6

Describing appearance and personality

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What should they wear?

A Sort the words below into the following three groups:

Men

Women

Men and

Women

tie

make-up

shorts

ear rings

T-shirt

mini skirt

jeans

suit

cuff links

necklace

dress

striped shirt

flip flops

black shoes

trainers

sports jacket

blouse

skirt

chinos

tights

socks

high heels

B To check your clothes vocabulary, do the Picture Exercise on the CD-ROM called ‘suits’.

C Choose several different combinations of the following and write 5 sentences saying what they should
wear, using items from the list above.

A young

man

at a business meeting

A middle aged

at a barbecue

should wear…

An older

woman

at a stylish party

For example: A young woman at a barbecue should wear…

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Personality and appearance

D Which of the words below describe someone's personality and which describe
someone's appearance?

nervous

beautiful

proud

thin

fat

E Use the Word Choice boxes in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English or
the CD-ROM to replace the underlined adjectives with a more suitable alternative.

1 I shouted at her because her constant whispering was making me nervous.

2 The doctors told him to take more exercise because he was becoming fat.

3 He was one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen.

4 I didn't like him, he was very proud- he was always boasting about the things he'd done.

5 I thought she looked ill- she was certainly very thin.

F Use the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English and the CD-ROM to help you
write a short description of a famous person.

6

Teacher’s notes

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Level:

Intermediate

Aim:

To develop students’ knowledge of vocabulary related to appearance and personality.
To familiarise students with Subject Search on the CD-ROM and Word Choice boxes in the
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.

Timing: 30 - 40 minutes

Procedure:

A Find the words on the CD-ROM by clicking
on the Search button and choosing “Subject

search” from the menu.

Then choose Theme: Daily Life, Heading: Clothes and
Fashion,
Subject: Clothes, Jewellery. Then click FIND.

Click on a word from the list, and its definition
will appear.

answers: Men: tie, cuff links, sports jacket, chinos
Women: make-up, mini skirt, necklace, dress, blouse,
skirt, tights, high heels
Men and women: shorts, ear rings, T-shirt, jeans,
suit, striped shirt, flip flops, black shoes, trainers, socks

B This picture exercise (and others!) can be
found by clicking on the Exercises button .

Choose ‘Vocabulary’

from the list along the top. Scroll down in the left-hand
window to get to Picture Exercises. Click on the arrow
to see a menu of picture exercises. Choose ‘suits’ from
the list.

Students should use their mouse to drag the labels
to the correct places on the picture. Alternatively,
they can type the answer into the correct place.
Tell them to use the hint button to access definitions.

answers: The ‘check answers’ button under the
exercise will tell the student which labels are in
the wrong place. The ‘show answers’ button will
show the correct answers.

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C Ask students to read out their sentences and explain why they’ve chosen them.

EXTRA: Ask the students to tell you which of their clothes they would wear to each occasion.
Ask them to describe the clothes using colours and other adjectives like tight, baggy, shiny etc.

answers: Answers will vary, but students should use the vocabulary from exercises A and B.

D Look up the words in the box in the
dictionary or CD-ROM. Type them into

the type-in area underneath the row of buttons

Read the definitions together and ask your students
if the words describe someone’s personality or their
appearance.

EXTRA: Ask students to think of other words that
describe personality or appearance. Look them up in
the dictionary or CD-ROM to check.

answers: Personality: nervous, proud
Appearance: beautiful, fat, thin

E Students should look up the underlined words in their dictionary or CD-Rom
as described in part D.

answers: 1 Irritated

2 Obese

3 Handsome

4 Arrogant

5 Slight

F Ask students to choose someone famous then to write 2 or 3 sentences to
describe him or her. Have the students read their description in front of the class

and give a clue to the person's identity (e.g. ‘She's a film star’. ‘He's a footballer’.) Have them
guess who is being described.

answers: Answers will vary.

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Dictionary

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