Never Again!

I hate traveling. It’s not that I’m unwilling (willing), it’s just that I’ve got a problem. Three problems actually, and they are called Charlie, Ella and Jack. Ranging in age from eleven down to three, they’re irresistible (resistible) when they’re asleep. But when they’re awake they’re (1) _____ (relent). Individually they’re hard work; in twos they’re a handful; all together, they’re a nightmare. More often than not they’re (2) ______ (obedient) and seem to have endless competitions to see who can behave in the most (3) _____ (devil) way. On top of that, they all want my (4) _____ (divided) attention at the same time.

Under these (5) _____ (stress) circumstances, you may think that it would be foolish of me to even consider traveling alone with my children. Well, I know now that it wasn’t just foolish, but downright (6) _____ (responsible).

I wanted to visit my parents. My husband couldn’t come, so I set off on the five-hour train journey with a bagful of toys, a pocketful of sweets and a headful of songs, stories and games.

But (7) _____ (regard) of my careful preparations, the journey was (8) _____ (hell): it was one of the worst experiences of my life. The final straw was when I arrived, exhausted and (9) ____ (tear), at my parents’ house. Instead of being sympathetic, they took great delight in telling me how awful I had been as a child. Thanks, Mum and Dad, that was really (10) _____ (help)!

Exercise 7

Give adjectives corresponding to:

Policy, economy, Germany, nature, sun, wind, rain, fog, hope, use, home, respect, bore, frighten, interest, amuse, wool, wood, silk, gold, depend, complicate, pleasure, courage.

Exercise 8

Write down adjectives opposite in the meaning to the following:

Courageous, wild, hot, heavy, narrow, beautiful, civilized, strong, slow, cruel, soft, expensive, healthy, new, clean, friendly.

Exercise 9

Fill in the gap with the correct adjective.

1. I couldn’t work out who the letter was from. The signature was _____. I know Shakespeare is very popular but I find him totally _____. (unreadable / illegible)

2. Sarah is so _____. She is always having temper tantrums. It was so wonderful to watch the tiny lambs playing, I got such _____ pleasure from the experience. (childish / childlike)

3. Sophie is extremely _____ at the moment, anything you say seems to upset her. Karen is not a very _____ person; she wore high-heeled shoes for our four-mile walk. (sensible / sensitive)

4. I’ve never known her to tell a lie; she is a very _____ person. I can never watch sad films that are based on a _____ story; they always make me cry. (true / truthful)

5. Susan is so _____ of other; she never accepts anyone else’s opinion, and always thinks she knows best. I find Mark’s behaviour _____; it’s unfair to be so selfish. (intolerable / intolerant)

6. We are having an _____ crisis at the moment; James has lost his job and I don’t know how we are going to pay the mortgage. It’s more _____ to drive slowly; you can do a lot of more miles to the gallon. ( economic / economical)

7. The result was a _____ disappointment to us, though the lawyer outlined a _____ defence. (great, large / powerful, strong)

Exercise 10

Point out all the substantivized adjectives and state whether they are fully or partially substantivized.

1. He basked in the company of the young.

2. We must take the bitter along with the sweet.

3. She warned the domestics not to touch the child, as Mrs. Osborne must be offended.

4. It was a surprise to the optimistic: but it was even more of a surprise to the experienced.

5. I know he is a right good fellow, but it belongs to the rank of the impossible.

6. Mary turning her glance from one to the other of the “old dears”, only smiled.

7. How do I know what’s gone on between you? The rights and the wrongs of it. I don’t want to know.

8. He was wearing greens, garrison hat, and all his ribbons.

9. They were like poor savages confronted with a beautiful white girl.

10. This year I covered half the world and saw people in such numbers – it seems to me I saw everybody but the dead.

11. But they had been such innocents then!

12. He was, as they saw it, part of the rich and superior class and every poor man knew what they meant. The poor must stand together everywhere.

13. I was soon to discover that Sheila was never interested in what “inferiors” had to say.

Exercise 11

The following adjectives describe people’s physical characteristics. List them as in the example. Some of them can be used more than once.

Blue, short, oval, tiny, straight, medium-height, dark, slim, upturned, muscular, brown, wavy, freckled, overweight, blond, almond-shaped, long, plump, wrinkled, ugly, shabby, crooked, elegant, attractive, Roman, fashionable, slanting, tall, casual, curly, green, well-built.

e.g. _____________________________________________________________________

Height build face eyes nose hair clothes

_____________________________________________________________________

Tall well-built pretty green straight curly casual

_____________________________________________________________________

Exercise 12

The following adjectives describe people’s personal characteristics: lazy, intelligent, practical, reliable, patient, unstable, generous, boring, optimistic. Choose the most appropriate one to fill in the sentences.

1. Mary is a very ____________ person. You can always count on her what you ask her to.

2. He tends to be ___________ . His mood is likely to change at any time.

3. He is a very ___________ person; he puts in very little effort at work.

4. Mick can often be _____________ ; he has a tendency to repeat the same old stories.

5. She has a very _________ outlook on life; she never expects anything to go wrong.

6. The teacher is very ____________ with her students; she always explains things several times.

7. The little boy is so ____________ that he can do big brother’s homework.

8. My uncle is very __________ ; he always gives money to charity.

9. My son is very ___________ ; he is full of energy and high spirits.

10. My husband is very ___________ . He repairs everything around the house.

Exercise 13

The following adjectives describe objects. Put them in order, as in the example:

Enormous, ancient, light, rubber, round, modern, little, purple, Spanish, British, steel, childish, flat, Chinese, metal, heavy, red, square, disgusting, new, black

Opinion size/weight age shape colour origin material noun

A beautiful large old round blue Egyptian woolen carpet

Exercise 14

Read the following report and put the adjectives into the correct order, then cover the text and try to describe the suitcase.

On May 20, 1996, I was travelling from New York to Montreal on the 8.30 am express train. However, due to an expected transfer via Boston on the 11.50 am train to Montreal my luggage was lost. The missing item is a(n) ( leather, old, square) suitcase. Each corner of the suitcase is covered by a ( dark, small, leather ) patch, which is fastened by ( metal, tiny, round ) studs. The suitcase is covered with many ( paper, colourful, interesting ) labels, and has got a handle. There are also two ( metal, silver, small ) locks on either side of the handle. The suitcase contains mostly clothes and also a ( black, plastic, new ) hairdryer, and a ( grey, Japanese, lightweight ) camera. If the suitcase is found, please contact me at this telephone number: (617)555-1877 between the hours of 9am – 5pm daily.

Exercise 15

Put the adjectives in brackets in the correct position.

Model: a beautiful table (wooden round) – a beautiful round wooden table.

1. an unusual ring (gold)

2. an old lady (nice)

3. a good-looking man (young)

4. a modern house (attractive)

5. black gloves (leather)

6. an American film (old)

7. a large nose (red)

8. a sunny day (lovely)

9. a hot bath (nice)

10. an ugly dress (orange)

11. a red car (old / little)

12. a metal box (black / small)

13. a long face (thin)

14. a wide avenue (long)

15. a big cat (fat / black)

16. a little village (old / lovely)

17. long hair ( fair / beautiful)

18. an old painting (interesting / French)

Exercise 16

Put these words in the correct order to describe clothes.

Model: a polo-neck sweater white – a white polo-neck sweater.

• T-shirt an short-sleeved old;

• Green a cardigan plain;

• Beautiful scarf a cashmere;

• Sweater a v-neck striped

• Silk flowery waistcoat a

Make five new combinations of adjectives and nouns

Exercise 17

Use the following adjectives to describe any noun you like, the main task is to use two or more of them in the correct order.

• Old

• Stripy

• Beautiful

• Wool

• Leather

• Second-hand

• Horrible

• Check

• Short-sleeved

• New

• Full-length

• Fabulous

• Plain

• Armani

• Silk

In most languages, when we use two or three adjectives to describe a noun there are rules about the order of the adjectives. Put the given adjectives in the correct order for English.

Exercise 18

Make up sentences picking one word from each of the columns below.

Origin	shape	size	value	material	colour	Age / temperature
Rural New York German English domestic urban	square triangular round circular oval T-shaped	big small little heavy huge light	dirty famous brilliant talented beautiful ugly	iron plastic wooden cotton metal	blue black red green yellow brown pink	young old new cold hot warm

Exercise 19

Translate into English.

1. Біля воріт стояв старий англійський автомобіль.

2. Усі газети написали про цього молодого талановитого німецького драматурга.

3. На круглому маленькому столику з червоного дерева лежав незакінчений лист.

4. Молода чарівна француженка увійшла до кафе.

5. У неї не залишилося нічого, крім старого вовняного плаття коричневого кольору.

6. Він був молодим високим нью-йоркським поліцейським.

7. До будинку вела стара напівзруйнована дорога.

8. Я давно мріяла купити невелике кругле дзеркало для ванної кімнати.

9. Величезний натовп розлючених вкладників вимагав повернути їм гроші.

10. Ця велика нещаслива слабка домашня тварина викликала загальне співчуття.

11. Зимовий холодний пронизливий вітер не міг зруйнувати теплу щиру атмосферу в кімнаті.

12. Таке легке рожеве шовкове плаття могло б прикрасити будь-яку дівчину.

13. Молоді незалежні африканські держави набувають все більшого впливу у світовій політиці.

14. Довга розкішна атласна чорна сукня виявилася для нас занадто дорогою.

15. Молодий недосвідчений хімік із Франції здивував увесь світ своїм відкриттям.

Exercise 20

Comment on the use of the underlined adjectives.

1. She was his oldest child.

2. “Come and shake hands with Mr. Carey, Sally”. He turned to Philip. “Isn’t she enormous? She’s my eldest. How old are you, Sally?” “Fifteen, father, come next June”.

3. Mary climbed hastily into the nearest compartment and was lost to sight.

4. No further news had come.

5. The last laugh died away.

6. The latest news was very important.

7. The wooden bridge was nearly three quarters of a mile across.

8. She sent him a gold cigarette case.

9. The sand was golden yellow as if the sun struck through the water all the way to the bottom of the sea.

Exercise 21

Translate into Ukrainian. Pay attention to the degrees of comparison of the adjectives.

1. He made her feel like the most interesting, fascinating girl in the world.

2. Our teacher is the most pleasant and intelligent young man.

3. It was no longer possible to hear exactly what she said. Ann was the quickest in the hospital of guessing what Jill’s remarks might be.

4. The greatest ideas are the simplest.

5. He greeted me like his dearest friend.

6. At last we are here; the forest is the most beautiful in Africa.

7. He was the most anxious to get to the camp in time.

8. Wells regarded him with the greatest kindness.

Exercise 22

Give the comparative and superlative degrees of the following adjectives:

Strong, wide, happy, greedy, beautiful, difficult, dangerous, useful, important, magnificent, fortunate, courageous, good, bad, little, many.

Exercise 23

Use the appropriate form of the adjective given in brackets and supply the article where necessary.

1. The hall was (full) when they arrived, but it seemed ever (fuller) now.

2. His shirt looked (yellow) than usual.

3. “Of all the (stupid) questions I’ve ever been asked,” he said angrily, “that’s (stupid).

4. This path is (narrow) than that one.

5. You’re (charming) girl I’ve ever seen in my life and (delightful).

6. She had never given anyone to understand that she was (poor) than the rest.

7. Runway zero-eight was (long) of the airport’s three runways.

8. How (handsome) he was! He was (handsome) man in the party.

9. Oh, you’re (wonderful), you’re (wonderful) girl in the whole world.

10. His eyes are (true) things I ever saw.

11. She was (thin) and (white) than when last he had seen her.

Exercise 24

Use the appropriate form of the adjective given in brackets.

1. His age was fifty; he looked several years (old).

2. The (old) brother came from the stable and Bill stood still, hands clenched.

3. Jim was (old) by only four years but already there was grey in his hair and deep lines in his face.

4. Uncle Charles and Dante clapped. They were (old) than his father and mother but Uncle Charles was (old) than Dante.

5. Ann went downstairs to the dining-room, where her husband, his parents and his three (old) children were assembled for luncheon.