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1. ULACIT Spelling and Vocabulary: Didactics and assessment Instructor: Jose G. Cespedes vvv DESCRIBING PEOPLE • In pairs, match the words with the definition. Decide which words are negative and which one are positive. Sociable Intolerant Modest Temperamental Egotistical Easygoing Stingy Unreliable Supportive A person who won’t accept other people’s differences. Someone who doesn’t like giving things to people; ungenerous. Someone who expresses a very high opinion of him or herself. Someone who is helpful and encouraging. A person who doesn’t do what he or she promised. A person who enjoys being with other people. A person who has unpredictable or irregular moods. A person who doesn’t worry much or get angry easily. Someone who doesn’t brag about his or her accomplishments. The degrees of comparison: (known as the positive, the comparative, and the superlative.) We use the comparative for comparing two things and the superlative for comparing three or more things. Notice that the word than frequently accompanies the comparative and the word the precedes the superlative. The inflected suffixes -er and -est suffice to form most comparatives and superlatives, although we need -ier and -iest when a two-syllable adjective ends in y (happier and happiest); otherwise we use more and most when an adjective has more than one syllable • Listen to conversations that describe three people. Are the descriptions positive or negative? Write two adjectives for each person in the chart. Andrea: ________________ ________________ James: ________________ ________________ Mr. Johnson: ________________ ________________ • Listen to the reading. Once you listened to it, read it and discuss the following question with your group. What do you think about renting a friend? • Think of a least three adjectives to describe yourself. Talk to your partner why you chose them. Rent-a-friend agencies growing in Japan There are many new ways of making friends in today’s world. The best known of these is meeting new pals online. The Japanese are doing things a little differently. There is a growth in rent-a-friend agencies. The only catch is that the friends you meet will not become your true friends. You simply rent one when you need one for a specific occasion. The friends for rent are professional fakers. They will pretend to be anyone you want them to be. They serve a very useful purpose in Japan, where it’s very important to keep up social appearances. If you do not have a best man for your wedding or you need a rich aunt to seal a business deal, rent-a-friend agencies will provide you with the perfect impersonator. Britain’s Guardian newspaper reports on RyuichiIchinokawa, the owner of the “I want to cheer you up” agency. He has been the best man at weddings, making jokes about happy couples he did not know, and has acted as the uncle of students at school sports days. The Guardian says: “He dutifully cheered them on, recorded their efforts on his handheld video camera and joined in the adult-and-child races.” Ichinokawa charges just over $150 as a rental charge, but says there are extra fees for singing at a karaoke party or making a speech at a wedding. Ryuichi says he plans everything in detail so he doesn’t embarrass his client. He boasts: "In three and a half years I've never once been caught out." How are adjectives ordered: Observation — post-determiners and limiter adjectives (e.g., a real hero, a perfect idiot) and adjectives subject to subjective measure (e.g., beautiful, interesting) Size and Shape— (e.g., wealthy, large, round) Age — (e.g., young, old, new, ancient) Color — (e.g., red, black, pale) Origin — adjectives denoting source of noun (e.g., French, American, Canadian) Material — denoting what something is made of (e.g., woolen, metallic, wooden) Qualifier — final limiter, often regarded as part of the noun (e.g., rocking chair, hunting cabin, passenger car, book cover) Let’s talk! Create a role play based on the reading. It might be a talk show, a dialogue, TV news, and so forth. Be creative! Remember to use the language studied.