NORTH LONDON SCHOOL OF ENGLISH. Title: Personality. Read the text and fill in the gaps with the words from the box.

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1 Title: Personality. Read the text and fill in the gaps with the words from the box. Pessimistic Sympathetic Impulsive Calm Ambitious Aggressive Toughminded Goaloriented Imaginative Patient Analytical Stubborn Loyal Accurate Spontaneous Curious Practical Cheerful Eccentric Precise Dogmatic Your character is a mix of four basic personality types: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic. Around 50% of the variations in human personality are defined by genetic factors. However, the personality itself is built up of two completely different traits: character and temperament. What s the difference Character and Temperament? The difference between your character and your temperament is as follows: Your character traits come from your experiences, for example: Your parents habits, preferences and values The norms of your society in expressing love and hate What your relatives considered to be normal and acceptable What was considered dangerous What was considered funny Plus many other cultural aspects. Temperament, however, is the balance of your personality. These are biologically based tendencies that you inherited from your parents. This is your disposition to think and feel in a certain way that appeared from your early childhood. Since the days of Ancient Greece and continuing onwards to the present day, it was confirmed that there are four different types of personality. Sanguine Personality Traits the Boredom Busters The Sanguine personality is affected by a chemical called dopamine, which makes these people intensively curious. It can be expressed in their love of reading and different kinds of knowledge. They usually possess a high amount of energy, so they might seem restless and Copyright 2014, North London School of English. All rights reserved. 1

2 This type of personality loves the life of luxury; they like to impress others by their expensive clothes, designer accessories and sport cars. So you can t say that they are 2.. If choleric people thrive on the money-making process itself, sanguine people know how to enjoy money, luxury and comfort like nobody else. People with a sanguine personality adapt easily and generally can play many roles 3., lively and optimistic, and they have the ability to absolutely charm the pants off anyone that seeks their attention. Their need for variety and luxury explains why they prefer to live in big cities where they can satisfy their desires much more easily. These people are very autonomous and 4.. They trust their impulses and take risks. Their motto is: Nothing venture, nothing gain. They launch into projects that seem sure to fail but somehow always manage to win big! Phlegmatic Personality Traits People with phlegmatic personality are unassuming, agreeable and intuitive, and they possess the ability of web thinking, i.e. to see the relationship between many bits of data they collect. Phlegmatic personality traits are linked to oestrogen, which is present in both men and women. However, phlegmatic people are predominantly female. These people are 5. they like to think abstractly about the things that can only be imagined. For example, they will try to read your body language and tell you what you were thinking from your half-smile. The Phlegmatic person will want to know other people s deepest feelings and strive to build intimate attachments with almost everyone in their lives. They are interested in cooperation and interpersonal harmony, and this is why they preserve their family ties and friendships. When there is a conflict, they seek to agree, so that they are not 6. at all and 7. - feeling fairly relaxed about things. They could be described as cooperative, considerate, charitable, 8., trusting and warm. They like to express their feelings, sometimes dramatizing their experience. Copyright 2014, North London School of English. All rights reserved. 2

3 The Choleric Temperament NORTH LONDON SCHOOL OF ENGLISH A Choleric personality is associated with testosterone and although every temperamental make-up is represented by members of both sexes, most choleric people are men. Generally Cholerics are money-oriented people they are fascinated by stocks, investments, money markets and all kinds of revenue generation methods, just as others are fascinated by art and poetry. These people are very 9. and they make for naturally gifted businessmen. Constantly looking for opportunities and always working on themselves, they are 10. people who build successful businesses that thrive and benefit others. This doesn t mean that these people are greedy for money, by any means! From their perspective, work is considered to be fun. However, they never do well in a subordinate position they are all about independence, financially and otherwise They are 11. and have a wonderful focus as they work. Their concentration is deep and narrow and this is why, when they are busy with something, they are simply not capable of noticing other things that are going on around them. This type of person is very 12. and logical. These people are kings and queens of figuring out things. Extremely 13., they act in accordance with their motto: Talk is cheap. This means that they prefer to prove themselves with action and put the talk aside and this may be hard for other people to understand. Moreover, they are quite 14. and do not like people to change their opinion. Melancholic Personality Traits Patient, Orderly and Attentive. Men and women with a melancholic personality share many traits they tend to be 15. deeply attached to their family and community friends and extremely careful. Respectability and moral issues are particularly important to them and they will often love to follow typical norms of society and family traditions. They are respectful to authority, follow rules and feel comfortable in hierarchies, where structure, rules and order are implemented. It is important for them to feel themselves a part of the larger community. They see their loyalty to it as a duty. Melancholic personality traits are associated with serotonin, which suppresses aggressive tendencies. This explains why melancholic people are calm and 16., feeling sure about their ability to do things. Copyright 2014, North London School of English. All rights reserved. 3

4 These people pay attention to detail: They remember special dates, anniversaries and events They will remember details about their neighbours and colleagues. Melancholics need to be orderly even in their speech they are very 17. and 18. expressing all of the relevant information and if you interrupt them or ask them a question they will think you are not interested in what they are talking about. Melancholics are persistent and patient. They don t get bored easily and excel at tasks that require attention and repetition. Interestingly, repetitive actions raise levels of serotonin even more and this is why some people repeat one and the same action over and over when they are anxious, like checking to see if the door is closed well or if they turned off the stove or re-checking their suitcase before going to the vacation. Sadly an unbalanced melancholic is most susceptible to OCD (obsessivecompulsive disorder), where a person engages in meaningless rituals, like counting, washing hands or excessive cleaning in order to prevent some disaster he imagines. On the negative side, people with a melancholic personality may become closed-minded, 19. and stubborn. They also tend to be 20. which may turn into fatalism, believing that nothing will ever change for the better. Sometimes they get overly critical, judgmental, expressing their own moral superiority. Temperament, however, is the balance of your personality. These are biologically based tendencies that you inherited from your parents. This is your disposition to think and feel in a certain way that appeared from your early childhood. Since the days of Ancient Greece and continuing onwards to the present day, it has been proved that there are four different types of personality. Copyright 2014, North London School of English. All rights reserved. 4

5 Key 1. Spontaneous 2. Eccentric 3. Cheerful 4. Impulsive 5. Imaginative 6. Aggressive 7. Calm 8. Sympathetic 9. Practical 10. Ambitious 11. Goal-orientated 12. Analytical 13. Tough-minded 14. Stubborn 15. Loyal 16. Patient 17. Accurate 18. Precise 19. Dogmatic 20. Pessimistic Copyright 2014, North London School of English. All rights reserved. 5