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3.9. A) The following is a list of colloquial names for various social types of

people you can meet at a party or elsewhere. Use the most suitable word from below to complete each of the description below.

b) Think of your own examples to fit each social type.

ocial types:

wet blanket Don Juan ['don'd3u:әn] gate crasher

wall flower social climber good mixer

gossip chatterbox femme fatale

life and soul of the party

A. He’s very lively and the centre of any group he is in. People always have a good time with him. He is the ... .

B. She is confident and interested in other people. She likes to meet different kinds of people. She is a ... .

C. She is so negative and boring. She has a depressing effect on any group of people she is in. She is a ... .

D. He goes to parties and other occasions without an invitation. He just walks in. He is a ... .

E. Unfortunately, nobody asks her to dance. She just stands there hoping. She is a ..

F. She just can not stop talking. She goes on and on excitedly, about totally unimportant things. She is a ... .

G. She loves to discuss and pass on news or rumours about people’s private lives. She is a … .

H. She is dangerously attractive to men. Half the men she meets fall in love with her. But she never falls in love with anyone. She is a ... .

I. He knows he is attractive to women. They always fall for him. He has a lot of girl friends. He is a ... .

J. She is very conscious of her social position. She is always trying to improve it by meeting ‘upper-class’ people. She is a ... .

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3.10. A) In Thailand, friends of the same sex often walk down the street, arm in

arm, but friends of the opposite sex never touch each other in public. This

Is the opposite of North American customs. Read the selection to learn

more about the Thai idea of friendship.

b) Express your ideas about the title of the text. Can you classify your

friends as “die” and “eating” friends?

c) Scan the text to find the information to do the assignment below.

. A word that begins withp and means the opposite of public:_____

2. A verb that begins with s and means ‘give something away’:_____

3. Another way of saying older:_________

4. A synonym for meet: _______

5. A two-word phrase that means without planning to: __________

6. A synonym for similar that starts with a: _______________

7. A synonym for confused that starts with p: _____________

“Die Friends” and “Eating Friends”

by David C.Cooke

The Thais do not usually ask questions of a personal nature, though in some Asian countries this is considered not only quite proper but polite. The Thais feel, instead, that if anyone wishes to tell them anything about his private life, he will do so without being questioned. This sometimes strikes Westerners as a lack of interest, but to the Thais it is only proper courtesy.

One day I was out with Manoon Wongkomolshet and we met a friend of his. The two men talked for a few minutes before saying good-bye. When Manoon and I were alone again, he told me he had gone to school with the other man and had known him for many years.

I asked “Does he have many children?”

“I don’t know”, Manoon replied. “He never told me, and I never asked.”

Friendships play an important role in the life of the Thai people. Among men, friends are often described as ‘die friends’ or ‘eating friends’. The ‘die friendship’ is an ideal that is not often realized today, however, for it requires a willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the friend. Instead of using each others’ names, men often refer to each other as Pee or Nong. Pee means Younger Brother.

There is also a similar friendship between girls.

One night at a party I was introduced to a young lady who had come in with another girl. The one I was talking with was named Kanjan, and I found out later that the other girl was named Soy.

As Kanjan and I talked, I asked her about Soy, and she said, “She is my sister. We came to Bangkok from the north, and we are living together here.”

Several days later I encountered Kanjan again, by accident, in a store. She was alone, and I asked her about her sister.

“My sister is fine,” she said. “But she could not come shopping with me. She had something else to do.”

After a while I said, “You know, I would never have taken you two for sisters. You really don’t look anything alike. I don’t see any similarity at all.”

“We don’t have the same mother and father,” Kanjan said. “That is the reason.”

“But you said you were sisters,” I replied, puzzled. “How can that be?”