Oxford English (Second Edition) 1A Unit 1

1 Bring my world to life

Describing appearance

Steve is neither tall nor short. George is bald, so he does not Baby Joe has a chubby face
He is average in height. need to comb hair. and a sweet smile.

David has naturally curly hair. Chloe has a fringe. It entirely Patty often goes jogging, so
covers her eyebrows. she has a lean physique.

My PE teacher is muscular. Bill has a narrow face and a Tom has put on some weight
She works out every day. goatee. recently. He is plump.

Amy has a slender waistline. Jane has a square face. Becky has long wavy hair.

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Oxford English (Second Edition) 1A Unit 1

Practice
You want to tell your parents about some of your new classmates. Look at their
pictures and write descriptions of their appearances with the adjectives describing
appearance on page 2 and other suitable adjectives.

1 Paul
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________

2 Ann
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________

3 Ben
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________

4 Vivian
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________

5 Tony
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________

6 Emma
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
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 Oxford English (Second Edition) 1A Unit 1

Describing personality and traits

Angela is adventurous. She Gina is so clumsy. She often Rita and Sue are very
loves challenging herself. drops her things. competitive. They both want
to win in this contest.

Wilson is confident that he will Ed is a conscientious Nancy is considerate towards

get full marks in his exams. student. He works with great everyone in the elderly home.

Timmy is a deceitful little boy. Kelvin is the most energetic Hannah is generous. She
He takes pleasure in telling boy in the dancing class. often gives gifts to her friends.

Mr Brown is an honest man. James is so introverted that it Kelly is an outgoing girl. She
He never tells lies. is hard for him to make friends. loves meeting new friends.

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Oxford English (Second Edition) 1A Unit 1

Practice
You are writing an email to your penfriend about your new classmates. Complete the
descriptions with the adjectives describing personality and traits on page 4.

Dear Julian,

How have you been? I have just started my new school life in a secondary school.
I have met many new classmates. I would like to tell you about some of them.
Dan is really (1) _______________. Yesterday, there were no seats left on the bus.
He offered his seat to a little boy with a heavy backpack. He is also
(2) _______________ because he often donates his pocket money to charities.
Charlotte is a/an (3) _______________ girl. She always wants to be the winner of
everything. She is quite (4) _______________ that she can achieve what she aims
for. She really believes she is the best.
Angela is a girl with a beautiful heart. She is so (5) _______________. Yesterday,
she found 500 dollars on the floor in the school hall. She could keep that money
herself, but she immediately told a teacher about it. I don’t think there is a
(6) ____________ bone in her body.
Tony is (7) _______________ as he loves being outdoors and exploring new places.
But at the same time he is quite a (8) _______________ student. He puts great
effort into his homework and presentation.
Matt is the most (9) _______________ person I’ve ever met. It’s really hard for him
to open up and talk to new people. He’s really (10) _______________ too. He often
drops his books or stubs his toe.
Finally, there’s Laura. She’s so (11) _______________! She never gets tired of trying
exciting and physically demanding activities. She’s also (12) _______________ and
friendly towards others as well. It is easy for her to be good friends with others.
Write back soon!

Best,
Patrick

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 Oxford English (Second Edition) 1A Unit 1

Understanding parts of speech

You can understand the meaning of a sentence better if you can identify the parts of
speech.
Part of speech Function Example
Verb show an action, an event or a state be, give, go, put, run, talk,
Noun refer to a thing, a place, an idea or art, book, glasses, hope,
a person London, music, Orwell,
rice
Adjective describe a noun angry, brave, faithful,
short, skinny, thoughtful,
young
Determiner used before a noun to show which a, all, an, every, his, many,
thing is being referred to some, the, this, that, your
Adverb describe a verb, an adjective or an calmly, carefully, fast,
adverb jokingly, lazily, quickly, well
Pronoun replace a noun to avoid repetition I, you, we, they, he, she, it
Preposition used with nouns or pronouns to above, around, at, behind,
form phrases to describe things beside, between, from, in,
next to, on, under, without
Conjunction join words or sentences although, and, but,
however, since, therefore
Interjection show an emotion eh, hmm, ouch, ugh, whoa

Other examples of the different parts of speech:

Verb:

Noun:

Adjective:

Determiner:

Adverb:

Pronoun:

Preposition:

Conjunction:

Interjection:
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Oxford English (Second Edition) 1A Unit 1
Examples
1 (verb) Mark walked to the bathroom, brushed his teeth and combed his hair.
2 (noun) The boy went to the supermarket in Central to buy some eggs and milk.
3 (adjective) The big red bus is full of tired passengers.
4 (determiner) Some reference books in the library are too difficult for us to read.
5 (adverb) Sharon was running quickly and nervously because she mistakenly
thought that a man was trying to attack her.
6 (pronoun) She talked to him and he agreed that they should meet us tonight.
7 (preposition) Roberta is waiting on the corner of the street at the bus stop
opposite the supermarket.
8 (conjunction) Kenneth is good at drawing but weak in Mathematics.
9 (interjection) Oh no! I forgot to bring my textbook for the English lesson today!

Practice
You are writing an email to your aunt. You want to check the parts of speech of the
words in the email. Write the correct parts of speech above the underlined words.

Dear Aunt Stella,

How are you? School (1) has just started and I’ve met lots of new (2) classmates
(3) at my new school. They are all so interesting.
David is kind (4) and considerate. He always (5) helps other students (6) with their
homework. He also likes to look after animals and make sure that no one hurts
(7) them.
Vanessa is outgoing. It seems she makes (8) a new (9) friend every day. She gets
bored (10) quickly if she doesn’t make new friends. I think she has made more than
30 new friends already!
Let me (11) tell you about Ron. He lives on a farm. (12) However, he doesn’t like
talking about it. I (13) think he feels embarrassed, but I don’t understand why. He
gets (14) angry when people mention it.
Finally, there’s Jennifer. She usually walks around (15) lazily and she’s so (16)
clumsy. She often drops her things, but she is really humorous. I like being (17)
around her because she makes me laugh with her hilarious (18) jokes all the time.
(19) Oh! My mum has just asked me to help her with (20) some housework. Bye for
now!
Love,
_______________

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 Oxford English (Second Edition) 1A Unit 1

Useful expressions
1 The brothers are very competitive because they have to fight for their parents’
attention.
2 Because they have all their parents’ attention, they are confident and sure of
themselves.
3 Don’t get me wrong. I would love to join the party but I have to finish my
homework today.
4 I’m not going to let this person walk all over me, so I have come up with a plan.
5 Rachel always thinks about others before herself.
6 My baby brother can be very annoying sometimes when he throws a tantrum.
7 They have almost nothing in common.
8 They say the key to a lasting friendship is to keep in touch.

Self-study list
Write down other words and expressions you have learnt in this unit.

Describing appearance

Describing personality and traits

Understanding parts of speech

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 Oxford English (Second Edition) 1A Unit 1

Know the text type

Personal description

Victoria Wong
Timeline About Friends Photos Update Info

About me
❶ Welcome to my blog! This is where you’ll learn all about me—
Victoria Wong. I’m a 13-year-old teenager from Hong Kong. My dad
Basic information
about the person
is a banker and my mum is an engineer. I have an elder sister. I like
having an elder sister because we chat with each other a lot and she
gives me a lot of useful advice that helps me in my daily life.

❷ I have relatively fair skin. I think it’s inherited from my parents

because my mother also has such pale skin colour. I have long
Information about
wavy hair and I sometimes tie it up in a ponytail. I have a fringe
the person’s because I think I look good with it. I’m of average height—I’m neither
appearance
tall nor short. I’ve got a slender figure, so my grandma keeps saying
that she needs to feed me a lot of food. Every time I visit her, I eat
like a horse, but as she said again and again, I’m still too skinny!

❸ My teachers often comments that I’m very studious. Every day

when I get home from school, I do my homework immediately. While
others are out playing at the weekend, I’m in the library doing my
The person’s revisions. I want to be an astronaut when I grow up, so I need to
personality,
hobbies and keep working hard. My favourite film is Interstellar. In this film, the
interests main character has to join a group of astronauts as they journey far
outside our solar system in a race against time to find a new home
planet for the human race. I love this film because it is both exciting
and thought-provoking.

❹ At home, we have a cute puppy named Alex. I’ve been training

him and teaching him lots of cool tricks. For instance, I can put a
Other interesting
facts about the treat on his nose and he won’t eat it until I give the proper command.
person
We love going for walks together in the dog park. There, I can let
Alex off his lead and let him run freely.

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 Oxford English (Second Edition) 1A Unit 1

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Oxford English (Second Edition) 1A Unit 1

Writing task
You want to write a personal description of yourself. Use the useful phrases and
expressions, the writing tips and the brainstorming section on the next page to help
you.

Useful phrases and expressions

I’m a …
I live in/I’m from …
My father/mother is a/an …
I have … brother and/or sisters.
I have blonde/black/ginger hair.
People tell me that I’m …
My favourite hobby is …
I enjoy … at the weekends.
I’m a/an … person.
An interesting fact about me is …
While I enjoy …, I also like …

Writing tips
Use the simple present tense to write your personal description.
Use adjectives to describe your appearance and personality.

Support your statements with details. For example, don’t just say that you are
an adventurous person. Give examples to show how you are adventurous, e.g.
I go mountain biking every Saturday.

Add some interesting facts about yourself in your personal description. This will
arouse readers’ curiosity to know more about you.

Use informal language in your personal description, e.g. I’m, I’ve, you’ll.
Remember, this is something for your friends and family to read.

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 Oxford English (Second Edition) 1A Unit 1

Brainstorming
Use the following guideline to help you come up with ideas for your personal
description.

My appearance (Hair, build, weight, face, skin tone, etc.):

My personality and traits:

My hobbies and things that interest me:

Any other interesting facts about me:

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