In and out of work

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Public domain


Can you answer these questions?:
  • Do you know the difference between work and job?
  • Which words collocate with do and make? For example, what is correct make or do a living?
  • Have you been made redundant recently? 
  • Which big company has announced a new round of layoffs?
  • How much paternity leave can you take in Spain?
  • If you are a parent, how do you juggle work and family life?
  • What is the state retirement age?
  • Do you get any perks in your company?

Vocabulary

What words come to your mind if somebody mentions the following?:
  1. unemployment
  2. job security
  3. casual employment
  4. changing work patterns
  5. employment opportunities
  6. maternity/paternity leave
  7. sick leave
  8. childcare
  9. retirement
Can you speak for 4-6 minutes on each topic? Well, you'll have to work at it or work your socks off!



Topic 1. Unemployment
Follow this link to read an article about Spain. Follow this link to read about benefits in the UK, and this one to read about redundancy.
 

Topic 2. Casual employment
Read this article from the BBC.

Topic 3. Changing work patterns
Read this article from the Working Families website.

Topic 4. Employment opportunities
Read this article from El País in English.
Read this BBC article about teenagers.

Topic 5. Maternity/paternity leave
Listen to this piece of news from NPR radio.
Read about pregnant employees' rights in the UK.
Read and watch about paternity leave in the UK.

Topic 6. Sick leave
Read about sick leave in the UK.

Topic 7. Childcare
Listen to NPR radio about parental leave and childcare around the world.
Read this article about a parent being denied shared custody in Spain.

Topic 8. Retirement
Read about retirement age in the UK.
Read about retireent age for men and women in the UK.

Grammar: Quantifiers and intensifiers

Quantifiers are words which show the amount of something (how much or how many). There are two basic types, with and without of.

Quantifiers used with countable and uncountable nouns
Countable nouns (rooms, houses)              Uncountable nouns (food, money)

1) Can you classify the following quantifiers into countable or uncountable? Bear in mind that some of them can be used with both countable or uncountable.
all, most, many, much, both, several, various, some, (a) few, (a) little, (hardly) any, no, none.

Common quantifiers with of
a lot of, lots of, loads of, heaps of, a great deal of, a large amount of, plenty of, a bunch of, the vast majority of, a number of, a minority of, half of, hundreds of.

1) Which quantifiers with of are not usually used in formal texts?

2) What is the difference between the following:
     All workers / All of the workers are entitled to 5 weeks' paid holiday per year.
     Most women / Most of the women take maternity leave.

Click here to find out.


Intensifiers
Intensifiers are usually adverbs which give emphasis to the adjective or noun phrase which they modify. For example, I'm awfully sorry.

Quite and rather as intensifiers. Word order with a/ an + gradable adjective or nouns.
Quite goes before a/an + gradable adjective or noun.

           It's  quite a nice day.
           He's quite a man!
           The meeting I attended was quite a success.

Rather is an adverb of degree similar in meaning to quite but stronger. It means more than usual or expected. It follows the same word order rule with adjectives or nouns as quite.

            Being on the dole for so long must be rather frustratring.
            Setting up a business is rather a good idea if you have the financial backing required.

Learn more


Visit this British Council learning English page for a basic review on quantifiers.

Visit this page for more theory and practice.

Let me know how you get on.

Job opportunities

There are some job opportunities at the British Embassy. Why don't you check?

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