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?

Look after the finances in an

Accountants They work in an office.
organisation.

Bakers Bake bread. They work in a bakery.

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

They work in a bar, pub or

Barmen/women Serve drinks.
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.

They work in a hospital or

Doctors Look after people's health.
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.

They work in a law court and in

Lawyers Defend and prosecute people.
a lawyer’s office.

They work in a hospital or

Nurses Look after patients.
doctor's surgery.

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

Carry other people's bags and They work in a hotel or train

Porters
luggage. station.

Receptionists Meet and greet visitors. They work in reception.

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

Arrange appointments, type letters

Secretaries They work in an office.
and organise meetings.

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

They work in a veterinary

Vets Look after people's animals.
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
A
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.
 Bad Dance Observer
B
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.
 Oceanic-Snot Diver
C
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.”
 Feces Piper
D
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
Do the following crossword on jobs.

1 2 3

4 5

7 8 9

10 11 12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

Across:→ 3. he or she looks after the records of money

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
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?