General Listening Quiz

What jobs are popular among men and women in your country? Are there social or cultural rules that influence what jobs people do?

“learn the ropes” = learn how to do a specific job
“It took me a few months to learn the ropes at my new job.”

“pull one’s weight” = do a person’s share of the work
“If you can’t pull your own weight around here, the boss is going to fire you.”

A. Listen to the recording and answer the questions.

Do the vocabulary quizzes with the words from the conversation for more practice:

• Mixed-Up Sentence  |  Gap-fill Exercise | Sentence and Vocabulary Matching

In the past, what kinds of jobs were mainly done by men or women (a registered nurse, a secretary, or childcare worker)? Is this still true today, or is this trend changing? What are the reasons for these changes: social, religious, or economic?

Use the Internet to find out how the workplace is changing in a different country in terms of men’s and women’s roles and cultural diversity. Interview a classmate from a different country if possible to understand their views on this topic. Here are some possible questions to consider:

• Are women often more qualified than men to work in positions that were traditionally held by men? If so, what has caused this change?
• Are there any religious principles within certain faiths that influence the degree to which women work outside of the home?
• How do people view men who work in jobs that are often held by more women (nursing, elementary school teachers, secretaries, office clerks, etc.)?