Reading
1. Read the text. You're Gorgeous!
For many in the 1990s, supermodel Cindy Crawford was the perfect American dream girl: slim, tanned and natural-looking, with long, shiny hair. People have described her as “The Face of the Decade”.
But people have not always had the same ideas about beauty. Until the 1920s, suntans were for poor people, “ladies” stayed out of the sun to keep their faces as a pale as possible. In the times of Queen Elizabeth I of England, fashionable ladies even painted their faces with lead to make them whiter - a very dangerous habit, since lead is poisonous!
And people in the eighteenth century would not have thought much of Cindy Crawford's hair! Ladies in those days never went out without their wigs, which were so enormous (and dirty) that it was quite common to find mice living in them. As for the “perfect beauties” painted by Rubens in the seventeenth century, if they wanted to be supermodels today, they would need to spend moths on a diet!
Ideas of beauty can be very different according to where you live in the world, too. For the Paduang tribe in South East Asia, traditionally, the most important sign of female beauty was a long neck. So at the age of five or six, girls received their first neck ring, and each year they added new rings. By the time they were old enough to marry, their necks were about twenty-five centimetres long!
And what about the ideal man? If you asked people today to name an attractive man, most of them would mention someone like James Bond, Harrison Ford or someone tall and athletic, brave and “manly”.
In the eighteenth century however, “manliness” was very different from what it is today. As well as wearing wigs, perfume and lots of make-up, a true gentleman showed that he had feelings by crying frequently in public. According to one story, when the British Prime Minister, Lord Spencer Percival, came to give King George some bad news, both men sat down and cried!
3. Translate the following words and word combinations from the text.
to have the same ideas about beauty, to stay out of the sun, to keep faces as pale as possible, poisonous lead, enormous and dirty wigs, to be common to find, to spend months on a diet, tribe, male (female) beauty, to add a ring, manliness, manly, to wear make-up, to cry frequently.
4. Which of these statements do we know are true? Explain your answers.
Pale skin was more popular than tanned skin until the twentieth century.
Elizabethan make-up was not very safe.
In the eighteenth century most fashionable ladies liked mice.
Ladies in Ruben's times probably never went on diets.
If Paduang women didn't have a long neck, they couldn't get married.
People in the eighteenth century thought that it was OK for men to cry.
4.Find the words and expressions from the text that describe “appearance”.
5. Make up ten questions to the text and retell it.
LISTENING
1 Listen to a young woman pointing out her friends at a party. Listen and write each name to the correct person in the picture(Susan, Kevin, Sam, Mary).
2 Listen again and write adjectives to describe each person’s character.
3 Describe the appearance of some other people. Your partner must try to guess who you
are describing. Think of suitable adjectives too. Use the vocabulary.
WRITING
1.Write an essay to comment on one of the following quotation.
Someone once said: "Always remember to be happy because you never know who's falling in love with your smile." Is this true?
2. Describe the ideal appearance and character of the person.
SPEAKING
Discuss the following questions with your partner and use them as a plan when making up the final monologue on the topic.
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1.What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘smile’? 2.Why is a smile so nice? 3.Someone once said: "Always remember to be happy because you never know who's falling in love with your smile." Is this true? 4.How many different smiles can you name? 5.What is a fake smile? 6.What can you do in your life to smile more? 7.Are you optimistic or not? 8.What is beauty? 9.Do you think different races have different perceptions of what beauty is? 10.Which is more important mental or physical beauty? 11.Do you think you have the same concept of beauty as your friends? 12.What are the most important features when determining someone’s beauty? 13.Do you think the idea of beauty changes? 14.Can you describe the ideal character? 15.Can you describe the ideal appearance? 16.Do you think you are a beautiful person? 17.What are the best adjectives to describe your personality? 18. Do you always see eye to eye with other people? |
UNIT 12 INCREDIBLE