B2 The body

B2 VOCABULARY: THE BODY

Reading The Table

PICTURE

(you add this)

"The body only lies from the neck up."

Parts of the body · organs · verb phrases (shrug your shoulders, fold your arms) · reading body language

Reading

Speaking

A · LEAD-IN

Your tell

Poker players talk about "tells" - tiny body signals that betray what someone is thinking.

• Do you have one? Do you know if you have one?

• Does your partner, best friend or mother have one you've never told them about?

• Who is the hardest person you know to read?

PICTURE

(you add this)

B1 / B2 · VOCABULARY

Precision anatomy, and the organs

1. Label the leg, top to bottom: thigh -> ______ -> ______ -> ______ -> heel. (Use: knee, calf, ankle.)

2. Now the arm and hand: elbow -> ______ -> ______ / ______ / ______. (Use: wrist, palm, fist, nails.)

3. Where are your hips relative to your waist?

4. Which organ? pumps blood · fill with air · clean the blood (there are two) · processes what you drink, among 500 other jobs · is reading this sentence.

5. Use: brain · heart · kidneys · liver · lungs.

B3 · VOCABULARY

Match each verb to the body part it goes with.

Then act out - don't define - these standalone verbs: wink, frown, yawn, stretch, kneel, wave, scratch, stare, point, chew, hug.

1. bite

2. blow

3. fold

4. shrug

5. raise

6. comb

7. shake

8. hold

a) somebody's hand

b) your arms

c) your nose

d) hands with smb / your head

e) your hair

f) your nails

g) your eyebrows

h) your shoulders

C · BEFORE YOU READ

Forty years at the card table

Viggo Larsen has played competitive card games for four decades, and he barely watches the cards any more. "Cards don't lie, but they don't talk either."

READ ONCE AND ANSWER

PICTURE

1. Which body signals does Viggo say are reliable "tells"?

2. Which famous one is mostly a myth?

3. First: where do you think people give themselves away?

(you add this)

C · READING

Reading the table: what forty years of card games taught me

"Don't read one signal; read the change."

Viggo Larsen has played competitive card games for four decades, and he barely watches the cards any more. "Cards don't lie, but they don't talk either," he says. "Bodies never stop talking."

Start with the myth. "Everyone thinks a wink or a dramatic frown means something. At a serious table, it means nothing - anything a player can control, they will control. The face is a mask; people rehearse it in mirrors. If someone raises their eyebrows at their cards, they're performing surprise for you. Politely applaud, then ignore it."

The truth, he says, lives further from the brain. "The face is close to headquarters, so it obeys orders. Hands and feet are the distant provinces - discipline breaks down out there. Watch a nervous player's hands: they'll bite their nails between rounds, scratch their neck, fold and unfold their arms. One champion I played for twenty years had exactly one tell: with a

monster hand, she'd stop touching her chips

completely. Stillness. Her hands went quiet the way a forest goes quiet. Took me a decade to see it and I've never respected anything more."

"Below the waist is even more honest. Feet point at what they want - at the door when someone wants to leave, at a person they like. Ankles lock around chair legs under pressure. I've watched a man's calf bounce under the table like a sewing machine while his face discussed the weather."

And the body under real stress betrays itself in ways no one rehearses. "People forget to breathe, then over-breathe - you can watch a chest rise and fall change rhythm. Swallowing gets loud. One player always yawned - genuinely yawned - at moments of maximum tension; the body demanding oxygen while the face pretended boredom. And the classic: someone stretches, shrugs their shoulders, all theatrical relaxation - nobody relaxed ever announces it."

C · READING (continued)

Reading the table: what forty years of card games taught me

Does it work outside the card room? "Everywhere. Job interviews, negotiations, first dates - I hugged my future son-in-law the day he came to ask about marrying my daughter, and his heart was going like a rabbit's. Knees together, palms flat on his thighs, sitting like a schoolboy outside the head's office. Lovely young man. Terrified. I gave my blessing before he'd finished the question - anyone whose body cares that much about the answer has already told you everything."

His single rule, for cards and for life: "Don't read one signal; read the change. Everybody bites their nails or stares or taps a foot - that's just being a person. It's when the pattern breaks that somebody's telling you something. The body only lies from the neck up."

D · COMPREHENSION

True, false, or not mentioned?

1. Viggo believes facial expressions are the most reliable signals.

2. The champion's tell was that her hands became completely still.

3. Feet often point towards what a person wants.

4. The yawning player was genuinely bored.

5. Viggo's future son-in-law appeared physically calm.

6. Viggo's rule is to look for changes in a person's normal pattern.

E · LANGUAGE FOCUS

Harvest, possessives and metaphor

1. Find at least ten body parts and eight body verbs in the text. Which verb phrases from B3 appear?

2. Possessives. The text says bite their nails, shrug their shoulders. Why not the nails, the shoulders? (One exception survives: look somebody in the eye - note it, don't generalise it.)

3. Metaphor hunt: hands went quiet the way a forest goes quiet · the distant provinces · going like a rabbit's. Which body idioms do you know built on heart, hand, eye, neck? (learn by heart, give someone a hand, keep an eye on, up to my neck in...)

4. Minimal pairs: shake hands and shake your head - one greets, one refuses. Wave and point - why is one friendly at any distance, and the other rude when aimed at people?

F1 · CONTROLLED PRACTICE

Complete with a body part.

1. I twisted my ______ on the stairs - same one as always, swollen like a plum.

2. She rested her ______ on her ______s and stared at the screen. (arm joint / upper legs)

3. He clenched his ______ but kept his voice calm. Impressive control.

4. The doctor listened to my ______ and ______ - heart fine, breathing fine.

5. New shoes: blister on the ______, ache in the ______. Beauty is a marathon.

6. She stood with her hands on her ______, in the international posture of "explain yourself".

7. The ______ and ______ filter and process - treat them kindly at the office party.

8. Open your ______ - I want to see what's in your hand. The ______s tell me you've been stressed.

F2 · CONTROLLED PRACTICE

Complete with the correct verb in the correct form.

Use: bite · blow · fold · shrug · raise · wink · frown · yawn · stretch · kneel · scratch · stare · wave · hug · chew · point.

1. Stop ______ your nails - you'll have none left by the exam.

2. He ______ his shoulders as if to say "not my problem".

3. She ______ an eyebrow - one, singular, devastating.

4. Don't ______ at people; gesture with your whole hand.

5. The audience started ______ during the third hour. Even the speaker ______.

6. He ______ at me across the table - was that friendly, or is something in his eye?

7. She ______ her arms and ______ - the full disapproval package.

8. ______ your nose, don't sniff! Here's a tissue.

9. We ______ goodbye until the train disappeared, then ______ each other and cried a bit.

10. The cat ______ at the door for an hour. The dog ______ its ear and ignored the drama.

G · FREER PRACTICE

The tell

In groups of four: each player secretly chooses a feeling: nervous · delighted · bored · hiding good news · exhausted or your own.

• Hold a group "meeting" about a fake agenda, acting only through body language. Nobody may state a feeling.

• Others note the observed signals in target vocabulary (she kept scratching her wrist... he folded his arms and stared...), then diagnose each player.

• Homework (optional): write Viggo's paragraph about you (80-120 words, third person): your honest tells when nervous, tired, and secretly delighted. Ten body items minimum.

PICTURE

(you add this)

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

B1 thigh -> knee -> calf -> ankle -> heel. elbow -> wrist -> palm / fist / nails. Your hips are below your waist.

B2 1 heart · 2 lungs · 3 kidneys · 4 liver · 5 brain.

B3 bite - your nails · blow - your nose · fold - your arms · shrug - your shoulders · raise - your eyebrows · comb - your hair · shake - hands or your head · hold - somebody's hand.

C GIST Reliable: hands and feet (nail-biting, changes in stillness, foot direction, locked ankles), breathing and swallowing changes, incongruent yawns and stretches - and above all changes in the pattern. The myth: controlled facial expressions - winks, frowns, performed eyebrow-raises.

D 1 False. 2 True. 3 True. 4 False - the yawn was stress and oxygen; boredom was the mask. 5 False - rabbit heartbeat, schoolboy posture. 6 True.

E 2 English uses possessives with body parts (their nails), not the; look somebody in the eye is a fixed exception. 4 Pointing singles a person out, which reads as accusatory in many cultures.

F1 1 ankle · 2 elbow / thighs · 3 fists · 4 heart / lungs · 5 heel / calf · 6 hips · 7 kidneys / liver · 8 palm / nails.

F2 1 biting · 2 shrugged · 3 raised · 4 point · 5 yawning / yawned · 6 winked · 7 folded / frowned · 8 Blow · 9 waved / hugged · 10 stared / scratched.