5     I can talk about appearance

A    Male appearance

Glossary

male  Men and boys are male, women and girls are female (a person’s sex is male or female).

well built  with a solid, strong body. SYN stocky.

skinny  very thin, but not in an attractive way.

in good/bad shape in good/bad physical condition.

plump  quite fat, in a nice way.

fattish  quite fat. (See spotlight)

clean-shaven  without a beard or moustache.

4     ABOUT YOUR FAMILY  Write your answers to Exercise 3, or ask another student.

Answers from an Italian person

1     My mother.

2     My father.

3     My cousin.

4     My brother.

5     My sister.

6     My aunt.

7     My whole family is dark-skinned.

8     My boyfriend has a scar on his neck.

 

5     Look at the pictures and cover the texts. Can you remember the descriptions?

 

B    Female appearance

This is my mother at 27 when she was pregnant; in fact, she was expecting me. She had a pretty, roundish face with beautiful smooth skin and long hair.

Here’s Mum now; she looks tanned. She’s still slim with a good figure. Her appearance hasn’t changed much, but she’s got a few wrinkles, she’s going grey, and her hair’s much shorter and neater. She wears contact lenses, and you can’t tell that she’s nearly 60.

 

spotlight  -ish

The suffix -ish is used with some adjectives to mean ‘quite’.

A roundish face is a face which is quite round. Also: tallish, youngish, fattish, etc.

 

Glossary

be pregnant  SYN be expecting a baby.

pretty  attractive and nice to look at (used especially about girls or young women). smooth with a completely flat surface. OPP rough.

skin  Your skin covers your body.

tanned  having brown skin after spending time in the sun. tan N.

slim  thin in an attractive way. SYN slender.

figure  the shape of a woman’s body.

appearance  the way sb looks.

go grey OR white  become grey-haired or white-haired.

neat  tidy and carefully arranged.

contact lenses  small round pieces of plastic you wear in your eyes to help you see better.

tell sth  know or guess sth.

8     Cover the glossary words and look at the meanings. What are the words?