DESCRIBING CHARACTER
Listening
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Translate 1
Structure
Step
1
When you want to know about a Look out for pairs of opposites in the following
story:
person’s
character you ask "what is he/she like?"
Words to describe people’s character often come in pairs of opposites.
Sometimes the difference lies in the use of a prefix (e.g. un- or in-),
in other cases the word changes completely. Here are some positive and
negative qualities connected to a work situation:
reliable - unreliable
ambitious - unambitious
honest - dishonest
punctual - late
hard-working - lazy
Yesterday I overheard a conversation between Barbara and Kerstin. Barbara
was telling Kerstin how wrong she had been about Pelagia. At first she
thought she was cold and unfriendly, but soon found out that in
fact she was quite the opposite, very warm and friendly.
" She is probably very shy. That’s all". She concluded.
Listening
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Structure
Kerstin did not agree. Pelagia had never been shy with her but open and self-confident - right from the start. "The thing is, she has ups and downs", she said. " She is usually cheerful, kind and sensitive, but if she is feeling miserable, she can be insensitive… and unkind even". The fact was that Pelagia had just failed an exam when Barbara met her. Barbara was surprised, she thought Pelagia was very clever.
Pelagia was clever, and hard-working too but her boy-friend had left her just before the exam so Pelagia had started to be depressed and pessimistic about everything. "Oh dear" said Barbara, "do you know why he left her?" "Believe it or not.. he said she was too much for him". Answered Kerstin. "Too active, too lively, too sociable. He needed a break".