How to Describe Yourself

Lesson 10

                                 How to Describe Yourself

                                            Text A

                                         All about me
    I'm twelve years old. I'm large for my age and have big feet which I am self-conscious about. I look like both my mum and my dad but in different ways. I have fair hair and blue eyes like my dad, and a mouth an'd expression like my mum. My nose is like my mother's and definitely nothing like my father's ( 'thank oodness'). I am very like my mum in temperament¹, though I don't have her very hot temper.

    I'm rather a tomboy but I'm not violent. I hate fighting and arguments. I hate being laughed at and some teasing hurts me more than I show. I tend to sulk when I am annoyed and I tend to be a bit oversensitive. Friendship is important to me with people of all ages. My home is very important to me and I would hate to be sent to a boarding school. On the whole I'm a fairly tidy persorl.

    I am quite creative with my hands. I like making models , pendants and candles as well as other things. I like acting² and music, I play the French horn and can play the trumpet³. I am not a very keen reader because I like to be outside most of the time. I ride my bike a lot and have been youth hosteling⁴ with it. My father lives abroad and I enjoy travelling to see him. I enjoy my food (especially my French grandmother as she is an excellent cook! ) and I have a sweet tooth but I hate the dentist. I don't like my hair being brushed by someone else and I hate it long.
    Finally, the one thing I really find boring is homework as I would far rather be outside or make something.

                                     
                                              Text B
                  
                                           My thoughts

    I sometimes wonder what my mind is like inside, often I fancy that it is like this. I feel as if my mind goes round and round like the earth and if my lessons make me think hard it begins to spin. In my other class it was getting all stodgy⁵ and still and lumpy and rusty⁶. I feel as if there is a ball in my mind and it is divided into pieces -each piece stands for a different mood.

The ball turns every now and then and that's what makes me change moods. I have my learning mood, my goodlooks mood, my happy mood, my loose-end mood and my grumpy mood, my miserable⁷ mood, my thoughtful mood and my planning mood. At the moment I am writing this I am in my thoughtful mood.When I am in my thoughtful mood I think out my maths and plan stories and poems. When my kitten is in her thoughtful mood she thinks shall I pounce⁸ or not, and shall I go to sleep or not. This sort of thing goes on in my own mind, too. It is very hard for me to put my thoughts into words.

 

                                Additional Information

                                               (1)

    He's the sort of chap who loves to make entrances and exits. He'll arrive ten minutes before everybody else and he'll leave ten minutes before everybody else. He'll come dashing in with a bunch of flowers, screaming hellos. He likes to be noticed. He loves telling jokes. He's a well-informed chap and keeps up to date with all the current affairs. He likes to talk and give his view on life .

 He's very successful. When he sets himself a goal, he works hard to attain⁹ that and to achieve it. He knows what he wants and he'll set out to get it. As a result, he's successful. When you're talking to Roger, sometimes you're left way, way behind. His mind is whizzing over so fast that you're talking about something, and he's off at a tangent,talking about something completely different. He can't sit down. He's not. He can't relax. He's always jumping up and doing things and finds it hard to concentrate at times.

                                                (2)

    She gazes at.herself in wonder. Vanished are her healthy pink cheeks, her slightly red winter nose, her mole¹⁰, her little freckles¹¹ and blemishes¹²; she is smooth, new made. She dabs¹³ a little powder on top, and stands back to admire the effect. It is pleasing, she decides. She wonders what it will look like by midnight. Will she be transformed imo an uneven¹⁴, red-faced, patchy, blotchy¹⁵ clown? An ugly sister?

                                                (3)

    When she was twenty-three years old, she met, at a Christmas party, a young man from the Erewash Valley. Morel was then twenty-seven years old. He was well set-up, erect¹⁶, and very smart. He had wavy¹⁷ black hair that shone again, and a vigorous black beard that had never been shaved. His cheeks were ruddy, and his red, moist mouth was noticeable because he laughed so often and so heartily¹⁸.

He had that rare thing, a rich, ringing laugh. Gertrude Coppard had watched him, fascinated. He was so full of colour and animation¹⁹, his voice ran so easily into comic grotesque²⁰, he was so ready and so pleasant with everybody. Her own father had a rich fund of humour,but it was satiric²¹. This man's was different: soft, non-intellectual, warm, a kind of gambolling²².

    She herself was opposite. She had a curious, receptive mind which' found much pleasure and amusement in listening to other folk. She was clever in leading folk to talk. She loved ideas, and was considered very intellectual. What she liked most of all was an argument on religion or philosophy or politics with some educated man. This she did not often enjoy. So she always had people tell her about themselves, finding her pleasure so.

    In her person she was rather small and delicate, with a large brow, and dropping bunches of brown silk curls. Her blue eyes were very straight, honest,and searching. She had the beautiful hands of the Coppards. Her dress was always subdued²³. She wore dark blue silk, with a peculiar²⁴ silver chain of silver scallops. This, and a heavy brooch of twisted gold, was her only ornament²⁵. She was still perfectly²⁶ intact, deeply religious, and full of beautiful candour.

 

1 temperament   

n.气质，性格，性情

参考例句：

• The analysis of what kind of temperament you possess is vital.分析一下你有什么样的气质是十分重要的。
• Success often depends on temperament.成功常常取决于一个人的性格。

2 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

3 trumpet   

n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘

参考例句：

• He plays the violin, but I play the trumpet.他拉提琴，我吹喇叭。
• The trumpet sounded for battle.战斗的号角吹响了。

4 hosteling   

n.在青年招待所投宿

参考例句：

5 stodgy   

adj.易饱的；笨重的；滞涩的；古板的

参考例句：

• It wasn't easy to lose puppy fat when Mum fed her on stodgy home cooking.母亲给她吃易饱的家常菜，她想减掉婴儿肥可是很难。
• The gateman was a stodgy fellow of 60.看门人是个六十岁的矮胖子。

6 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。

7 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

8 pounce   

n.猛扑；v.猛扑，突然袭击，欣然同意

参考例句：

• Why do you pounce on every single thing I say?干吗我说的每句话你都要找麻烦？
• We saw the tiger about to pounce on the goat.我们看见老虎要向那只山羊扑过去。

9 attain   

vt.达到，获得，完成

参考例句：

• I used the scientific method to attain this end. 我用科学的方法来达到这一目的。
• His painstaking to attain his goal in life is praiseworthy. 他为实现人生目标所下的苦功是值得称赞的。

10 mole   

n.胎块；痣；克分子

参考例句：

• She had a tiny mole on her cheek.她的面颊上有一颗小黑痣。
• The young girl felt very self- conscious about the large mole on her chin.那位年轻姑娘对自己下巴上的一颗大痣感到很不自在。

11 freckles   

n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She had a wonderful clear skin with an attractive sprinkling of freckles. 她光滑的皮肤上有几处可爱的小雀斑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• When she lies in the sun, her face gets covered in freckles. 她躺在阳光下时，脸上布满了斑点。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 blemishes   

n.（身体的）瘢点( blemish的名词复数 )；伤疤；瑕疵；污点

参考例句：

• make-up to cover blemishes 遮盖霜
• The blemishes of ancestors appear. 祖先的各种瑕疵都渐渐显露出来。 来自辞典例句

13 dabs   

少许( dab的名词复数 )； 是…能手； 做某事很在行； 在某方面技术熟练

参考例句：

• Each of us had two dabs of butter. 我们每人吃了两小块黄油。
• He made a few dabs at the fence with the paint but didn't really paint it. 他用颜料轻刷栅栏，但一点也没刷上。

14 uneven   

adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的

参考例句：

• The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
• The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。

15 blotchy   

adj.有斑点的，有污渍的；斑污

参考例句：

• her blotchy and swollen face 她的布满斑点的浮肿的脸
• Blotchy skin is a symptom of many skin diseases. 皮肤上出现污斑是许多皮肤病的症状。 来自互联网

16 erect   

n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的

参考例句：

• She held her head erect and her back straight.她昂着头，把背挺得笔直。
• Soldiers are trained to stand erect.士兵们训练站得笔直。

17 wavy   

adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• She drew a wavy line under the word.她在这个词的下面画了一条波纹线。
• His wavy hair was too long and flopped just beneath his brow.他的波浪式头发太长了，正好垂在他的眉毛下。

18 heartily   

adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很

参考例句：

• He ate heartily and went out to look for his horse.他痛快地吃了一顿，就出去找他的马。
• The host seized my hand and shook it heartily.主人抓住我的手，热情地和我握手。

19 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

20 grotesque   

adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物）

参考例句：

• His face has a grotesque appearance.他的面部表情十分怪。
• Her account of the incident was a grotesque distortion of the truth.她对这件事的陈述是荒诞地歪曲了事实。

21 satiric   

adj.讽刺的，挖苦的

参考例句：

• Looking at her satiric parent she only gave a little laugh.她望着她那挖苦人的父亲，只讪讪地笑了一下。
• His satiric poem spared neither the politicians nor the merchants.政客们和商人们都未能免于遭受他的诗篇的讽刺。

22 gambolling   

v.蹦跳，跳跃，嬉戏( gambol的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• lambs gambolling in the meadow 在草地上蹦蹦跳跳的小羊羔
• The colts and calves are gambolling round the stockman. 小马驹和小牛犊围着饲养员欢蹦乱跳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

23 subdued   

adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He seemed a bit subdued to me. 我觉得他当时有点闷闷不乐。
• I felt strangely subdued when it was all over. 一切都结束的时候，我却有一种奇怪的压抑感。

24 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

25 ornament   

v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物

参考例句：

• The flowers were put on the table for ornament.花放在桌子上做装饰用。
• She wears a crystal ornament on her chest.她的前胸戴了一个水晶饰品。

26 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。