1.4. Write the correct word in each space to complete the idiomatic phrases: head, heart, face, neck, stomach, foot, hand, skin, arm, shoulders.

1. “Would you like to be a mountaineer?” “Oh, no, I don’t have a very good ___ for heights”.

2. Don’t get too involved with those people. Keep them at ___’s length.

3. You may not like him, but you’ve got to ___ it to him. He’s a financial genius.

4. Once a child is born, you are destined to spend at least 18 years with your hand in your wallet and your ___ in your mouth.

5. She likes to keep her feelings to herself. She’s not the sort to wear her ___ on her sleeve.

6. I know I should go to the meeting but I just can’t ___ it.

7. I find horror films absolutely revolting and I just can’t ___ them. They make me feel sick.

8. The pass mark was 65 % and he got 65,3 %, so he made it by the ___ of his teeth.

9. She will lose ___ if she has to admit she made a mistake.

10. Ironing is my least favourite activity. It’s a real pain in the ___.

11. If I were you I’d vote for J. Huddlestone. She’s ___ and ___ above the rest.

12. I hadn’t the ___ to tell him I’d already eaten after he’d gone to so much trouble cooking dinner.

• Make up a short situation using the idiomatic phrases.

1.5.  Read the following descriptions. Lily Smalls

(She is looking in the mirror and talking to herself.)

Oh, there’s a face. Where you get that hair from? Got it from old tom cat. Give it back, then, love. Oh, there’s a perm. Where you get that nose from, Lily? Got it from my father, silly. You’ve got it on upside down. Oh, there’s a conk. Look at your complexion. No, you look. Needs a bit of make-up. Needs a veil. Oh. there’s glamour. Where you get that smile, Lil? Never you mind, girl. Nobody loves you. That’s what you think. Who is it loves you? Shan’t tell.

(from Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas)

perm: longlasting waves or curls put into hair at a hairdresser’s

conk: nose

Bookrest

The girl lay back on the slope of the river bank, her eyes closed against the sun. Her dark hair fanned out on each side of her face, her white, even teeth biting on a long stalk of grass as the young man looked down at her. Her skin was pale despite the freckles on her neat, pert nose, but her mouth was poppy red, full and tempting.

The young man’s hair was almost white and it lifted softly in the breeze off the river. He was reading silently from an open book that was resting on the girl’s stomach.

(from Codeword Cromwell by Ted Allbeury)

The Translator

The woman is watching me. She smiles sympathetically then goes back to her work. She is reading through a stack of foreign newspapers and occasionally marking an item with a thick black pencil. She is a linguist, fluent in most European languages. During the night the marked passages will be translated and Fidel will read them with his breakfast. She is not attractive. Her face is dominated by a large forehead and nose. Her neck is short and her shoulders box-like. But she is very intelligent. I wonder if she would trade her intelligence for beauty. But naturally. Stupid people never realise their stupidity. Beautiful people enjoy their attraction every waking moment. But the ultimate is to be beautiful and intelligent.

(from Siege of Silence by A.J.Quinnell)