Work and family life

Bill (worker, 40)

Bill Radford has a job in a small factory. He doesn't much like the work, but he enjoys the relationships with the other workers, and he gets on with the boss. Sometimes he has a chance to travel on business which he enjoys very much.

His wife, Ann, has been unemployed for the last two years. She stays at home and looks after the house. After getting their six-year-old daughter Sally ready and driving her to school, she starts on the housework. Although she likes being on her own, she finds housework boring and doesn't like to stay at home all day. So she tries to get through the washing up, the cooking, the ironing, the shopping and so on as quickly as possible. This takes her about two or three hours, after that she usually has lunch. She doesn't like to waste time. After lunch she goes off to the public library and reads books on politics or history until it's time to fetch Sally from school. In the evening Bill and Ann share the housework.

At weekends they try to spend some time outdoors: they often go walking to the country, or take Sally on trips to places like the zoo or the seaside.

Money is a big problem. Bill doesn't earn a very good salary, and their income is hardly enough for three people to live on, so they have to be very careful about what they spend. They can't really afford to keep the car, and will have to get rid of it soon, but they have decided to put off selling it until Sally is old enough to go to school by bus. They are just not able to save money and they're extremely worried about their old age. Sally wants to be a teacher or a nurse when she grows up, but Ann and Bill hope she will do something where she can earn enough money to live a better life than her parents.

Text 3. Read about Michael’s day and complete the information about his typical working day.

Would you like to lead the same sort of life?

Michael dell’s working day

For one of America’s richest men, Dell Chairman lives a remarkably unglamorous life. Michael Dell spends about 30 % of his time traveling to the company’s operations overseas and meeting international customers. Every month he makes two trips to Europe and another two to Asia.

When he is at home in Austin, Texas, he gets up at 5.30 a.m. each day. Dell lives with his wife Susan and their four children. In the morning he exercises at home for an hour from 6 a.m. and then he drives to his office. He arrives to work at 8 a.m. At work he discusses and makes decisions about customers, company strategy and operations, and planning for the organization. ‘I leave the office at about 6.15 p.m., have dinner with the family, do story time with the kids’. Dell often does email and surfs the Internet, reads newspapers in the evenings. ‘Then I go to sleep, get up and do it all again,’ he says.

Home town ………………. Time traveling abroad…………………

Marital status……………….. Number of trips abroad a day …………

Write what Michael Dell does at this time on his typical working day.( Remember - we use the Present Simple tense to talk about everyday actions).

5.30 ……………………………..

6.00 – 7.00 ………………………………………………………..

7.00 – 8.00 ………………………………………………………..

8.00 ……………………………………………………………….

18.15 ……………………………………………………………..

Example: Michael Dell gets up at 5.30.

Look at Michael Dell’s timetable on Friday. Write what Michael Dell did on Friday.

8.00 Arrival to the office

9.05 – 9.45 Meeting with the Overseas Sales Manager (Conference Room)

9.45 – 10.30 Coffee with the Marketing Director and Finance Director

10.30 – 11.00 Company presentation video

11.00 – 12.40 Meeting with Managing Director and Marketing Director (Boardroom)

12.40 – 2.30 Lunch with the Overseas Sales Manager (Saraceno Restaurant)

2.30 – 5.00 Work in the office (checking email, Internet)

5.45 Home arrival

Exercise 1

Put the clock times in the right order. Write 2.00 2.15 …

Y

Exercise 2.

Make questions about Lisa’s and Robert’s morning. Then use the information in the box to write the answers.

Lisa 7.40 get up 7.45 shower 8.00 breakfast 8.25 leave home 8.30 catch bus 8.40 get to school

Robert get up swimming pool shower/pool 8.00 home breakfast catch bus 8.40 get to school

ou’ve got five minutes!

five past three

ten past four

quarter past two

twenty past three

twenty-five past two

two o’clock

half past four

twenty-five to five

twenty to four

quarter to three

five o’clock

ten to four

five to five

Exercise 3. Match the words with their definitions

retailer, invoice, warehouse, calendar, drawer, diary, goods, automation

1. The place where you store finished products before they are sold.

2. The process of using machines to do work that used to be done by men and women.

3. A plural noun for things that are made to be sold.

4. A thing you often hang on the wall, which tells you the date.

5. A book where you often write down all your appointments and things you have to do.

6. A piece of paper which shows the products that a customer bought and the money they have to pay.

7. A person or business that sells goods to the public.

8. A part of a desk where you often keep pens, paper, notes, etc.

Exercise 4. Replace the underlined verb using a different verb with the same meaning (in this context).

deliver fit store check manufacture

1. This particular machine is made in Germany.

2. I help them to assemble the different parts.

3. The supervisor always inspects our work carefully

4. When the books are printed they are kept in the warehouse.

5. The factory said they'll be able to take the furniture to the shops next Monday.