Page 75 - English Vocabulary In Use upper intermediet and advance

3 4 Describing people - character

Intellectual ability
Ability: intelligent bright clever smart shrewd able gifted talented brainy
(colloquial)
La~kingabilit~: stupid foolish half-witted simple silly brainless daft dumb
dim (the last four are predominantly colloquial words)
Clever, in a negative way, using brains to trick or deceive: cunning crafty sly

Attitudes towards life
Looking on either the bright or the black side of things: optimistic pessimistic
Outward-looking or inward-looking (i.e. to the world around one or to one's own inner
world): extroverted introverted
Calm or not calm with regard to attitude to life: relaxed tense
Practical, not dreamy in approach to life: sensible down-to-earth
Feeling things very intensely: sensitive

Attitudes towards other people
Enjoying others' company: sociable gregarious
Disagreeing with others: quarrelsome argumentative
Taking pleasure in others' pain: cruel sadistic
Relaxed in attitude to self and others: easy-going even-tempered
Not polite to others: impolite rude ill-mannered discourteous
Telling the truth to others: honest trustworthy reliable sincere
Unhappy if others have what one does not have oneself: jealous envious

One person's meat is another person's poison

Some characteristics can be either positive or negative depending on your point of view. The
words in the right-hand column mkan roughly the same as the word; in the left-hand column
except that they have negative rather than positive connotations.
determined - obstinate stubborn pig-headed
thriftyleconornical - miserly mean tight-fisted
self-assured - self-important arrogant full of oneself (colloquial)
assertive - aggressive bossy (colloquial)
original - peculiar weird eccentric odd
frankldirectlopen - blunt abrupt brusque curt
broad-minded - unprincipled permissive
inquiring - inquisitive nosy (colloquial)
generous - extravagant
innocent - naive
ambitious - pushy (colloquial)

(See also Units 12, 73 and 78.)

English Vocobulary in Use