Earning a living

Work in groups Ask your partners these questions:

• What do you (plan to) do for a living?

• What do the other members of your family do for a living?

Choose the best alternative to complete these sentences.

1 A doctor is a member of a respected...................

occupation profession trade work

2 It's wise to think about choosing a..................before leaving school.

business career living vocation

3 You'll probably have to fill..................an application form.

down in on through

4 If you're a(n) .................., you have to do what your boss tells you.

employee employer director manager

5 It's difficult these days for anyone to find a well-paid ………….. job.

eternal permanent reliable stable

6 She was ………… after three years with the company

advanced elevated promoted raised

7 An apprentice is required to do several years' ……………..

coaching education formation training

8 A retired person is paid a.................. .

grant pension rent scholarship

9 If you are paid monthly, rather than weekly, you receive ………………

revenue a reward a salary wages

10 Some of my work is quite interesting, but a lot of it is just

habit practice routine tradition

In these sentences three alternatives are correct and two are wrong. Choose the three best alternatives for each.

1 She's looking for a better position with another...................

association company firm organisation society

2 Ford is a multi-national corporation that..................motor vehicles.

constructs fabricates makes manufactures produces

3 He was..................because he was an unreliable and lazy worker.

dismissed dispatched fired left sacked

4 A good worker is usually someone with the right kind of...................

experience experiences experiment personality qualifications

5 All the members of our..................are expected to work hard.

department personal personnel staff team

Work in groups Discuss these questions:

• What is the most difficult job you can imagine?

• What is the most unpleasant job you can imagine? And the most pleasant?

• If you could choose any job in the world, what would it be? Why?

All the words below relate to work. Match the words in A with the definitions in B.

Staff full-time work part-time work job advertisement/advert wages hourly rate work permit bonus EC citizen

money paid for each hour worked newspaper announcement about a vacant job a citizen of a European Community country the people who work for an organization working for just part of each normal working week or day extra money that you get as well as your usual pay official paper saying that you can work in a foreign country money paid (usually at the end of each week) for doing a job working for all of each working week (usually about 40 hours)

Look at the job advertisements below. What work does the person have to do in each case?