Part B Reading
Understanding Human Beauty
If someone were to walk right up to you and asked you to define beauty, what would you say? Would you start describing a cover girl you saw in one of the popular magazines, or colors of the rainbow? Or would you consider a soft piece of music or even a romantic poem from a lover? All these can be defined within the concept of beauty but one thing that is clear is, there is no definite definition of beauty.
A popular definition of beauty is that it is a characteristic about something that gives a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction. Therefore for beauty to be understood, it must cause the senses to feel a feeling of joy, pleasure and satisfaction. From this definition, the judge of what’s beautiful is the person who receives or fails to receive the pleasure.
How is this definition of physical beauty actually used among human beings? What makes one be considered beautiful and attractive?Is a person considered beautiful necessarily attractive? These are difficult questions which do not have a direct answer. The way the societies we live in view beauty is influenced by many things, for example, cultural factors. In the past, each culture had different criteria upon which they based beauty. There are those cultures that considered plump women to be beautiful. Others considered small feet to be beautiful. These have,however, changed a lot in modern times. With the development of technology and human interaction, the differences in cultural preferences have been reduced and we now almost have a standard way of viewing beauty. This is greatly influenced by top fashion houses. The images they push to the public, including the dress, walking style and physique,have increasingly become the trend that the rest of the world is expected to follow.
But what about inner beauty? According to many researchers,physical beauty is always improved by a measure of inner beauty. A person may have all the necessary features to be physically beautiful but without inner warmth, the person will be seen as cold. While outer beauty and appearance is made up of factors like health, youth, skin, etc.,defining what inner beauty is depends on characteristics like politeness,intelligence, elegance, personality, etc.
Therefore, what we see on the catwalk is not necessarily the true representation of beauty. Human beauty is so rich in variety that we can have no set standards by which to define it and each individual is beautiful in her own way.
(419 words)
Exercises
Task One Read the text and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
1. Beauty is a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction. ( )
2. A beautiful person is not necessarily attractive. ( )
3. Plump women with small feet are definitely beautiful. ( )
4. The images pushed to the public by fashion houses do not necessarily represent true beauty. ( )
5. A physically beautiful person is internally beautiful. ( )
Task Two Match the words.
1. view A. power of learning, understanding and reasoning; mental ability
2. image B. the state or activity of working together to produce an effect on each other
3. intelligence C. to consider something in the mind; to regard something (as something)
4. personality D. standards or principles by which something is judged, or with the help of which a decision is made
5. plump E. characteristics and qualities of a person seen as a whole
6. criteria F. the impression that a person, an organization, a product, etc.gives to the public
7. define G. the size and shape of a person’s body
8. physique H. having a soft, round body; slightly fat
9. interaction I. to say or explain what the meaning of a word or phrase is
10. elegance J. qualities of grace, beauty and fashion
Task Three Complete the sentences by using the words from Task Two.Change the word forms if necessary.
1. I wish I had a more confident_______________.
2. Her appearance had left on me an impression of high-born_______________.
3. He equals me in strength but not in_______________.(https://www.daowen.com)
4. The athlete has a powerful_______________.
5. I have this_______________of you as always being cheerful.
6. Price is determined through the_______________of demand and supply.
7. The baby is_______________and very cute.
8. An experiment was made to check up on the reliability of the_______________.
9. We_______________every customer as a partner.
10. It is difficult to_______________what makes him so popular.
Task Four Fill in the blanks with the words given below. Change the word forms if necessary.
1. She likes her clothes to be simple but_______________.
2. There is no agreed_______________of what happiness is.
3. Though very_______________, she is rather modest and hardworking.
4. It is not a good manner to ask_______________questions.
5. The competition attracted over 500 college students_______________8 different countries.
6. There should be a lot more_______________between the social services and local doctors.
7. The two groups of children have quite different_______________.
8. He stood up to get a better_______________of the blackboard.
9. The_______________of the boy is steadily improving.
10. An interesting_______________of the city is the old market.
Task Five Rewrite the following sentences after the models.
Model 1:
In the past, each culture had different criteria, which they based beauty upon.
In the past, each culture had different criteria upon which they based beauty.
Model 2:
If someone walk right up to you and ask you to define beauty, what will you say?
If someone were to walk right up to you and ask you to define beauty, what would you say?
Task Six Translate the following sentences into English and use the given words or phrases.
