Word combinations

to be handsome/pretty/attractive/beautiful/plain/ugly	красивый (о мужчине) / хорошенькая (о женщине) / привлекательный / красивый / некрасивый / уродливый
to be good-looking	хорошо выглядеть
to be like	походить на
to be tidy	быть опрятным, аккуратным
to be well-dressed	быть хорошо одетым
to have a slovenly appearance	иметь неряшливую внешность
to look like	выглядеть как
to wear spectacles/glasses	носить очки

Grammar

The definite article

We use the with:

Nouns that are mentioned for a second time or are already known:

e.g. He has a new car. The car is red.

Nouns which are unique (the sun, the moon, the earth, the sky, the wind, the world, the south, the north, the east, the west, the horizon, the globe, the equator, the Milky Way):

e.g. The sky is blue. The Moon moves round the Earth.

The names of rivers, seas, oceans, mountain ranges, deserts, groups of islands and countries that include the words ‘state’, ‘kingdom’:

e.g. The Atlantic Ocean, the Black Sea, the Mississippi, the Sahara, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the Irish Republic, the Rocky Mountains.

The names of musical instruments:

e.g. My daughter plays the piano. I can’t play the guitar.

The names of hotels, theatres, cinemas, ships, organizations, newspapers and museums:

e.g. The Odeon, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Titanic, the Times, the British Museum.

Nationality words and family names:

e.g. The Dutch live in the Netherlands. The English are very polite people. The Wilsons are a family of five.

The words morning, afternoon, evening:

e.g. I get up at seven o’clock in the morning.

Fill in the where necessary:

1. ……. capital of ……. Portugal is……. Lisbon.

2. ……. Great Pyramid is in ……. Egypt.

3. ……. USA is a land of rivers and lakes.

4. Nick can play ……. violin.

5. ……. Statue of Liberty was opened in 1886.

6. ……. Niagara River is 12,000 years old.

7. ……. Reynolds celebrate each holiday together.

8. In ……. Norway people have dinner at five in ……. afternoon.

9. ……. sun rises in ……. east.

10. ……. western coast of ……. British Isles is washed by ……. Atlantic Ocean.

Comparisons of Adjectives/Adverbs

	Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
one-syllable adjectives	fast wide thin soon	faster wider thinner sooner	the fastest the widest the thinnest the soonest
-y adjectives	early easy	earlier easier	the earliest the easiest
adjectives with two or more syllables	comfortable carefully	more comfortable more carefully	the most comfortable the most carefully
irregular forms	good/well bad/badly much/many little far	better worse more less farther/further	the best the worst the most the least the farthest/the furthest

Write the comparative and superlative of these adjectives/adverbs:

long, nice, slim, happy, difficult, good, bad, far, slow, attractive, beautiful, small, pretty, ugly, plump, short, heavy, modern, interesting, sociable, lazy, favorite, honest, curly, important, expensive, talkative, thick, warm, cold, hot, sunny, fantastic, funny, friendly, well, badly, little, quickly, sleepy, rainy, sandy, strongly.

Complete the sentences with the adjective in brackets.

1. Britain is ……. than Sweden. (small)

2. Thailand is……. than Sweden. (hot)

3. Britain is ……. than Thailand. (dry)

4. Thailand has the ……. armed forces of the three countries. (big)

5. The children in Thailand are ……. when they start school than the children in Sweden. (old)

6. Sweden is the ……. of the three countries. (cold)

Copy out all the adjectives and adverbs from the letter. Write the comparatives and superlatives.

Dear Carol,

I’m having a wonderful holiday here in New Zealand. I’m staying in Wellington with my aunt Grace – she’s my mother’s cousin. Aunt Grace is 58 years old.

She’s a small lady with short, dark hair. She’s got lovely brown eyes and she wears round glasses. She smiles all the time and she talks non-stop. She is very interesting because she reads a lot. She came to live in New Zealand when she was 25. She doesn’t know any of her nephews and nieces back home because she never goes to Britain. She says it’s too far and too expensive and she’s very happy where she is.

She’s a chief gardener in a big city park, but she’s having a holiday this week because I’m staying with her. Every day we visit somewhere different. The scenery is beautiful in the mountains. I’m staying here for two weeks, then I’m flying to Australia for another three weeks.

See you soon,

Love, Mary

Put the adjectives in brackets into the comparative form.

Interviewer (Int.): Why did you decide to go to a health farm?

Guest (G): I was ……. (fat) and ……. (heavy) than I wanted to be.

Int.: Why did you choose Henley Manor? Was it ……. (cheap) than other places?

G.: No, in fact it was ……. (expensive) than some other places, but it was ……. (near) home, so it was ……. (convenient).

Int.: What was it like?

G.: Well, it was ……. (difficult) than I expected. In fact after two days I felt ……. (bad) than before, but after that things became ……. (easy).

Int.: And how do you feel now?

G.: I feel a lot ……. (happy). I’m ……. (slim) and I feel ten years ……. (young)! I eat ……. (healthy) food now, and my lifestyle is ……. (slow) and ……. (relaxed). I go to bed ……. (early) and I sleep ……. (good).

Personal Pronouns

Nominative Case	Objective Case	Possessive Case	Absolute Form	Reflexive Pronouns (self-pronouns)
I	me	my	mine	myself
you	you	your	yours	yourself
he	him	his	his	himself
she	her	her	hers	herself
it	it	its	its	itself
we	us	our	ours	ourselves
you	you	your	yours	yourselves
they	them	their	theirs	themselves

Demonstrative Pronouns

Singular	Plural
this (этот, эта, это) this week, this year	these (эти) these textbooks, these days
that (тот, та, то) that file, that method	those (те) those desks, those boys

Choose the correct pronoun.

1. John likes Sharon Stone but Patti doesn’t like she/her at all.

2. My sister hates Mr Parker but I like he/him a lot.

3. We/Us both like jazz.

4. Nick always tells they/them funny stories.

5. I/My study is more comfortable than your/yours.

6. Look at them/their! They/them are flying.

7. The little boy cut him/himself with the sharp knife.

8. Somebody told the police that their/theirs house was not their/ theirs.

9. Paul asks Tom to take he/his car, because he/his is out of order.

10. Moscow is proud of it/its history.

Read and translate the text

You’re gorgeous!

For many in the 1990s, supermodel Cindy Crawford was the perfect American dream girl: slim, tanned and natural-looking, with long, shiny hair. People have described her as “The Face of the Decade”.

But people have not always had the same ideas about beauty. Until the 1920s, suntans were for poor people, “ladies” stayed out of the sun to keep their faces as pale as possible. In the times of Queen Elizabeth I of England, fashionable ladies even painted their faces with lead to make them whiter – a very dangerous habit, since lead is poisonous!

And people in the 18^th century would not have thought much of Cindy Crawford’s hair! Ladies in those days never went out without their wigs, which were so enormous (and dirty) that it was quite common to find mice living in them. As for the “perfect beauties” painted by Rubens in the 17^th century, if they wanted to be supermodels today, they would need to spend months on a diet!

Ideas of beauty can be very different according to where you live in the world, too. For the Paduang tribe in South East Asia, traditionally, the most important sign of female beauty was a long neck. So at the age of five and six, girls received their first neck ring, and each year they added new rings. By the time they were old enough to marry, their necks were about 25 centimetres long!

In the 18^th century however, “manliness was very different from what it is today. As well as wearing wigs, perfume and lots of make-up, a true gentleman showed that he had feelings by crying frequently in public. According to one story, when the British Prime Minister, Lord Spencer Percival, came to give King George IV some bad news, both men sat down and cried.

And even now, James Bond might not find it so easy to attract women if he visited the Dinka tribe of Sudan. They have always believed in the saying that “big is beautiful”. Traditionally, each year, men compete to win the title of “the fattest man”. The winner is sure to find a wife quickly: for a Dinka woman, if a man is fat, it is also a sign that he is rich and powerful.

Which of these statements do we know are true? Explain your answers.

1. Pale skin was more popular than tanned skin until the twentieth century.

2. Elizabethan make-up was not very safe.

3. In the eighteenth century most fashionable ladies liked mice.

4. Ladies in Rubens’ times probably never went on diets.

5. If Paduang women didn’t have a long neck, they couldn’t get married.

6. People in the eighteenth century thought that it was OK for men to cry.

7. Dinka women from Sudan think that thin men are very ugly.

Make notes about yourself under the following headings (Name – City/Country – Age – Appearance – Family members (Looks/Character) – Like/Love. Use your notes to write a letter to your new pen-friend. Look at the model below.

6 Fleet Street

London

Great Britain

8^th November, 2008

Dear Sandra,

My name is Mary Brown and I live in London, Great Britain. I’m seventeen years old and I’m tall and slim with green eyes and long straight brown hair.

There are four of us in our family; my parents Nick and Sarah, my sister Sally, aged fourteen, and me. My father is a policeman and my mother works at the local library. They are kind people and very generous. My sister is kind too, but she can be a bit bossy sometimes.

In my free time, I love playing the guitar and surfing the Internet. I also like going to the cinema and visiting my friends at weekends.

Well, that’s all about me. Write back soon and please send me a picture of your family.

Best wishes,

Rachel

Match the questions in A with the answers in B.

A	B
a) How old is he?	1. No, he hasn’t.
b) How tall is he?	2. It’s dark and wavy and he’s going grey.
c) Is he black or white?	3. He’s quite slim, and attractive, but he looks a bit untidy sometimes.
d) What does he look like, generally?	4. I don’t know exactly, but I think he’s in his forties.
e) What’s his hair like?	5. I think they are brown.
f) What color are his eyes?	6. White.
g) Has he got a beard or a moustache?	7. He’s about average height, I think.

Act out the dialogue.

Kevin: And you say he’s going to arrive by plain from Belfast.

Kate: Yes, that’s right.

Kevin: How will I recognize him? What’s he like?

Kate: Well, he’s short and he’s got dark curly hair. He is quite well-built.

Kevin: Anything else?

Kate: Oh, and he’s got a moustache.

Kevin: I see. How old is he?

Kate: He’s twenty and I’m sure you’ll recognize him.

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