Exercise 1: Match two columns:

1.	Career	a.	is a type of job that requires advanced education or training.
2.	A job	b.	is the kind of work that they do, especially when they have been trained to do it over a period of time.
3.	Your occupation	c.	is the job or profession that someone does for a long period of their life.
4.	A profession	d.	is the work that someone does to earn money.
5.	Someone’s trade	e.	is your job or profession.

Exercise 2: Fill in the blanks with the words:

1. career, job, work, profession, trade, vocation

1. Should all ……………be open to women?

2. It’s hard ……….for a poor man to keep his wife and children clothed and fed.

3. What time do you get to your …….?

4. He’s a lawyer by ….. .

5. Shoemaking is useful …… .

6. He lost his ….. .

7. It’s difficult to find ……..during a depression.

8. The college teaches many useful …… .

9. I want to find out more about ……………in journalism.

10. Please fill in the details of your present …… .

11. Fewer young people are entering the legal nowadays.

12. Women often return to …..after they have had children.

13. These days are more and more …….opportunities for women.

14. Man in manual ……are less prone to stress-related illnesses.

15. Teaching is a …..that requires total commitment.

16. I could never do an ordinary nine-to-five …… .

17. Look for a (an) ……..suited to your abilities.

18. Medicine, law and architecture are ……. .

19. He is a carpenter by …… .

20. He has little or no ……..for teaching.

2. earnings, pay, salary, wages

1. She is moving to a new job with better …..

2. I spent a whole month’s ….on my vacation.

3. He was on sick …..for the two weeks he spent in the hospital.

4. My dad’s take-home…..was 40 dollars a week.

5. The lawyer was paid a huge ………...

6. Bob is on a very good ……. now.

7. The basic ……is poor, but with overtime the average……are nearly $190 per week.

8. He receives a fantastic ……as chairman of the company.

9. We usually get our …..on Thursday afternoon.

Exercise 3: Translate the following word-expressions:

Successful career, part-time job, to hunt / look for a job, be out of employment, full-time / full employment, hard work, paper work, physical work, annual earnings, overtime pay, handsome salary, technical skills, to charge a fee, to be on overtime, to practice a profession.

Exercise 4: Synonyms:

1. literate a. profit

2. benefit b. skilful

3. fee c. perform

4. capable d. reward

5. employ e. hire

6. fulfill f. educated

Exercise 5: Read and translate the following sentences:

I work for a software company.

I’m responsible for the development of new products.

It’s a very challenging job.

I report directly to the Managing Director.

The job involves a lot of travelling.

I usually start work at 8 o’clock in the morning.

Do you usually drive at work?

How’s the new job?

I really enjoy it.

The salary is good.

It’s very pleased I moved here.

How has the takeover affected you?

Some people are going to lose their jobs.

Some will take early retirement.

There won’t be any compulsory redundancies.

We need to recruit a new training manager.

What kind of person are you looking for?

We need someone with excellent communication skills.

Exercise 6: Translate into English:

1. Она работает в большой фирме.

2. Мистер Грин работает на полставки.

3. Я работаю над проектированием/ созданием программного обеспечения.

4. 50 человек работают под моим руководством.

5. Марк руководит отделом продаж.

6. К счастью, у меня есть работа.

7. Они работают у фермера.

8. Мария находится на работе до 8 часов.

9. В нашей фирме сотрудники работают полный рабочий день.

10. Я ответственный за разработку программных продуктов.

Exercise 7: Do you think being an accountant would be a good job? Why/why not? Read this text and see if it makes you change your mind:

A good job?

Don’t let your parents push you into becoming an accountant, like I did. Yes, the money’s good and yes, there’s job security, but honestly, it must be the worst job in the world! I spend ten hours a day looking at figures and reading the most dry, boring reports you can imagine. It really drives me mad! Most nights I have to stay in the office really late, not because there’s any real work to do; it’s just that it doesn’t look good if you’re the first person to leave. When I started, my parents said, “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it”, but I never have – and I never will.

Marika from Denmark: accountant

Exercise 8: Tell a partner which of the following you could get used to – and which you could never get used to. Why?

Example: I could (never) get used to ……because ….

1. having a woman as a boss

2. working from nine to five

3. being a boss

4. being self-employed

5. working a six-day week

6. being unemployed

7. working a twelve-hour day

8. working in an office

9. working shifts

10. working outside

11. working from home

12. working with computers

13. working in a factory

14. working with my hands

Exercise 9: Complete the sentences with the prepositions:

Rebecca lives in London and works in public relations. She leaves home for work at 7.30 a.m. She drives ………work. The traffic is often bad and she worries about getting …….work late, but she usually arrives …….work at around nine. She finishes work quite late, at about eight. “Luckily, I’m never ill”, she says. “I could never take the time ……..work”.

She loves what she does and is glad to be ……….work. Some of her friends are not so lucky: they are ………work.

Exercise 10: Match the verbs on the left with the nouns or phrases on the right. Use each word once only:

1. earn a. overtime

2. work b. meetings

3. pay c. a shop

4. go to d. clients

5. deal with e. £ 500

6. run f. income tax

Exercise 11: Can you answer these general knowledge questions about work?

1. What are normal working hours for most office jobs in your country?

2. Can you name these jobs that get very high salaries in your country?

3. When do you start paying income tax in your country, what is the minimal amount you have to pay?

4. What jobs do often involve shiftwork? (Give at least two examples)

5. Is flexi-time common in your company or your country?

Exercise 12: Think about your own job. How many of the things do you do? How is your work different? Can you explain your responsibilities and daily duties in English?

Exercise 13: Listen to the dialogue, repeat and translate:

RESPONSIBILITIES

A: So, what exactly do you do in the company?

B: I’m responsible for new product development. I report directly to the CEO. (Chief Executive Officer)

A: What does that involve?

B: I supervise (=I’m in charge of …../I manage) a team of designers. We all have to think of new ideas, test them and develop the ones we think will succeed.

A: It sounds challenging.

B: It is, but I really enjoy it.

Exercise 14: Choose the best answers:

I (1) …to become an engineer for seven years already. At school I (2) …very hard for some that two years to prepare for my final exams. And it was worth the effort! When the exam results (3) …I was delighted to discover I (4) … . However, I had to wait another year before going to university because it (5) …that every student should work as a trainee engineer so as to have a basic understanding of practical engineering before they (6) …studying theory at university.

When I finally (7) …to university I sometimes wished I (8) …arts instead of sciences. Despite the fact that the future historians and sociologists claimed that they (9) …very hard, they always seemed to be going out while I was always busy studying.

But now many of them can’t find a proper job, whereas I recently (10) …a place of a production manager at one big company.

1.

1) am studying

2) study

3) have been studying

4) have been studied

2.

1) had been working

2) have been working

3) have worked

4) was worked

3.

1) published

2) had published

3) have been published

4) were published

4.

1) succeeded

2) was succeeded

3) was succeeding

4) had succeeded

5.

1) required

2) was required

3) was requiring

4) requires

6.

1) started

2) would start

3) have started

4) were started

7.

1) was admitting

2) was admitted

3) admitted

4) had admitted

8.

1) was choosing

2) chose

3) has chosen

4) would choose

9.

1) have worked

2) were working

3) had been worked

4) have been working

10.

1) had been offered

2) was offering

3) have been offered

4) will be offered

Exercise 15: Read the following text about the future of work and match headings a-f to paragraphs 1-6. There is one heading you do not need.

a New industries

b The benefits for companies

c Potential for re-training

d The way things were

e Improved lifestyles

g Not everyone's a winner

f Working for yourself

A job for life?

By 2020 whole careers will be wiped out and new ones created in a wave of technology. Make sure you can survive.

1 _____

Until recently in the UK, new employees would be sat down by an older colleague and quietly told the likely course of their career over a cup of tea. Junior Management might be followed by a spell abroad, an executive position and eventual retirement with a gold watch and pension. No longer. In the next 15-20 years new technologies will have as great an impact on the way we work as industrial changes in the nineteenth century had on our forefathers.

2 _____

The changes have already started. In the early 1890s, about 60% of jobs in the UK fell into three categories: farming, manufacturing and mining. In 2000 it was less than 15%. Staff who would previously have worked in manufacturing are now joining the new service economy and the world of information technology (IT). The economy of the future will consist of ideas, information and knowledge, and by 2015 it is estimated that as many as 95% of jobs will require people with IT skills.

3 ______

The first evidence of these changes is already clear. Fewer workers are needed to produce goods and services. Robots are starting to have a major impact in the workplace. In the future, more and more people will choose to become self-employed, working through the Internet, and selling skills in the marketplace.

4 _______

According to one expert, 'Flexible working represents the future of work'. People working in areas such as sales, engineering and consultancy will be freed from the constraints of time and location. For workers this should mean less time travelling to work, more leisure time, a better match between work and family, reduction in stress and financial savings.

5 _______

Employers will gain too, saving office space and increasing efficiency. British Gas moved 5000 of its service engineers to teleworking in 1996, enabling the company to close 440 depots and offices. Engineers now keep in touch via laptops and mobile phones. According to a manager, there has been a noticeable increase in efficiency.

6 _______

But while those who move quickly to adapt will see rewards, many fear that there will be a growing gap between those who are technologically literate and those who are not, the 'information rich' and the 'information poor. So one way to ensure your future is to choose a career in an industry likely to boom, such as engineering, entertainment, or computing.