3. 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 stupid
___________
____________
nice unpleasant
___________
____________
relaxed tense
___________
lazy
____________
____________
hard-working
generous mean
____________
____________

4. 49.2 Which prefix forms the opposite of these words? (You need three
different prefixes.)
• unhappy
• reliable • unreliable
• flexible • inflexible
• sensitive • insensitive
• friendly • unfriendly
• kind • unkind
• honest • dishonest
• pleasant • unpleasant

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

6. 49.4 Fill the gaps with a suitable word.
1 At work, James __________across as serious and a bit
comes
boring, but outside of work he's completely different; he's
really good __________ .
fun
2 It's important to __________ a good impression on your first
make
day in a new job.
3 I'm sure he can find the place; he just needs to use his
common __________.
sense
4 Meeting new people doesn't worry her; she's a very self-
__________ young woman.
confident
5 It's hard to know what Sam thinks - he doesn't really
__________ his feelings.
show
6 Do you think __________ impressions are very important? I
first
do.
7 I always have a laugh with my cousin - he's got a great
sense of __________.
humour
8 She is so __________ -minded: she cannot accept any
narrow
ideas different from her own.

7. 49.5 What nouns can be formed from these adjectives? Use a
dictionary to help you.
• kind Kindness
• optimistic optimism/optimist
• punctual (person)
punctuality
• lazy
laziness
• confident
confidence
• ambitious 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.