Practice One Working Lives Words You Need to Know
hard up cafe raving moderately Dover
Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the dialogue and put the questions the woman asks in the right order according to the recording.
Woman:Somebody told me that you once did some busking. Is that right?
Man:Oh, yeah. I mean, I did it just after university, or was it while I was at the university?
But anyway in the summer once in the south of France.
Woman:Why was this? Were you hard up or something?
Man:No. It's part of er - if you think you're a folk singer -
Woman:Yeah.
Man:If you've... if you imagine you're a folk singer, then you've got to go busking some time.
It's part of the experience of being a folk singer.
Woman:How did you get on? I mean, What happened?
Man:Well, it wasn't bad. You see, I was a very lucky type of busker. I wasn't er doing it to stay alive.
Woman:No.
Man:I bought a return ticket from Dover to Nice, so that if anything went wrong, I could get straight back again.
Woman:You are all right. Yes, yes.
Man:It really went very well. I started by going round the cafes every evening, and passing a hat round.
Woman:Yeah. Good Lord! What, what did you play? Guitar or something?
Man:Yes, guitar, and sang sort of fairly ordinary folk songs. In those days it was... er all Dylan and Joan Baez type stuff.
Woman:Yeah. And you were a raving success, weren't you?
Man:(laughs)That might be a little exaggerating.
I think I was moderately successful and I was joined by a young French guy I met who didn't sing and didn't play the guitar,
but was a superb hat-carrier.
Woman:Oh, I see.
Man:Er - So I would sing the songs and he'd carry around the hat.
Woman:Yeah, yeah.
Man:It went pretty well. Quite a lot of people gave us quite a lot of money except for the English .
They wouldn't give us a penny. (312 words)
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the dialogue again and answer the following questions briefly.
Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the dialogue again and decide whether the statements you hear are true (T)or false (F).
1)The man bought a return ticket from Dover to Nice in case something should go wrong with his busking.
2)The man started busking by going round the cafes every evening.
3)The man was extremely successful at busking.
4)He collected money himself after each performance.
Practice Two Freelancing
Words You Need to Know
audio-visual graphics motivation board game
stability block kick
Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and decide which is the best answer to each of the questions you hear on the recording.
I'm a freelance audio-visual and graphics designer and I work for the conference industry.
I designing the slide show, which we call AVs, short for audio-visuals.
The first thing I think about in the morning is breakfast.
I'm usually up at about 8.00 a.m. and sit down and start work at about 10.00 a.m. I can do all the designing part of my job at home,
so I might sketch for a couple of hours before lunch.
I'm lucky as I can design very fast. It might take me an hour to design something that would take someone else a day to do.
The problem is that once I've done that, I'll stop and not work for the rest of the day!
As a freelance, there's no one making sure I'm working, so motivation can be a problem
Working freelance means I'm my own boss and I can decide when I work.
Consequently, I have more time for myself. I've designed an adult board game and now I have the time to refine it before I try to sell it to one of the big games companies.
When I was working as an employee of just one company, I couldn't do that because I had to work such long hours.
The disadvantage of freelance work is that you don't have the stability of a monthly wage;
at the moment I don't know if I'll have any work in December and January.
I think my job is the most difficult when I have an idea block. Fortunately, it doesn't happen that often,
but it is quite stressful constantly having to think of new ideas.
Now I've calmed down quite a lot and don't find it as stressful as I used to.
In the afternoons, I may continue working at home or I might have a meeting with a producer.
Now that I'm working freelance and not tied to one company, my evenings and weekends are generally free.
As a designer, it's important for me to keep up with what's happening in the design world,
so I often go to the cinema and exhibitions. But I don't see this as work, it's definitely pleasure!
I think I'll stay in this job for now. I don't think there are many people who really enjoy their work as much as I do.
It's a very exciting job and I get a terrific kick out of seeing my designs up on screen at a show. (407 words)
1)What is the speaker?
2)When does the speaker usually start work?
3)Why does the speaker go to the cinema and exhibitions?
4)What words would the speaker use to describe his work?
Exercise 2:Directions:As the speaker says, there are advantages and disadvantages for a freelance.
Listen to the passage again and complete the following chart.
Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage again and decide whether the following statements are true (T)or false (F),
then underline the word(s)conveying wrong information and correct it.
Practice Three Women and Work
Words You Need to Know
discrimination auxiliary disproportionately
pin money maternity leave telly
Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the dialogue and choose the answer which best summarizes the two women's points of view on their working life.
Anne (A), Kate (K)and Max (M)are talking about women's working life.
A:Well all talk about how liberated we are, but in fact women are still discriminated against all the time.
M:Oh, I don't know, Anne. You've got your careers, so you don't have to get married if you don't want to - I think you've got the best of both worlds.
K:It's so easy to say that, Max. If you're a girl, discrimination begins almost as soon as you're born.
You're given dolls and little cooking sets and fairy stories for your birthday - it's the boys who get the computer games and the guns.
A:It's the same at school. Girls are expected to do art subjects, and home economics and typing.
It's mainly the boys who get into the science and technology courses.
M:But what about all the women who go to university? Actually, they're usually much brighter than men.
K:That's because they are - they have to be to get a place. The trouble is that most of us,
like the boys, are just average, so every year hundreds of girls leave school, take a secretarial course and end up as secretary to some man who treats them as a sort of auxiliary wife.
A:Yes, women are still expected to do non-career jobs.
Except perhaps in teaching and nursing, the ratio of men to women in management,
technology, the professions generally is disproportionately high
M:But I thought that, nowadays, the best qualified person, man or woman, got the job.
A:Very often not. Employers still seem to think women work only for "pin-money",
and then they're always afraid they'll leave after a year or so to have children.
M:But surely most responsible firms provide for maternity leave, child-care and so on.
K:Not nearly enough. In a way it's our own fault. We still think that unless we have children,
We won't be properly fulfilled as women. If we do have them and go out to work,
we spend half our time feeling guilty because we ought to be seeing more of them.
And another thing, a married woman who has probably worked just as hard all day as her husband is still expected to do the housework and the shopping and cook the evening meal while her man watches the telly.
By the time she gets to bed, she's worn out. (392 words)
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the dialogue again and decide whether the statements you hear are true (T)or false (F).
1)According to Max, women get the best of both working and family life.
2)In one of the women's opinion, discrimination began when she entered the school.
3)Women university students are usually less bright than men.
4)Women often experience unfair treatment from their bosses.
5)There are many more men than women engaged in professions.
6)Women are happy to go out for work and also do all the housework and childcare, according to Max.
Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the dialogue again and fill in the table with the information you get from the recording.
Happy Minute
Enjoy listening to the story and answer the following question.
Why did the woman's co_workers look at her surprisingly?
A busy working mom, I try to pack in as many errands on my lunch break as possible.
Once I raced to get a chest X-ray at the hospital, then went to the cleaners and, finally,
the supermarket. When I returned to the office, I noticed strange looks from my co-workers.
Eventually one of them inquired what I did during lunch, and, after explaining the hectic hour,
I asked, "Why do you want to know?" "Well," he said, "your blouse is on inside out."
Lesson Two Jobs for a New Century
Practice One Moving Up Words You Need to Know
install abolish humiliating supervise
Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and decide which is the best answer to each of the following questions you hear on the recording.
When he first heard the news on the radio, Charles could hardly believe it.
He had been told by some friends to expect what happened, but still, he just couldn't accept it.
He had spend too many years perfecting his trade to think that the time would come when machines would replace him and his skills.
That was the news that struck his ears early on that morning five months ago when the announcement came.
The company was going to install machines and save thousands of dollars in production costs.
Unfortunately, for Charles it meant that his job was going to be abolished.
At first he had thought it was humiliating to be replaced by a machine.
But, now months later, he felt relieved that his skills were not lost but, instead, valuable enough to be placed in a computer!
Those skills were still producing useful products for people, and now his job was to supervise rather than do the work himself.
Charles had, as they say,"moved up in the world." He was no longer a worker; he was a manager! (182 words)
1)What news did Charles hear?
2)How did Charles get the news?
3)What would Charles do for his new job?
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and fill in the blanks with the information you get from the recording
Practice Two Is It Important to Get on in Life?
Words You Need to Know
prospect point-blank resignation
Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and answer the following questions briefly.
When I was young my father always told me how important it was to get on in life and be a success.
I think he wanted me to be a doctor or an engineer or something like that.
And I can remember how disappointed he was when I left school early and started work as a secretary.
It was a small, badly-run company, and when I went there they told me the job wasn't difficult and I would soon pick it up.
At the beginning I liked the job but as time passed the work started to take up more of my time and I found I was working late in the evenings and even at weekends.
And in addition to this I had to put up with poor working conditions and a low salary - I earned just enough to get by - and there were no promotion prospects at all.
All this really got me down. Ande then I started to wonder if I was really cut out for this kind of work - it didn't really suit me or my particular abilities.
Then one day, I went to see my boss to ask for some time off work. I needed to visit my mother,
who wasn't well at the time. I have to say that I didn't get on with my boss very well.
Anyway, he refused point-blank. He said it was out of the question and he didn't want to hear another word.
I tried explaining but I jsut couldn't get through to him. He wouldn't listen.
So I walked out of the office, and that was the last straw. The next day I handed in my resignation, and I said to myself I would never put myself in that kind of position again.
I decided to return to studying and go in for law.
I graduated from London University and now I'm starting to make my way in the world.
So was my father right? Is it important to get on in the world?
Well, in some way it is, but it depends on how you measure success and what you want to get out of life.
After all, there are other things in life besides work. (369 words)
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and fill in the blanks about the speaker's working conditions,
with the information you get from the recording.
Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage again and (1)fill in each blank with an appropriate expression from the recording,
then (2)choose a suitable explanation for each of thye expressions you have used,
and put the number beside the letter you have chosen.
The last expression has been given as an example.
Practice Three Keep Your Options Open
Words You Need to Know
frustrating intangible pin down
marketing journalist
Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the dialogue and fill in the chart with the information you get from the recording.
A reporter is interviewing John Smith and Anne Keller about the changes in their jobs.
Interviewer:Do you prefer what you're doing to teaching?
John Smith:Yes, one of the things I found a bit frustrating about teaching was that it was rather,
very intangible than um, especially if you're teaching in England and most of the students know quite a lot of English before they arrive.
They learn a lot of English outside the classroom, in pubs or coffee shops or other places,
with the families they're living with. It's very difficult to pin down how much they learn from your actual lesson,
whereas in marketing um, again there are lots of areas that are gray rather than black or white um but there are quite a few other areas where one can see quite clearly the results of one's efforts.
Anne Keller:In fact I became a journalist and I worked as a freelance, I didn't have a full-time job with any newspaper
I just had to contribute things as they came along and I wrote for magazines and I did quite a lot of broadcasting for the BBC.
Well, I enjoyed it a lot but I found it very hard to earn enough money to live on.
Um, and so I thought well I must do something which produces an income that I can be sure of.
While I was working as a journalist I had done an article for a magazine about the English language teaching world and in fact I had come to the school where I now teach as a journalist and interviewed a lot of people.
And I thought it seemed a very nice place and I thought that the classes I visited,
had a very very nice feeling about them and so I thought well I'll see if they'll have me.
Interviewer:Why do you prefer teaching?
Anne Keller:Well, partly because in teaching you work regular hours.
Erm in the past er I just had to stay at the office until the work was finished and it could be three o'clock in the morning.
Er, also you were very often made to work at weekends. (347 words)
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the dialogue again all fill in each blank with the information you get from the recording.
Compare what the 2 interviewees say about teaching.
Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the dialogue again and decide whether the statements you hear are true (T)or false (F).
1)Students learn all of their English in the classroom in England.
2)In marketing one can always see quite clearly the results of his efforts.
3)The second interviewee now teaches in a school where she did an interview as a journalist.
4)The second interviewee could earn enough money to live on with the previous job, but she didn't like it.
5)The second interviewee once wrote an article about the English language teaching world.
6)As a journalist, one has an irregular schedule.
Happy Minute
Enjoy listening to the passage and answer the following question.
Why did the passengers keep sitting until the aircraft came to a complete stop?
As a flight attendant, I constantly struggle to keep people seated until the aircraft has come to a complete stop at the gate.
So one day, after making the usual announcement,
I added, "Those of you who would like to assist me in cleaning up the cabin,
please volunteer by standing up before the seat-belt sign is turned off. "
No one moved - and my solution has worked ever since