Conversation Practice

Act out the following dialogues and make up yours on the basis of the given:

1.

• If you are not too busy, come one evening and have dinner with us. I’ll introduce you to all my people.

• Is your family large?

• Yes, our family is quite a big one. There are eight of us. I have two sisters and three brothers.

• Are your sisters as pretty as you are?

• Oh, they are both prettier than I’m. Ruth is the prettiest girl I know. They both have long fair hair, but Ruth’s hair is longer and fairer than Margaret’s. Margaret is fatter than Ruth. She doesn’t like you to say she is fat; and we tell her she will get thinner when she gets older.

• Tell me about the others in your family, Frieda.

• Well the youngest and the smallest one is Fred; he is the baby of the family. He is only four. Then there are Hans and Peter, the twins. They are exactly as old as each other, thirteen, and exactly as tall as each other, and they are so like each other that people can hardly tell one from the other.

2.

• Why do you look so worried, Helen?

• The news of my daughter’s engagement nearly killed me.

• I thought you liked John.

• I hardly know him. All that was so unexpected.

• You’ll learn to love him when you know him better. I’m sure he’ll prove to be an exemplary husband and an affectionate son. I’ve known him for years.

• But he looks so strange. So very tall, with a small head flat at the top, too large green eyes, big ears and that long sharp nose of his. Besides he looks old for his age.

• Oh, you’re exaggerating things. True, he’s a bit too tall but his big green eyes are clever and expressive.

• I wish his face were not so ugly.

• Why, I like his face: there is something awfully nice about it. He isn’t ugly at all, especially when he smiles and shows those perfect teeth of his.

• I thought Ella would choose Henry. He is serious and decidedly handsome. They would make such a nice couple.

• You’ll never make me agree with you. Henry is good-looking, indeed, but there is something unkind in the look of his grey eyes. I always feel ill at ease when he looks at me. It’s wise of your daughter to have chosen John. Remember: appearances are deceitful, a fair face may hide a foul soul.

3.

• Who is that man I saw yesterday at the station?

• I really don’t know whom you mean. What does he look like?

• Rather over middle height, lean and erect, with a head not very large and a face wrinkled for a middle-aged man; his little darkish moustache is cut to the edge of his lips, thin and sensitive.

• Oh, but it is my cousin, John by name.

• His appearance attracted my attention. His browned thin cheeks with rather high cheekbones, and his eyes, hazel, quick and glancing, set rather wide apart over a straight thin nose reminded of someone whom I knew.

• You’re sure to know Mr. Green. John is his son. In fact, John is a younger edition of his father; he resembles him greatly. Do you happen to know Mr. Green’s daughter, Mabel?

• I’m afraid not. Is she pretty?

• She is far from pretty but looks quite attractive. It’s her eyes. They are brown, with a straight and eager glance. She has dark fine hair and a pale expressive face. Will you go to Ruth’s wedding tonight?

• By all means. I have already received an invitation card.

• You’ll have a chance of getting acquainted with them all.

• Oh, how nice!

4.

• The face of that man is familiar to me. I seem to know him.

• Whom exactly?

• That tall man of forty-four, perhaps, with coarse features.

• That one who has very red hair with a bald patch on the crown?

• No, not him.

• Is it the man in uniform with a tooth-brush moustache?

• Wrong again! Look at the man of your size in a brown suit with round shoulders. He has a very uncommon face.

• Do you mean the stout gentleman with a fleshy and pale face touched with colour only at the thick hanging lobes of his ears? The one who has just broken out into laughter?

• Just that very man! Don’t you find there’s something about him that makes him look sleepy?

• It’s his heavy-lidded eyes and the disorder of his scanty hair.

• Somehow I connect him with Michael. He seems to have recognized us too. He is coming towards us.

• How could we possibly forget him. It’s Michael’s father-in-law, Mr Brown.

5.

• I say Mike, I’ve just had a wire from Mary. She’s coming with the 5.30 train. And I have a meeting at 5. Will you do me a favour and meet her at the station?

• But Alice, I’ve never seen her, how could I possibly recognize her?

• Oh, it’s quite easy, she’s just like her mother.

• Most helpful I’m sure, but the trouble is I’ve never seen her mother either.

• I’m sorry, I forgot. And I’m afraid I haven’t any photos of her.

• Try to describe her. What does she look like?

• A tall slender girl of 18 with an oval face.

• Complexion?

• Rather pale.

• Hair?

• Fair and bobbed. Light grey eyes, deep-set, a small straight nose, a big mouth with white even teeth and a dazzling smile.

• I’m sure there’ll be at least a dozen girls like that at the station.

• Oh, there is a remarkable feature about her appearance: she has a mole as big as a pea on the left cheek!

• That will help me for sure. I promise to be on the platform at 5 sharp in search of a slender girl with a mole on her left cheek.

6.

Grace: Why don’t you dance with Henry?

Beatrice: We make such a funny pair: he’s short and broad and strong, and I’m tall, thin and pale.

G: Nonsense, my dear. He isn’t short, only medium height, and you’re just a trifle above the middle size. And he dances perfectly, I can tell you.

B: I know he does. But I prefer dancing with Billy. For all his long legs and lean figure Billy’s a very good dancer, isn’t he?

G: Yes, he is, and I like his face. It may be ugly, but there is something awfully nice about it.

B: But he isn’t ugly at all, especially when he smiles and shows those perfect teeth of his.

G: Still, Henry is decidedly handsome, and Bill is not.

B: But there is something unkind in the look of his grey eyes. I always feel uncomfortable when he looks at me.

7.

• Inna is a regular beauty!

• And she knows it well, doesn’t she?

• She’s got such a superb figure and such regular features!

• And her hair is so thick and looks quite golden in the sunshine!

• Isn’t it strange that her twin sister is quite a plain girl?

• Yes, it is. To have such good-looking parents, and be so different!

• They say Olga takes after their grandfather and Inna has inherited her good looks from the parents.

• Olga’s certainly plain, but when she sings you forget her common face.

• You’re right, of course.

Suggested topics for conversation:

1. Describe your friend’s appearance.

2. Describe the appearance of a person who might attract everybody’s attention.

3. Try to find two character’s of totally different types and describe them. Point out the most striking features in their appearance.

4. Describe the appearance of a famous actor (writer, composer, etc.) without naming him so that your friends could guess who was described.

5. What is your ideal of beauty?

6. Portray Quasimodo as you imagine him.