Exercises

49.1 Organise these words into pairs of opposites and put them in the
columns below.
mean clever nice lazy relaxed
hard-working tense generous unpleasant stupid
positive negative
Clever
____________
____________
____________
____________

___________
___________
___________
____________
____________
nice
relaxed
hard-working
generous
stupid
mean
lazy
tense
unpleasant
49.2 Which prefix forms the opposite of these words? (You need three
different prefixes.)

unhappy
reliable
flexible
sensitive
friendly
kind
honest
pleasant

unreliable
inflexible
insensitive
unfriendly
unkind
dishonest
unpleasant

49.3 How would you describe the person in each of these descriptions?
1 She's always here on time.
2 He never bought me a drink in ten years.
3 She often promises to do things but half the
time she forgets.
4 I don't think he's done any work since he's
been here.
5 She finds it difficult to meet people and talk
to strangers.
6 He can work in any of the departments - on
his own or part of a team.
7 One of her qualities is that she is so aware of
what other people think or feel.
8 I know Mike wants to be head of the
department and then go on to a bigger
company.
Punctual
2 mean
3 unreliable
4 lazy
5 shy
6 flexible
7 sensitive
8 ambitious
49.4 Fill the gaps with a suitable word.

1 At work, James __________across as serious and a bit
boring, but outside of work he's completely different; he's
really good __________ .
2 It's important to __________ a good impression on your first
day in a new job.
3 I'm sure he can find the place; he just needs to use his
common __________.
4 Meeting new people doesn't worry her; she's a very self-
__________ young woman.
5 It's hard to know what Sam thinks - he doesn't really
__________ his feelings.
6 Do you think __________ impressions are very important? I
do.
7 I always have a laugh with my cousin - he's got a great
sense of __________.
8 She is so __________ -minded: she cannot accept any
ideas different from her own.
comes
sense
confident
show
first
humour
narrow
fun
make
49.5 What nouns can be formed from these adjectives? Use a
dictionary to help you.

kind
optimistic
punctual
lazy
confident
ambitious
Kindness
optimism/optimist
(person)
punctuality
laziness
confidence
ambition

49.6 Choose three words from the opposite page which describe you. Is
there one quality you do not have but would like to have? What, in your
opinion, is the worst quality described on the opposite page? If possible,
compare your answers with a friend.