21. Match the words on the left with their opposites on the right.

1 altruistic a) unsystematic
2 diligent b) generous
3 intellectual c) thick-skinned
4 methodical
d) unhelpful
5 morose
6 obliging e) flexible
7 quick-tempered f) low-brow
8 sensitive g) selfish
9 stingy h) cheerful
10 stubborn i) placid
j) lazy

22. Some words in the chart above have positive associations, others negative
ones. Here are some words from the chart together with some other words that
share some aspects of their meaning. The table shows which have positive and
which have negative associations.

Positive Negative Positive Negative

Generous, Extravagant, Shrewd, astute Cunning, sly
unstinting immoderate
Resolute, dogged Stubborn, mulish Sober, serious Morose, sullen
Thrifty, frugal Stingy, Witty, pithy Sharp-tongued, terse
parsimonious
Diligent, Work-obsessed, Tolerant, broad- Unprincipled,
industrious workaholic (noun) minded unscrupulous

Sort out the words under the following categories:

Attitude towards money
Attitude towards work
Intellectual ability
Volitional qualities
Morals and principles
Speaking skill and manner
Thought and mood

27. What adjective describes a person who is:

1. friendly and easy to get along with?
2. generous, noble, and forgiving?
3. able to do many things skillfully?
4. brave, fearless?
5. charming and witty?
6. smooth, polished, cultured?
7. tireless?
28. Read the definitions and match the appropriate adjective from the box:
convivial, magnanimous, indefatigable, urbane, scintillating, ingenuous,
versatile, intrepid

1. He’s a friendly chap, happy and extroverted. He’s the sort of person who will
invite you for a drink, who likes to transact business around the lunch table. He’s
sociable, genial – and he likes parties and all the eating and drinking that goes with
them.
2. He’s pleasantly frank, utterly lacking in pretense or artificiality, in fact quite
unable to hide his feelings or thoughts – and so honest and aboveboard that he can
scarcely conceive of trickery or dissimulation.
3. He is most generous about forgiving a slight, an insult, an injury. Never does he
harbor resentment, store up petty grudges, or waste energy or thought on mean of
revenge or retaliation. He is much too big a person.
4. The range of his aptitudes is truly formidable. If he is a writer, he has
professional facility in poetry, fiction, biography, criticism – you just mention it and
he’ll do it, and very competently. If he is an artist, he’ll use water colors, gouache,
charcoal, pen and ink- he can do anything! Or maybe the range of his abilities cuts
across all fields, as in the case of Michelangelo, who was an expert sculptor, painter,
poet, architect, and inventor.
5. There is not, as the hackneyed phrase has it, a cowardly bone in his body. He is
a stranger to fear, he’s dauntless, contemptuous of danger and hardship.
6. He’s witty, clever, delightful, a brilliant and entertaining conversationalist.
7. He’s cultivated, tactful, socially so experienced, sophisticated and courteous that
he is at home at any group, at ease under all circumstances of social intercourse. You
cannot help admiring his smoothness and self-assurance, his tact and congeniality.
8. We all have different amounts of this wonderful quality – energy- from the
person who wakes up tired, no matter how much sleep he’s had, to that lucky, well-
adjusted mortal who hardly ever needs to sleep. And this man apparently has
boundless, illimitable energy – he’s on the go from morning to night, and often far into
the night, working hard, playing hard, never tiring – and getting twice as much done as
any three other people.