Exercise 1. Read and translate the following sentences. Comment on the choice of degrees of comparison.

1. Universities try to select the most able pupils. 2. Matilda was the brightest pupil in her class. 3. You know that everything looks better in the morning. So you must sleep on it. 4. The weatherman says that the weather is again changing for the worse. 5. She is talking into the smallest mobile phone. 6. He looked like the handsomest man she’d ever seen in her life. 7. It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard. 8. I think that the less they know the less they have to worry about. 9. The sooner you forget it the better. 10. This is the oldest untruth in the book of Lies. 11. They had a late lunch with cheese, delicate blinis (блины) with the finest caviar. 12. The child behaved in the most impossible way. 13. I’m happier now than I’ve ever been in my life. 14. It’s more difficult to find a good job now than it was twenty years ago. 15. You are the cleverestman in Oxford and the laziest. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up in Parliament. 16. The grass is always greener on the other side of the road. («У других всегда всё лучше»). 17. The more I know people, the moreI like dogs. (an English proverb)

Exercise 2.

A. Read and translate the sentences. Pay attention to the descriptions given in them.

1. Harry looked nothing like the rest of the family. Uncle Vernon was large and neckless, with an enormous black moustache; Aunt Petunia was horse-faced and bony; Dudley was blond, pink and porky. Harry, on the other hand, was small and skinny, with brilliant green eyes and jet-black hair that was always untidy. He glasses, and on his forehead was a thin scar. 2. Mrs. Reynolds was a tall, striking woman in her late forties, with blond hair and a typical pink English complexion. She had a friendly smile and an assertive yet sympathetic way about her. 3. Tonight Samantha wore well-tailored blue jeans, a white cotton shirt, a black gabardine blazer, and highly polished black Oxfords with white socks. 4. I shivered. It was a damp November night and quite cold, typical English winter weather. 5. It was a radiant day, the sky was a high blue and clear, and the sun was brilliant. 6. It was a blustery day. There was a high wind that blew the new green leaves off the trees. It was a chilly morning but the sky was a cerulean blue filled with puffy white clouds that raced across the great arc of the sky.

(from «Harry Potter» by J.K. Rowling)

B. Describe:

a) the appearance of any person you like;

b) the weather on the day you are reading this.

Exercise 3.

A. Read the following and say how the same qualities in men and women are often described by adjectives, say whose descriptions are generous, and whose are loaded with negative connotations.

He is ambitious; she is pushy. He is firm; she is stubborn

He is tough-minded; she is ruthless. He is self-respecting; she is egoistical.

He is foresighted; she is calculating. He is persistent; she is nagging.