I. Match the pairs of sentences with the pictures:

^{1. He isn't very tall.}

^{He's short and stocky.}

^{2. She's tall and slim.}

^{She's got a lovely figure.}

^{3. He's quite a big guy.}

^{He's quite well-built.}

^{4. She's a bit overweight.}

^{She's quite plump, isn't she?}

^{5. He's very fat.}

^{He's absolutely enormous.}

^{6. He's very thin.}

^{He's so skinny.}

^{II. Transcribe and translate the words:}

^{Build, stout, medium, athletic, broad-shouldered, fat, overweight, lanky.}

^{III. Give English equivalents of the following Russian words:}

^{статный, пухленький, толстый, полный, худой, стройный, долговязый, тощий, широкоплечий, коренастый}

^{IV. Decide whether these statements are true or false:}

^{1. Lanky means ungracefully tall and thin. 2. Slim people are short and plump. 3. Skinny means unattractively thin. 4. Someone who is stout is rather fat and heavy. 5. Well-built means small and well-proportioned. 6. An overweight person weighs more than is expected or usual. 7. If a person has a big strong body, he is fat. 8. Plump people look fat and unattractive. 9. Someone who is stocky is tall and strong.}

^{V. Choose the right word:}

1. ^{Skinny / slim is more positive and attractive than thin. 2. If somebody is skinny / slim they are too thin. 3. Saying that somebody is fat / overweight is neutral and polite. 4. Plump / well-built people are strong and muscular. 5. Tom looks really pale and thin / slim. I’m worried he might be ill. 6. He’s two kilos stout / overweight. 7. Ann is slim / lanky and graceful.}

^HEIGHT

^{1.7 m/4 ft 7 inches tall/ in height}

^{of medium/ average height}

^{below/ above average height}

^{tall/ tallish}

^{short/ shortish}

Vocabulary notes

^{height /hait/ n [C;U] the quality or degree of being tall or high; high /hai/ adj; e.g. His height makes him easy to see in the crowd. What’s the height of the Empire State Building? High is used to describe something that is a long way above the ground ( or whose top is a long way above the ground), e.g. The rooms on the ground floor have very high ceilings. The top shelf was too high for me to reach. The high wall made it impossible for prisoners to escape. Ant. low, e.g. a low ceiling/shelf/wall etc Tall ( not high) is used to describe people, animals, trees, plants and things which are narrow and above average height, e.g. Most of the tall trees have been cut down. I’d like to marry someone tall with a sense of humour. He is almost 6 feet tall. Ant. short, small, e.g. a short ( small) woman}

^{Note that in Russia we use the metric system and express a person’s height in centimetres and metres,e.g. He’s over 1 metre 80 centimetres in height.( 1 metre 80 ) British people measure height in feet and inches, e.g. He’s 4 feet 7 inches tall.( 4 ft 7 )}

^{1 foot is equal to 30,5 centimetres/ 1 inch is equal to 25,4 millimetres}

^EXERCISES

1. ^{Transcribe and translate the words: height, average, below, above.}