38 A
Clothing and appearance Actions connected with clothing and appearance
roll up one’s sleeves zip up a jacket The trousers are too short, so let them down.
B
tie back your hair The trousers are too long, so take them up.
The children love dressing up.
Dressing up to go out
Lottie is telling Alice about a party she went to. Lottie Most people looked really smart – there were some amazing designer outfits – but there was one man in a weird getup1 with a red wig. It looked as if he thought it was a fancy-dress party! Alice
(laughs) What did you wear?
Lottie
Well, to tell you the truth, it was rather a disaster. I wanted to wear my little black dress, but I had trouble getting into2 it. I didn’t realise how much weight I’ve put on over the past few months. I’ll have to let it out3 or else lose some weight! When I’d finally squeezed into it, I looked so awful in the mirror I just took it straight off again and pulled on4 my boring old brown dress. You know, the wool one with the full skirt that I’ve worn a million times.
Alice
Oh, I like that dress.
Lottie Well, so do I, but it was all creased and I didn’t have time to iron it, so I just smoothed it down5 with my hands and hoped for the best. I was so late by this time, I didn’t realise till I got to the party that I had the wrong colour shoes on. I was still wearing my sister’s cast-offs6, which go perfectly with my black dress but not with my brown one! But it didn’t really matter because when the music started, I flung my shoes off7 to dance anyway. 1
4 the particular clothing, especially when strange put on clothes quickly 5 or unusual, that someone is wearing press with your hands in order to make 2 be thin enough to be able to put your clothes on something flat 3 6 make a piece of clothing wider by removing clothes which have been given to somebody else the sewing from the side edges and then because the first owner cannot use them any more 7 sewing closer to the edge of the material removed very quickly
Tip Remembering a story and the verbs used to describe the events is a good way of learning a series of verbs at the same time. 80
English Phrasal Verbs in Use Advanced
