English vocabulary - Martin Hunt 2016

5 Body (2)

In this unit you will learn

✵ parts of the body

✵ words for height, weight, appearance

✵ how to ask questions about/describe the body

Basics

Do you know these words? Check in a dictionary and write the word in your language.

Test your basics

Write the English word next to the picture below. Don’t look at page 47!

Extension

General adjectives

Look at these opposites.

✵ People can be tall or they can be short.

✵ People can be fair-skinned or they can be dark-skinned.

✵ Race: people can be black (for example, African), Asian or white.

✵ People can be good-looking, or beautiful (for a woman) or handsome (for a man).

Arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes

✵ Hands, feet and toes can be big or small.

✵ Arms, fingers and legs can be long or short; they can also be fat or thin.

Size

Weight (noun)

You weigh (verb) somebody when you want to know how heavy (adjective) he or she is. For example:

How heavy are you? or How much do you weigh?

I weigh 70kg.

Height (noun)

If you want to know someone’s height, you ask how tall he or she is. For example:

How tall are you?

I’m 180cm tall.

Be careful! Britain and America use pounds for weight and feet and inches for height.

2.2 pounds = 1 kilogram

1 foot = 12 inches = 30 [centimetres/centimeters]

Questions

Do you remember the questions from Body (1)? If not, look again:

What [colour/color] is your hair? It’s brown.

What’s your hair like? It’s long, straight, and brown.

What [colour/color] are your eyes? They’re blue.

What are your eyes like? They’re big and blue.

If we want a general description of someone, we can use the verb look like.

What do you look like? What does he/she look like?

This question needs a longer answer. Look at the box below for some ideas.

Practice

Exercise 1 Look at the square below and find seven words from this unit.

Exercise 2 Making questions. Put the words below into the correct order to make a question. For example:

what Tim look does like?  What does Tim look like?

1 how is heavy Jenny?

2 [colour/color] what Tim’s is hair?

3 Jenny does what like look?

4 tall is how Tim?

5 is Jenny’s hair what like?

6 [colour/color] Jenny’s are eyes what?

7 weigh does Tim what?

Exercise 3 Look at the facts about Tim and Jenny. Then answer the questions in Exercise 2 using this information.

Example: What does Tim look like? He’s tall, well-built, and [has got/has] short, dark, straight hair, and big, green eyes.

1 ...    5 ...

2 ...    6 ...

3 ...    7 ...

4 ...

Now check your answers.

► Exercise 4 (Recordings 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4) Pronunciation practice. Listen and repeat the words on the recording. Use the transcript at the back of the book to help you if necessary.

In use

Reading

Before you start, check you know these words:

muscle

farmer

friends

enemies

ugly

heart

piano

Below is the start of a story with a description of two people.

Reading 1 Look at the list below. In it you will see adjectives and nouns. Guess which adjectives go with which nouns. Then read the text and check your answers. There may be some words you don’t know; don’t worry about these.

Glen Horrit stood up straight and, for the hundredth time that day, cursed the heat of the sun. Glen was quite a short man, and very well-built. But he wasn’t fat. It was all muscle. He was a farmer and, like most farmers, was up early in the morning and not back in his bed until late at night. Glen had short, wavy hair which was already [grey/gray]. In another month, he would be forty, though he tried not to think about that. His eyes were still blue, though.

Glen smiled, though it was hard to see because he had such thin lips. All his features were small, except his big nose, and he certainly wasn’t good-looking. His friends said he was plain; his enemies said he was ugly. His enemies were telling the truth. He had short legs and small hands, but his heart was big. And that was how he had got Ruth.

Ruth. His wife. His opposite. Ruth was tall and slim, and was still beautiful. Her long, straight hair was still red too - with a little bit of help from a bottle. Glen was an old-fashioned man, and to him Ruth was the perfect woman. She had a large mouth and round eyes that twinkled when she laughed. She was graceful too - Glen loved watching her long fingers as she played the piano. She was, even at thirty-eight, perfect to Glen. He didn’t yet know the secret behind those soft brown eyes and beautiful face, and what his wife was really thinking of doing...

Reading 2 Read the true or false sentences below. Correct any that are false.

Examples: Glen Horrit is tall. X Glen Horrit is quite short. Ruth Horrit is tall. ✓

1 Glen has short, [grey/gray], curly hair.

2 Glen has thin lips.

3 Ruth has long fingers.

4 Some people think Glen is ugly.

5 Glen has blue eyes, but Ruth has green eyes.

6 Ruth has long, straight, red hair.

7 Glen is fat.

8 Ruth has a beautiful face with a small mouth and round eyes.

►Listening

Before you start, check you know these words:

robbery

robber

jeans

sweater

T-shirt

trousers

shirt

gun

In the UK there is a television [programme/program] where people can give information to the police called ’Police - Help!’. Listen to part of the [programme/program] describing some robbers.

Listening 1 (Recording 5.4) One of the three men below is one of the robbers. Listen and then circle which one it is.

Listening 2 Listen to the recording again and fill in the chart below.

Can you remember any other details about the robbers? Use the transcript to help you if necessary.

Now check your answers.

Recap

Here are the words we learned in this unit. Do you know them all? Write down the translations if necessary.

Parts of the body

leg   arm   hand

stomach  knee   finger

elbow  ankle  foot (feet)

toe

Adjectives

tall   short  fair-skinned

dark-skinned black  white

Asian   good-looking beautiful

handsome  overweight slim

well-built  thin   fat

big   small  long

short

Size

weight  height  pound

kilogram  foot (feet) inch

[centimetre/centimeter]

Questions and answers

How heavy are you? How much do you weigh?

I weigh ...    How tall are you?

I’m ...     What do you look like?

What to do next

✵ Describe yourself. Try recording your description on tape, and then write it down.

✵ Describe the people you see in pictures/paintings.

✵ Describe a member of your family.

✵ Describe someone famous and see if other people can guess who you mean.

Why not try these units next?

✵ Clothes (1) and (2) • Family • People and jobs

Answer key for this unit

Test your basics

Check your answers on page 47 (Basics).

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

1 How heavy is Jenny?

2 What [colour/color] is Tim’s hair?

3 What does Jenny look like?

4 How tall is Tim?

5 What is Jenny’s hair like?

6 What [colour/color] are Jenny’s eyes?

7 What does Tim weigh?

Exercise 3

Possible answers:

1 She weighs 88 pounds.

2 It’s dark.

3 She’s quite short, quite good-looking, and she[’s got/has] long, blond, curly hair and blue eyes.

4 He’s 6 feet tall.

5 It’s long, blond, and curly.

6 They’re blue.

7 He weighs 220 pounds.

Reading

Reading 1

thin lips

big nose

small hands

large mouth

long fingers

brown eyes

Reading 2

1 Glen has short, [grey/gray], curly hair. X

Glen has short, grey, wavy hair.

2 Ruth has thin lips. ✓

3 Ruth has long fingers. ✓

4 Some people think Glen is ugly. ✓

5 Glen has blue eyes, but Ruth has green eyes. X

Glen has blue eyes, but Ruth has brown eyes.

6 Ruth has long, straight, red hair. ✓

7 Glen is fat. X Glen is well-built (he isn’t fat).

8 Ruth has a beautiful face with a small mouth and round eyes. X

Ruth has a beautiful face, with a large mouth and round eyes.

Listening

Listening 1

Listening 2