Exercise 5. Complete each passage below with the correct words from the list above it to make an accurate description of one of the people in the illustration. 1


Complete each passage below with the correct words from the list above it to make an accurate description of one of the people in the illustration.

1 cuff formally tucked lanky breast pocket
  creases button-hole double-breasted bow-tie bowler hat

He’s a tall, (a) __________ man. He’s wearing a (b) ____________ on his head, a dark, (c) ________ suit and a black (d) ________ . An inch of (e) ________ shows from each of his sleeves. He has immaculate (f) ________ in his trousers. He has a flower, in his (g) __________ and a handkerchief (h) __________ into his (i) _________ . He’s quite (j) __________ dressed.

 

grin trainers skinny plain casually
  lapels pigeon-toed slanting patched bare-footed

She’s a (a) _________ little kid, with a broad (b) _________ on her face. She’s wearing (c) _______ jeans and a zip-jacket with (d)________ pockets and no (e) __________. Underneath she’s wearing a (f) ________ T-shirt. From the way she’s standing, she looks a bit (g) _________. She’s very (h) ________ dressed. She’s (i) _________ but she’s carrying her shoes in her hand. They look like (j) ________ .

 

hips waist expression buckle strongly-built
  upright closely-cropped bare-headed broad clean-shaven

He’s a (a) ________ man with (b) ________ shoulders and a slim (c) ________. He has no beard or moustache; he’s (d) _________. He’s not wearing a hat; he’s (e) _________. He has (f) _______ hair and a serious (g) ________ on his face. His trousers are held up by a belt with a large, round (h) __________ . He’s standing very (i) __________, with his hands on his (j) ________.

 

bow clasped slender wavy parted
  teens polo-neck figure pleated high-heeled

She’s young, still in her (a) ________. She has a (b) ________ (c) _________ and she’s standing with her hands (d) _________in front of her. Her fair, (e) ________ hair, which is (f) ________ in the middle, has a ribbon with a (g) ________ in it. She’s wearing a full, knee-length (h) ________ skirt, a loose (i) ________ pullover and black, (j) _________ shoes.

 

folded obese baggy braces thirtyish
  checked rolled up side-burns flat cap bow-legged

He’s not very old, maybe (a) _______, and he’s standing with his arms (b) __________.

He’s rather (c) ________, as jockeys sometimes are, and he’s fat, almost (d) ________.

He has a (e) ________ on, so you can’t see his hair, except for his long (f) __________.

He’s wearing a (g) __________ shirt with the sleeves (h) __________ and a pair of

(i) _________ trousers held up by (j) _________.

 

It is interesting to know

& Reading

Find answers to the questions marked a) in the passage from the story by Erskine Caldwell given below. Then read the story again and answer the questions marked b).

a) 1. What was the first thing Tuffy Webb saw when he woke up that morning?

2. What colour was the silk band round the hat?

3. What did Tuffy do as soon as he jumped out of bed?

4. How did Tuffy walk past the mirror?

5. Why did he pull his hat carefully over his head while he was cooking breakfast?

6. Why did his hat, tilted over one ear, looked like a cock’s comb?

7. What did Tuffy have to do after breakfast?

8. Why did he finally decide to leave his new hat at the house?

9. What did he remember seeing a cow at once?

10. Where did Tuffy place his hat when he went to drive the cows to the pasture?

b) 1. What kind of feeling did the new straw hat give Tuffy?

2. How was the hat to change Tuffy’s position among his neighbours?

3. How was the new hat to affect Nancy and make her change her attitude towards

Tuffy?

4. Why was Tuffy reluctant to part with his new straw hat for even a moment?

 

When Tuffy Webb woke up that morning, the first thing he saw was his new straw hat hanging on the back of the cane-bottomed chair beside the bed. The red, orange, and blue silk band around the hat looked as bright in the sunshine as the decorations in the store windows in town on circus days. He reached out and felt the rough crown and brim running his fingers over the stiff brown straw. He would never have to step aside for anybody, in a hat like that. That was all he needed, to get the world by the tail.

‘Maybe that won’t knock a few eyes out,’ Tuffy said, throwing off the covers and leaping to the floor. ‘They’ll all be cross-eyed from looking at it’.

He placed the hat carefully on his head and walked over to the mirror on the wall. The new straw hat looked even finer Sunday morning than it had Saturday night, when he tried it on in the store.

‘When Nancy sees this hat, she’ll come tumbling,’ Tuffy said, stepping back and tilting the hat a little on one side of his head and winking at himself under the brim.

He walked past the mirror several times, free and easy in his loose knee-length nightshirt, turning his eyes to see himself passing. It was easy to get up courage in a hat like that.

‘I could have all the girls after me now if I wanted them,’ he said to himself.

Tuffy got dressed in a hurry and made a fire in the cookstove. He pulled the hat down carefully over his head so it would not fall off and hit the floor while he was cooking breakfast.

During all the time he was in the kitchen he kept thinking to himself that he would not have to keep back much longer after that, not after Nancy saw him in his hat. She would be tickled to death to marry him now, the first time she saw him walking up to her house with the sailor* tilted over one ear, sort of like a cock’s comb that always looked like it was going to fall off but never did.

After breakfast Tuffy had to drive the cows to the pasture on the other side of the creek because it had become time for them to have a change of feed, and the grass over there was ready for grazing.

He started off his hat on his head, but he got to thinking about it and finally decided he ought to leave it at the house. Sometimes a yearling took to heels* and bolted into a thicket, and he didn’t like to think of taking any chances of having the hat fall off into briers and mud, and maybe being trampled by the cows. Now that he was thinking about it, he remembered seeing a cow chew up a straw hat once and swallow it.

He hurried back to the house and hung the hat on the cane-bottomed chair beside the bed.

*a yearling took to heels – a year-old cow or bull ran away from the herd

*a sailor – a flat straw hat.