At Work

Specialized Vocabulary
 Types of work
• I have a lot of paperwork to do by tomorrow.
• My father did manual work all his life and was
very fit.
• I think I’d like vocational work, like being a
nurse or teacher.
 Colleagues
Well, Phillip is my opposite number in the
company. He and I have a good working
relationship. Last month we got a new boss, who
quickly established a good rapport with everyone in
the office. I do socialize with my workmates
(informal: colleagues) but we try not to talk shop.
The company is generally very hierarchical and
has a pecking-order for everything. I do a job-share
with a woman called Rosemary. It suits us both as
we each have children to look after.
 Daily work routines
Nancy gets to work at about 8.45. she has to
clock in and clock out. She works fixed hours; she
has nine-to-five job. Brett can come in at any time
form 8 o’clock until 10 in the morning; he works
flexi-time/ he’s on flexi-time, but his core hours are
10.00 to 12.00 and 12.00 to 4.00. Archie doesn’t go
to the office at all. He works from home with his
computer; he’s a teleworker. Bert works different
times each week; he’s a shift worker. Mick has his
own company; he’s self-employed and works from
home. His wife works for different companies at
different times; she’s freelance.
 Work patterns
Most of the day I do routine tasks, but
occasionally there’s s crisis or I have to meet a
deadline. At certain times of the year I have a
very heavy workload but at other times it can be
quite light. (1)
 I start to work at my machine at seven
o’clock when I’m on the day shift. The job’s very
mechanical and repetitive. All I ever think about
is knocking off at three. The shift I hate most is
the night shift. I start at ten and work all night
till six in the morning. The job is a bit
monotonous. (2)
 I have a glamorous job. I’m a pilot. The
hours are irregular and antisocial, but I’m not
stuck behind a desk and there’s a lot of variety.
The stress levels can be quite high when you
know people’s lives depend on you. I feel sorry
for people who are stuck in a rut or working in
dead-end job.
• In some countries, women are allowed maternity leave
and men paternity leave if they’re having a child. What
other leave you could get?
• Do you prefer a rewarding career or lucrative career?
• What perks/(extra) benefits do you get from your job?
• How important is job satisfaction to you?
• What’s your holiday entitlement?
• Do you get regular salary increments?
• Most people don’t want to reach a glass ceiling. What
about you?
• Most people think they are overworked and underpaid.
What do you think?
 Describe yourself
• Ambitious
• Achievers
• (money) motivated
• Eager
• Talented
• Self-driven
• Self-reliant
• Out-of-the-ordinary
• Intelligent
• Responsible
• Adventurous spirit/strong/positive personality
• Tough mind
• High level of personal integrity
• Team player
Aspects of Industrialization

Specialized Vocabulary
 Processes
• Heavy industry – Light industry
• Manufacturing industry – Service industry
• High-tech – Low-tech
• Privatization – Nationalization/State ownership
• Many big industries are run as public-private
partnerships.
• The car industry receives huge subsidies from the
government.
• Foreign companies are often given sweeteners by the
governments to open factories in their regions.
• The government tries to encourage inward investment.
 Industrial Practices
• Most of the factory workers are on piecework.
• Child labor is a serious problem.
• The right to trade union representation is not available in
all countries.
• Many household products are produced in sweatshops.
• Japan corporations have become lame ducks against
Korean and Chinese corporations.
• The big multinationals often close factories as a cost-
cutting exercise and relocate and switch production to
cheaper-labor countries.
• Industries can’t grow successfully if there is too much red
tape. (bureaucracy)
• Retaining and reskilling are necessary when an economy is
modernized.
• Industrial piracy is a serious problem in many
parts of the world, with factories producing illegal
copies of top brand names.
• It was a serious case of industrial espionage. The
designs for the new aircraft were photographed
and sold to a rival company.
• Copyright infringement is a problem for people
who make a living writing books.
• Money laundry is a huge international problem,
as police and banks try to trace money from
illegal drugs trade.
• There’s a big black market in the importation of
untaxed luxury cars.
 Future Vision

Specialized Vocabulary
 Technology
• Smart buildings
• Virtual reality
• Interactive devices
• Interplanetary travel
• E-commerce
 The environment and nature
• The doomsday scenario for the environment sees
a world chocked with pollution.
• Traffic in cities may become gridlocked.
• Genetic modification may be used to change fruit
and vegetable (GM food).
• Genetic engineering and gene therapy will be
used to eradicate diseases, thanks to our
knowledge of the human genome.
• Designer babies may be possible.
• Cloning of animals, and even human beings, may
become common.
 Society and people
The breakdown of the traditional family
structure has already occurred in some countries. In
future, the nuclear family may no longer be the
main type of family unit, and more loosely defined
relationships will develop. Communications and
trade will be globalized. Globalization will also
affect our relationships, how we mix and work with
other people, and the world will become a global
village. We may even make contact with
extraterrestrial beings. The gulf between rich and
poor nations will widen if we do not do something
about it.
 Education

Specialized Vocabulary
 All education systems may ultimately be judged in
terms of equality of opportunity. This is not the same as
the debates over selective versus comprehensive
schooling. It is rather a matter of whether everyone has
the same opportunities for educational achievement or
whether elitism of one sort or another is inherent in the
system. League tables for schools and colleges may
actually help unintentionally perpetuate inequalities,
while claiming to promote the raising standards.
Inevitably, league tables divide the world into good and
bad, success and failure, resulting in a two-tier system,
even if that is only how the public perceives it. The ability
of the better-off parents and well-endowed schools to
push children towards the institutions at the top of the
league may, in the long term, have the effect of
depressing opportunity for the less well-off or for
children from home environments that do not provide
the push and motivation to excel.
• Some people think we should return to an
emphasis on the three Rs (the traditional basic
skills: reading, writing, arithmetic).
• Literacy and numeracy are skills no one can
afford to be without.
• Curriculum reform is often done for political
reasons rather than for good educational ones.
• Special needs education is expensive because
class sizes need to be small or one-to-one.
• Bullying is becoming more common among the
primary-school students.
 Tourism

Specialized Vocabulary
 Tourist destinations
For tourists yearning to escape the crowd, wander off
the beaten track and get back to nature, Suriname
increasingly looks a promising choice. Nobody in Suriname
claims that the country boasts the best sand, sea and sun in
the Caribbean. But that, in a way, is precisely the point: there
aren’t hordes of people either.
As Henk Essed, director of the Suriname Tourism
Foundation, observes: We don’t really need masses of tourists
like we have in the rest of the Caribbean. Instead, Suriname’s
modest tourism sector focuses on what makes the country
different. The biggest attraction for visitors seeking something
out of the ordinary is the wealth of wildlife. Large tracks of the
country are still covered by virgin rainforest, home to a huge
range of flora and fauna.
There is great potential to develop eco-tourism as one
of the major sources of income in the near future, says Harold
Sijlbing, managing director of Stinasu, an organization which
promotes conservation of wildlife and ecological awareness.
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