In this lesson you will ...

Describe yourself
Vocabulary & Expressions Language Focus

poorly introverted pretty, fairly, quite, and rather + adjective /

good-looking introvert adverb. For example: He’s a fairly good-looking
plain social gathering man. Lisa’s rather assertive, isn’t she?
reserved to keep to oneself Pronunciation: Change in meaning when
stressing pretty, fairly, quite, rather vs. stressing
assertive the center of attention the adjective
talkative butterfly Words with the root -vert (extension activity)
fun-loving bird
optimistic owl 
pessimistic  wallflower
(personality) trait social butterfly
extroverted early bird
extrovert night owl

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Warm-up Describe yourself

How would you describe these people? 

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Grammar Describe yourself

Brad is fairly tall and rather good-looking!

  pretty tall.     pretty fast.

Jane is  fairly short. Joe speaks  fairly slowly.
quite good-looking. quite well.
rather plain. rather poorly.

Changing the stress changes the meaning

Rachel is 5’7” (170 cm) tall. She’s pretty tall. (She’s taller than average.)
Gizella is 5’11” (180 cm). She’s pretty tall. (She’s between tall and very tall.)
 
Where does the stress go?
1. Raul speaks English fairly well. (But it could be better.)
2. Your hair is rather long, isn’t it? (Maybe it’s time for a haircut?)
3. Jasmina has always been quite quiet. (She never says much.)
4. The test was pretty hard. (But it wasn’t too hard.) 

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Vocabulary & Expressions Describe yourself

I’m not shy, just reserved

shy            outgoing
reserved             talkative
pessimistic            optimistic
serious             fun-loving
quiet             assertive
            
            

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 Describe yourself

Culture Corner

Wallflower, social butterfly, early bird, or night owl?

1. Wallflowers   a. are people who tend to dislike mornings and

who do their best work quite late in the
evening.

 2. Social butterflies   b. are people who tend to get up rather early and
who do their best work in the morning. 

 3. Early birds   c. are extroverted people who enjoy meeting
other people and attending many different
events. 

 4. Night owls   d. are introverted people who will go to parties
and social gatherings, but will usually keep to
themselves and try to avoid being the center of
attention.
 
What kind of person are you? Do you have similar expressions in your language?

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Performance Describe yourself

Choose a situation. 
 
1. You need to create a short description of yourself for
your profile on a new social media site.

2. You are in a first interview and you’ve been asked, “How

would you describe yourself?”

3. You are talking to a friend of yours. You want to

introduce this friend to another good friend of yours.
Your friend would like to know more about the other
person.

4. You have started seeing someone new. Describe the person to your parents or a friend.

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 Describe yourself

Word Power
Words with -vert
The Latin root word -vert means “to turn.” We saw two words with this root:
introverted = turned inward
extroverted = turned outward
 
Here are some more words with the root -vert. Can you figure out what they mean?
1. Because of the accident, traffic was diverted to another road.
2. When our son left home, we converted his bedroom into an office. 
3. When he came back to live with us, it was reverted to a bedroom. 
4. My e-reader’s night mode inverts text from black-on-white to white-on-black. 
 
a. to turn into something else c. to turn another way 
b. to turn back into, to turn back to d. to turn in the opposite direction

 
Can you think of any other words with -vert in them?

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Online Practice – Credits Describe yourself

  ONLINE PRACTICE 

Unit Photo Credits (listed from beginning-to-end, left-to-right English 6 Complete

within this unit): iStockphoto, Getty Images, Age Fotostock, ©2020 Berlitz Languages, Inc. All rights reserved.
Getty Images, Berlitz, iStockphoto

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Images Describe yourself

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Images Describe yourself

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Images Describe yourself

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Images Describe yourself

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Images Describe yourself

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Images Describe yourself

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