1. Universities try to select the most able pupils. 2. Matilda was the brightest pupil in her class. 3. You know that everything looks better in the morning. So you must sleep on it. 4. The weatherman says that the weather is again changing for the worse. 5. She is talking into the smallest mobile phone. 6. He looked like the handsomest man shed ever seen in her life. 7. Its the weirdest thing Ive ever heard. 8. I think that the less they know the less they have to worry about. 9. The sooner you forget it the better. 10. This is the oldest untruth in the book of Lies. 11. They had a late lunch with cheese, delicate blinis () with the finest caviar. 12. The child behaved in the most impossible way. 13. Im happier now than Ive ever been in my life. 14. Its more difficult to find a good job now than it was twenty years ago. 15. You are the cleverest man in Oxford and the laziest. If youre not careful, youll end up in Parliament. 16. The grass is always greener on the other side of the road. ( ). 17. The more I know people, the more I like dogs. (an English proverb)
Exercise 2.
A. Read and translate the sentences. Pay attention to the descriptions given in them.
1. Harry looked nothing like the rest of the family. Uncle Vernon was large and neckless, with an enormous black moustache; Aunt Petunia was horse-faced and bony; Dudley was blond, pink and porky. Harry, on the other hand, was small and skinny, with brilliant green eyes and jet-black hair that was always untidy. He 
glasses, and on his forehead was a thin scar. 2. Mrs. Reynolds was a tall, striking woman in her late forties, with blond hair and a typical pink English complexion. She had a friendly smile and an assertive yet sympathetic way about her. 3. Tonight Samantha wore well-tailored blue jeans, a white cotton shirt, a black gabardine blazer, and highly polished black Oxfords with white socks. 4. I shivered. It was a damp November night and quite cold, typical English winter weather. 5. It was a radiant day, the sky was a high blue and clear, and the sun was brilliant. 6. It was a blustery day. There was a high wind that blew the new green leaves off the trees. It was a chilly morning but the sky was a cerulean blue filled with puffy white clouds that raced across the great arc of the sky.
(from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling)
B. Describe:
a) the appearance of any person you like;
b) the weather on the day you are reading this.
Exercise 3.
A. Read the following and say how the same qualities in men and women are often described by adjectives, say whose descriptions are generous, and whose are loaded with negative connotations.
He is ambitious; she is pushy. He is firm; she is stubborn
He is tough-minded; she is ruthless. He is self-respecting; she is egoistical.
He is foresighted; she is calculating. He is persistent; she is nagging.
