People – Appearance and Character — Unit 1, Pre-intermediate to Intermediate English

My Aunt Clara is in her late fifties, but she doesn't look her age. She has a **slim** figure and a very **cheerful** personality, so she is rarely in a bad **mood**. Her hair is turning **grey**, which she hates, but she has very few **wrinkles** for her age because she keeps fit at the gym twice a week and walks to the shops every morning.

My Uncle Joe is quite different. He is in his early sixties with a **stocky** build and broad shoulders, and he is completely **bald**, which makes him look older than he is. He can be **moody** in the mornings, yet he is **generous** and would give anyone his last penny. They have been married for over thirty years and still **get on well**. People say I **look like** my aunt, but my sister **takes after** Uncle Joe — she has the same build and can be just as moody when she is tired.

Their daughter — my cousin Nadia — is nothing like either of them. She is only twenty-four, **tall** and very **skinny**, with long **wavy** hair that she dyes a different colour every few months. At the moment it is dark red. She has **freckles** across her nose, which she covers with make-up, although everybody tells her they suit her.

Nadia is the most **ambitious** person in our family. She finished university two years ago and now works for an advertising agency in Manchester. She is extremely **hard-working**: she leaves the house at seven and often does not come home until nine. Her mother worries that she never rests.

What I like most about her is that she is completely **honest**. If you ask her opinion about your new jacket, she will tell you the truth, even when the truth is not what you want to hear. Some people find this **unfriendly**, but I think it is a good quality. She is never **mean** — she simply does not pretend.

Her younger brother Sam is the opposite in every way. He is nineteen, of **medium height** and quite **well-built**, because he plays rugby three times a week. He is **sociable** and **cheerful**, the sort of person who knows everybody in the room after ten minutes. Unfortunately he is also rather **lazy** about anything that is not sport, and he failed two of his exams last summer.

When the whole family sits down for Sunday lunch, it is a long and noisy afternoon — but nobody would want it any other way.