1. Respond to the following questions in a neutral style.

1. Why are you in such a hurry?

2. Why didn’t you go into this business?

3. Why hasn’t she taken maternity leave?

4. Why did he refuse to do odd jobs?

5. Why won’t they dismiss him?

2. Respond to the following questions in an informal style.

1. Why don’t you want to work part-time?

2. Why didn’t you phone to his manager?

3. Tell me why you don’t want to be a teacher?

4. Why are you so rude to me?

3. Say which job you would prefer and why:

providing good living, but rather boring and routine; which involves working indoors; which would be quite intellectual; a job involving a foreign language and living abroad;

providing a poor living but interesting; which involves working outdoors; which would be in some way physical or manual; a job involving no language at all; part-time job; full-time job.

4. Develop the conversation giving sane reasons for this or that decision.

1

• I’m looking for a new job, sir.

• What exactly do you want?

• I wouldn’t mind working in a pub.

• Have you done anything like that before?

• Well, I once did a bit of serving …

2

• I wonder whether you need any part-timers.

• What kind of work were you thinking of?

• A hotel job or some sort.

• Have you ever done anything similar?

• Not so far, no. I’m more or less straight from school but I’ll do my best because …

3

• Do you have any vacancies for full-time staff?

• What do you mean (have in mind)?

• Something in the building industry.

• Have you had any experience?

• Actually, I’m a civil engineer by profession and I enjoy my job, but …

5. Find out about your groupmates’ and other people’s occupation. Use the following dialogues as models.

Model A: - What do you do for a living?

- Actually, I don’t work yet. I go to Manchester Business School and study management.

- Why have you chosen management as your future profession?

- Because it’s a demanding and prestigious job today.

Model B: - What does your friend do?

- Oh, he wants to take up computers.

- Why does he want to study computer programming?

- Well, he lost his job last month and hasn’t been able to find another one.

Model C: - What’s your present job, Sam?

- I work as a personnel manager at a big firm but I want to transfer to the International Sales Division.

- What for?

- Well, I don’t really like to work in the office. I just want to travel, to go to Africa, for example.

- Hmm, that’s exciting.

Listening

Before listening

You are going to hear a radio interview with Dr. Stuart Harris, a professor of marketing, about a part of the U.S. population known as the “baby boom generation”, or “baby boomers”.

1. Discuss the questions in small groups.

1. As far as you know, which part of the U.S. population is the largest: young, middle-aged, or old?

2. Which part of the population is the largest in your community? In general, is the population getting older or younger or staying the same? Is this a problem?

2. Vocabulary Preview. The following terms appear in the lecture. With your classmates, define the words you already know. Mark the words you do not know.

boom stock market crash fad

birthrate Great Depression gadget

huge housing fat free

age group appliances to be concerned

not only … but also station wagon physical fitness

3. Listen to the interview and take notes in the best way you can.

4. Look at the following sample notes. They are in the form of two columns. Use your notes to fill in the missing information. Remember to use abbreviations and symbols. Listen to the interview again if necessary.

The Baby Boom Generation
Questions/Topics	Answers
A.______________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________	1. boom = _______________________ 2. Between end of WW2 & early 1960s, U.S. birthrate _____________________ 3. Today: 76 mil. boomers age = ________________
B. Age of baby boomers – important?	Yes. Reasons: _____________________________ _____________________________ Result: _______________________ _____________________________
C. Diffs. between_________________ and____________________________	1. Parents grew up _________________ poor 2. Boomers grew up after ___________ U.S. econ. = ______________________ Results:__________________________ a._______________________________ b._______________________________ c._______________________________
D. _____________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________	1. ________________(biggest expense) 2. ______________________________ 3._______________________________ 4._______________________________
E. Prod. created spec. for boomers	1. ______________________________ 2. ______________________________ 3. ______________________________
F. New _________________________ ________________________________	Ex.: 1. diet centers 2. tanning salons 3. ______________________________ 4. ______________________________