“13, Talking about yourself HA «chinese astrology organises years into cycles of twelve with each year named after an animal. The Chinese believe that the year you are born in affects your character. ‘animal year characteristics s 1972, 1984, | Imaginative, charming, generous, Os 1996 quick-tempered, opportunistic! ERE | 1997 1973, 1985, | Conservative, methodical, conscientious, chauvinistic?, a born leader Tee 1974, 1986, | Sensitive, emotional, tend to get “eM. |. | cart ay bor ocean /_ 1975, 1987, | Affectionate, obliging’, gallant®, BD | 1999 sentimental, superficial” ‘DRAGON Agee |e 1964, 1976, | Fun-loving, popular, perfectionist, gifted, may sometimes be tactless® we 1965, 1977, | Sagacious®, charming, intuitive", | 1989 stingy inclined to procrastinate!' HORSE 1966, 1978, | Diligenc'?, independent, placid! Dae 1990 friendly, can be selfish and cunning COA 1967, 1979, | Elegant, artistic, always ready to WW fis complain, plagued by" worry MONKEY |, | 1968, 1980, | Witty, magnetic personality’, can be SBP | 1992 self-seeking!® and distrustful woDsTe 1969, 1981, | Industrious, shrewd", decisive, very 1993 extravagant, flashy'® dresser PO gy | 1970. 1982, | Downrto-carth,altrisd™, morose®, TP | see sharp-tongued?!,a faultfinder?? 7, 1971, 1983, | Incellectual, colerant, naive, downfall Ke | 1995 could be desire for material goods using situations for own benefit systematic, careful 00 patriotic become too excited and lose control ready to help (of man) polite to women not caring about serious things inclined to say things that upset or offend people wise '© understanding instinctively "delay doing something "2 hard-working "2 calm, does not easily become excited or angry '4 troubled or distressed by 'S personality that attracts people to you 6 wanting to gain advantage for oneself ”” having good judgement expensive or impressive '® thinking of others rather than oneself gloomy 2! inclined to speak in a severe and critical way critical person ® without enough experience of life, trusting too easily % cause of destruction Charming, witty, wise ~ recognise yourself? Stingy, selfish, sly — must be somebody else! Some words in the chart above have positive associations, others negative ones. Here are some words from the chart together with other words that share some aspects of their meaning. The table shows which have positive and which have negative associations. positive negative positive negative generous, unstinting extravagant, immoderate shrewd, astute cunning, sly resolute, dogged stubborn, mulish sober, serious morose, sullen thrifty, frugal stingy, parsimonious ‘witty, pithy sharp-tongued, terse diligent, industrious | work-obsessed, tolerant, broad-minded | unprincipled, (@) workaholic unscrupulous 44 English Vocobulary in Use (Advanced)13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 _{/ Tete ell you about my new colleagues, Pat, my bost, scems very satute and Exercises Match the words on the left with their opposites on the right. Use a dictionary if necessary. 1 altruistic unsystematie 2 diligent generous 3 intellectual thick-skinned 4 methodical unhelpful 5 morose flexible 6 obliging low-brow 7 quick-tempered selfish 8 sensitive cheerful 9. stingy placid 10. stubborn lazy Answer these questions. 1 Which animal represents you? To what extent do the characteristics apply to you? 2. Think of a friend and find their animal in the chart. Give examples of why you think each characteristic is appropriate or not. EXAMPLE My friend is a rooster. | think he is industrious because he worked very hard to find a lot of information for a research project he had. to complete at college. | don't think he is shrend because someone tricked. him into investing in a. non-existent company. Arrange all the adjectives and descriptive phrases from A into three columns under the following headings. describe me might describe me do not describe me Which people does the speaker have a positive opinion of and which a negative one? witty. I find her deputy, Vince, a bit parsimonious and work-obsessed. I share an office with Julie who’s a bit sullen and mulish. I also do a lot of work with Sam who's very tolerant and generous. Now imagine that someone else is talking about the same people, but sees them in a different light. How might he or she describe them? EXAMPLE Pat is very sly and. terse. What are the abstract nouns from these adjectives? Use a dictionary if necessary. 1 altruistic 3 diligent 5 industrious. 7 gallant 9 morose 2 parsimonious 4 placid 6 sagacious 8 terse 10. unscrupulous The words in 13.6 are more unusual words and are most likely to be found in writing. Give a synonym for cach word that would be more likely to be used when speaking. EXAMPLE altruistic — unselfish Eq Find some useful vocabulary for describing your own or others’ personality by doing an Internet search on the word ‘horoscopes’ and following any links which interest you. On some websites it is possible to do personality quizzes to find out what sort of person you are. Perrery English Vocabulary in Use (Advanced) 45