Jobs and Work Vocabulary

accountant(s) baker(s) barber(s)

barman (barmen) builder(s) butcher(s)

carpenter(s) cashier(s) chambermaid(s)

chef(s) cleaner(s) dentist(s)

doctor(s) electrician(s) engineer(s)

fireman (firemen) fishmonger(s) flight attendant(s)

hairdresser(s) judge(s) lawyer(s)

nurse(s) optician(s) painter(s)

photographer(s) plumber(s) policeman (policemen)

porter(s) postman (postmen) receptionist(s)

reporter(s) sales assistant(s) sales representative(s)

scientist(s) secretary (secretaries) surgeon(s)

vet(s) waiter(s) welder(s)

Work - What do they do? Where do they work?

Job What do they do? Where do they work?

Accountants Look after the finances in an

organisation. They work in an office.

Bakers Bake bread. They work in a bakery.

Barbers Shave men's beards and cut men's hair. They work in a barber’s.

Barmen/women Serve drinks. They work in a bar, pub or

restaurant.

Butchers Prepare and sell meat. They work in a butcher’s.

Chambermaids Clean and tidy rooms. They work in a hotel.

Chefs Prepare and cook food. They work in a kitchen.

Dentists Look after people's teeth. They work in a dentist’s.

Doctors Look after people's health. They work in a hospital or

surgery.

Fishmongers Prepare and sell fish. They work in a fishmonger’s.

Flight attendants Look after passengers. They work in an airplane.

Hair dressers Cut and style people's hair. They work in a hair salon.

Judges Judge and sentence people. They work in a law court.

Lawyers Defend and prosecute people. They work in a law court and in

a lawyer’s office.

Nurses Look after patients. They work in a hospital or

doctor's surgery.

Opticians Look after people's eye sight. They work in an optician’s.

Porters Carry other people's bags and

luggage.

They work in a hotel or train

station.

Receptionists Meet and greet visitors. They work in reception.

Sales Assistants Sell goods and look after customers. They work in a shop.

Secretaries Arrange appointments, type letters

and organise meetings. They work in an office.

Surgeons Operate on people who are sick. They work in a hospital.

Vets Look after people's animals. They work in a veterinary

surgery or vets.

Waiters/Waitresses Serve people food and drink. They work in a restaurant.

http://www.learnenglish.de

ODD JOBS

Read the corresponding text for your group (A, B, C or D) and answer the

following questions. Prepare to present “your” odd job to the rest of the class

1. What does a person performing the job you read do?

2. Is it an unpleasant job? Why? / Why not?

Armpit Detective

Nigel Buchanan

Your fingerprints, retina

and even your voice are

now forms of ID. But you

have an identifier no one’s

using yet: your smell.

Groups at the Monell

Chemical Senses Center in

Philadelphia and at Florida

International University

hope to isolate the

compounds that give us

each a unique aroma. The

problem is that our diet, medications, toiletries and other factors make it difficult to

discern natural scent from manufactured odorants. And so, since 1973, George Preti

of Monell has collected human odors, recently focusing on the underarm, the mouth

and urine. For example, using solvents or a technique called solid-phase micro-

extraction, Preti pulls odorants from an underarm pad fitted to a subject. The

samples go to the lab for storage in a freezer that is legendary for its overpowering

musk. Despite fits and starts of government interest and funding (Darpa has

bankrolled research since 2008 as part of its chemical-detecting RealNose project),

the elements of an odor print have been elusive. But collecting the smells has led to

other discoveries. Preti is using his work, for instance, to develop ways of sniffing out

certain cancers, like melanomas and ovarian carcinoma, which release volatile,

detectable biomarkers.

A

Bad Dance Observer

Nigel Buchanan

It’s no chore to watch supermodels shake it in a nightclub. But Peter J. Lovatt, a

former professional dancer and a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in

England, must examine the often unflattering gyrations of everyone from preteens to

the elderly in search of the influences and motivations behind human dancing. Lovatt

and his team record videos of the dancers and then quantify their groove thang using

a special movement-analysis technique and software. Other times, observers rate

traits such as the overall attractiveness of the dancers’ movements on video, or the

observers wear a visor that tracks what elements of the dancer they are looking at.

Findings suggest that

young women rate the

dancing of middle-

aged men as less

attractive than the

dance moves of

younger men, perhaps

an evolutionary trait

that discourages

women from choosing

older mates—middle-

aged men tend to use big, uncoordinated movements, and women typically find

complex movement most attractive. But don’t lose hope. Above age 60, men dance

with more complexity. They also exhibit their highest dance confidence at that age.

No wonder grandpa thinks he works it so good.

B

Oceanic-Snot Diver

Nigel Buchanan

Every so often, the Mediterranean hocks up a loogie. The balls of mucus, known as

“marine mucilage,” are enormous, gelatinous masses of organic material emitted by

stressed-out plankton. They harbor everything from dead shrimp to bacteria known

to infect humans. Fishermen have encountered the mare sporco (“dirty sea”) off

Italy’s eastern coast for centuries. But the snotballs now appear more frequently,

last several months, and sometimes reach over 120 miles in length. Antonio Pusceddu

of the Polytechnic University of Marche in Italy and other scientists don scuba gear

and jump right in with the foul

globs, using large syringes to

collect jugs of the material to

study in the lab. Pusceddu’s

findings indicate that global

warming could be putting slime

production into overdrive; other

scientists worry that overfishing

and pollution in the region may

contribute to the mucus by

disrupting the local ecosystem.

Whatever’s causing it, it’s nasty.

“The smell of mucilage can vary

depending on the age of these aggregates. At the very beginning, these smell like

seafood,” Pusceddu says, “but with time, the smell shifts to the one typically

associated with decomposing eggs.”

C

Feces Piper

Nigel Buchanan

The rise of superbugs means that antibiotics, humanity’s weapon against microbes,

are no longer getting the job done. Clostridium difficile, for instance, infects as many

as half a million Americans a year, causing diarrhea, blood poisoning and kidney

failure, and leads to 5,000 to

20,000 deaths annually. A potential

cure? Introducing healthy poo into

an infected patient’s gut to help

recolonize the body with good,

microbe-fighting bugs. The

procedure, called a fecal

transplant, typically involves

collecting and processing stool

from a healthy relative and feeding

it through a nasal tube into the

patient’s small intestine. The

procedure, performed at just a

handful of hospitals in the U.S., is

controversial. Only observational

evidence—no controlled studies—

suggests that the procedure is

effective, and doctors worry that

shared poo could transmit hard-to-

detect nasties. But the big challenge is the stigma of the procedure: It takes a

strong stomach to offer a patient the chance to have poo up his nose.

http://www.popsci.com/science/gallery/2010-03/10-worst-jobs-science

D

Do the following crossword on jobs.

1 2 3

4 5

6

7 8 9 10 11 12

13

14

15

16

17 18

19

Across:→

2. he or she works with wood.

4. he or she fixes lights, switches and appliances.

6. he or she looks after you in hospital.

10. she delivers your letters and parcels

11. he or she makes bread and cakes.

14. he or she builds or designs buildings,

machines, roads, etc.

15. he or she looks after your teeth.

17. he or she operates on you in hospital.

19. Lynne is a ___________.

Down:↓

1. He or she is the boss in a restaurant kitchen

3. he or she looks after the records of money

for a company or person.

5. he or she is in charge of a trial in a court.

7. he or she treats people who are ill or hunt.

8. she brings you your food or drinks in a

restaurant.

9. he or she speaks for people in court.

10. he enforces the law.

12. he or she writes articles for a newspaper

13. he stops buildings and other things from

burning.

16. he or she supplies and repairs water pipes,

sinks, baths, etc.

18. he or she treats animals who are ill or

hurt.

http://www.learnenglish.de/Games/Crossword8/jobs.htm

HOMEWORK

JOBS

“THE LEAST SUCCESSFUL EXPLORER”

Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859) was a natural scientist who spent many

years studying the plants and trees of unexplored parts of north-west America. He was

different from most other explorers because he was almost always lost. During one of his

journeys of exploration in 1812 his helpers often had to light fires in the evening so that he

could find his way back to their tents.

One night he did not come back and a group went out to search for him. When Nuttall heard

them in the darkness, he was frightened. He thought that they were Indians and tried to

escape. Getting more and more angry, Nuttall’s friends chased him for three days through

the forest and across rivers until he accidentally arrived back at their tents.

Another day Nuttall was lost again. He was very tired, so he lay down to rest. An Indian found

him lying there. The scientist did not look dangerous; in fact, he looked quite helpless. So the

Indian felt sorry for him and decided not to kill him. Instead, he picked the scientist up,

carried him three miles to the river and brought him safely back home in a boat.

From The Book of Heroic Failure, by Stephen Pile

“THE LEAST SUCCESSFUL FIRE ENGINE”

In 1973 a fire started at Number 2 Crisp Road in the village of Henley. The people in the

house telephoned the local fire station, but the firemen were not there. They were

somewhere on the other side of the village, practising.

The people at Crisp Road next telephoned the fire station at Wallington, a village not far

from Henley. The Wallington fire station promised to send a fire engine immediately. Half

way to Henley, the Wallington fire engine had to stop because it was burning. The firemen

quickly jumped out.

The fire engine was carrying 80 litres of water, but they could not use it. The controls were

inside the fire engine and the inside of the fire engine was now full of smoke. Just then the

Henley firemen drove past. They were on their way back from their practice. They stopped

to help, but they did not have much water left after the morning’s fire practice. They did

everything that they could, while the Wallington firemen asked other drivers for help.

Local people put out the fire at 2 Crisp Road, without the firemen.

From The Book of Heroic Failure, by Stephen Pile

Questions

1. Why is the first case called “The Least Successful Explorer”?

2. Why is the second case called “The Least Successful Fire Engine”?

3. Which of the two cases did you find more interesting? Why?