Describing People

Exercise № 37. Look at a picture of some of your acquaintances and build up a list of vocabulary which you will use for describing these people.

Height: quite tall, rather short, 5’10’’ tall,

General appearance: lanky,

Build: well-built, thin, muscular, athletic

Age: early twenties, mid-thirties, late fifties, teenaged, underage

Facial features: oval-faced, high cheekbones, blue-eyed, Roman nose

Hair: curly, short brown, wavy, thin, shoulder-length, grey, chestnut, blond

Personality: good-humoured, imaginative, short-tempered, vain

Clothes: casual, formal, uniform

Hobbies & activities: going to discos, enjoy watching birds, cooking

A descriptive composition about a person should consist of:

a) an introduction where you give some brief information about the person (his/ her name, time or place you met/saw him/her, how you heard about him/her):

b) a main body where you describe physical appearance, personality characteristics and hobbies/interests/everyday activities in separate paragraphs: and

c) a conclusion which includes your comments and/or feelings about the person.

Such descriptions can be found in articles, letters, witness statements, novels, etc.

Exercise № 38. Decide which adjectives describe positive or negative qualities. Choose any five of them and write sentences justifying each quality, then write a short paragraph describing the character of one of your relatives.

patient, boring, pessimistic, mean, ambitious, generous, mature, interesting, hostile, immature, friendly, impatient, tactful, good-natured, short-tempered, thick-skinned, easy-going, hard-working, deceitful, fair, shy, helpful, aggressive, reserved, outgoing, polite, cheerful

Model: My father is very patient; he takes time and care with everything he does.

Points to consider

Each paragraph starts with a topic sentence which introduces the subject of the paragraph. A variety of linking words should be used to connect ideas.

To describe physical appearance, details should be given as follows: height/build, age, facial features, hair, clothes, moving from the most general aspects to the more specific details, e.g. John is a tall, slim man in his mid-forties. He has a thin face, blue eyes and a large nose. His short hair is greying at the temples. He is usually casually dressed.

To describe character and behaviour you can support your description with examples, e.g. Sally is very sociable. She loves going to parties and dances. If you want to mention any negative qualities, use mild language (tends to, seems to, is rather, can occasionally be, etc.), e.g. Instead of saying Sally is arrogant., it is better to say Sally tends to be rather arrogant.

Variety in the use of adjectives will make your description more interesting, e.g. good-natured, well-behaved, gorgeous, etc.

Present tenses can be used to describe someone connected to the present, e.g. someone you see every day. Past tenses can be used to describe someone related to the past, e.g. someone who is no longer alive, someone whom you won’t meet again... etc.

Exercise № 39. Read and study descriptions of people made by some famous Russian, British and American writers.

1. At the hour of the hot spring sunset two citizens appeared at the Patriarch's Ponds. One of them, approximately forty years old, dressed in a grey summer suit, was short, dark-haired, plump, bald, and carried his respectable fedora hat in his hand. His neatly shaven face was adorned with black horn-rimmed glasses of a supernatural size. The other, a broad-shouldered young man with tousled reddish hair, his checkered cap cocked back on his head, was wearing a cowboy shirt, wrinkled white trousers and black sneakers. The first was none other than Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, the editor of a fat literary journal and the chairman of the board of one of the major Moscow literary associations, called Massolit for short, and his young companion was the poet Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyrev, who wrote under the pseudonym of Homeless. (Mikhail Bulgakov, ‘Master and Margarita’)
2. Tom Hagen was thirty-five years old, a tall crew-cut man, very slender, very ordinary-looking. He was a lawyer but did not do the actual detailed legal work for the Corleone family business though he had practiced law for three years after passing the bar exam. At the age of eleven he had been a playmate of eleven-year-old Sonny Corleone. Hagen‟ s mother had gone blind and then died during his eleventh year. Hagen’s father, a heavy drinker, had become a hopeless drunkard. A hardworking carpenter, he had never done a dishonest thing in his life. But his drinking destroyed his family and finally killed him. Tom Hagen was left an orphan who wandered the streets and slept in hallways. (Mario Puzo, ‘The Godfather’)
3. A stranger was before him--a boy a shade larger than himself. A newcomer of any age or either sex was an impressive curiosity in the poor little shabby village of St. Petersburg. This boy was well dressed, too--well dressed on a weekday. This was simply astounding. His cap was a dainty thing, his close-buttoned blue cloth roundabout was new and natty, and so were his pantaloons. He had shoes on--and it was only Friday. He even wore a necktie, a bright bit of ribbon. He had a citified air about him that ate into Tom's vitals. (Mark Twain, ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’)
4. Tracy Whitney was on her way to work. Her pace was brisk as she walked east on Chestnut Street towards the bank, and it was all she could do to keep from singing aloud. She wore a bright-yellow raincoat, boots, and a yellow rain hat that barely contained a mass of shining chestnut hair. She was in her mid-twenties, with a lively, intelligent face, a full, sensuous mouth, sparkling eyes that could change from a soft moss green to a dark jade in moments, and a trim, athletic figure. Her skin ran the gamut from a translucent white to a deep rose, depending on whether she was angry, tired, or excited. (Sydney Sheldon, ‘If Tomorrow Comes’)
5. Lucia, a beautiful young woman of twenty-five, had luxuriant dark hair, which flowed to her shoulders, and brown eyes which could flash excitingly but were now smouldering with a suppressed emotion not easy to define. (Agatha Christie, “The Black Coffee”)
6. She was a very tall woman. Her hair was gold with a tinge of red in it. Her eyebrows and eyelashes were dark, whether by art or by nature I could not decide. If she was, as I thought, made up, it was done very artistically. There was something Sphinxlike about her face when it was in repose and she had the most curious eyes I have ever seen — they were almost golden in shade. Her clothes were perfect and she had all the ease of manner of a well-bred woman, and yet there was something about her that was incongruous and baffling. You felt that she was a mystery. The word Griselda had used occurred to me — sinister. Absurd, of course, and yet — was it so absurd? The thought sprang unbidden into my mind: " This woman would stick at nothing." (Agatha Christie, “The Murder at the Vicarage”)
7. Clare Halliwell was thirty-two. She had an upright carriage, a healthy color, and nice brown eyes. She was not beautiful, but she looked fresh and pleasant and very English. Everybody liked her and said she was a good sort. Since her mother's death, two years ago, she had lived alone in the cottage with her dog, Rover. She kept poultry and was fond of animals and of a healthy outdoor life. (Agatha Christie, “The Harlequin Tea Set”)

Exercise № 40. Using samples, write a paragraph on the following topics:

1. Your first love boy/girl;
2. Your father/mother;
3. The Prime Minister of the Russian Federation;
4. The President of the United States;
5. The Dean of the Faculty;
6. Your favourite university employee;

Exercise № 41. Translate this extract. Build up a list of active vocabulary to translate it.

Степан Аркадьич был человек правдивый в отношении к себе самому. Он не мог обманывать себя и уверять себя, что он раскаивается в своем поступке. Он не мог теперь раскаиваться в том, что он, тридцатичетырехлетний, красивый, влюбчивый человек, не был влюблен в жену, мать пяти живых и двух умерших детей, бывшую только годом моложе его. Он раскаивался только в том, что не умел лучше скрыть от жены. Но он чувствовал всю тяжесть своего положения и жалел жену, детей и себя. Может быть, он сумел бы лучше скрыть свои грехи от жены, если б ожидал, что это известие так на нее подействует. Ясно он никогда не обдумывал этого вопроса, но смутно ему представлялось, что жена давно догадывается, что он не верен ей, и смотрит на это сквозь пальцы. Ему даже казалось, что она, истощенная, состарившаяся, уже некрасивая женщина и ничем не замечательная, простая, только добрая мать семейства, по чувству справедливости должна быть снисходительна. Оказалось совсем противное. (Л.Н.Толстой, «Анна Каренина»)