zone, which consists of the area between the nose tip and the jawline. This facial trait tells us that she had an IQ above average, that she was a fast learner, but being impractical and not wanting to spoil her elegant hands, she would not have been able to mend a broken vase or set a mousetrap.

A nose that is straight, long, thin and with a high bridge in addition to Mona Lisa’s peculiar type of nostrils generally belongs to a witty and engaging conversationalist, but one who is impatient with those unable to keep up with the wide range of topics discussed.

A final word about her eyes: very few of us have identically-shaped eyes, but she is an exception. The eyes are narrow and elliptical, signalling jealousy, and if she suspected that another woman was after her lover (or husband), she would punish the enemy by any means, foul or fair. Mona Lisa was most definitely a sneak, but one who needed at least nine hours’ sleep each night, judging by the puffy eyelids which are clearly shown in the Leonardo portrait.

DESCRIBING CHARACTER

Many positive words describing character have clear opposites with a negative meaning.

positive	negative
Warm and friendly Kind Nice, pleasant Generous (= happy to give/share) Optimistic (= thinking positively) Cheerful (= happy and smiling) Relaxed and easy-going Strong Sensitive Honest (= always tell the truth)	Horrible, unpleasant Cold and unfriendly Miserable (= always seems unhappy) Tense (= nervous; worries a lot; not calm) Weak Pessimistic (= thinks negatively) Mean (= never gives to others) Dishonest Unkind Insensitive (= does not think about other’s feelings)