Vocabulary

1 Types of pay

Match the types of pay with their definitions:

1. salary a. a reduction in the amount of pay an employee is given

2. wages b. an extra sum given to an employee

3. pension c. an increase in the amount of pay an employee is given

4. A pay cut d. Money paid to someone based on how well he or she works at the workplace

5. A pay rise e. Pay an employee receives when he or she leaves employment at a company

6. performance-related pay f. the amount paid to you after you retire

7. a bonus g. the amount paid to you based on the number of hours worked multiplied by an hourly rate of pay, for example 40 hours x $15/hr

8. severance pay h. the amount paid to you in return for your work for particular period, usually a month

2.Complete the sentences below.

1. Joe helped the company increase its profits, so his boss decided to give him _____a at the end of the year.

2. Marta has a very well-paid job. She earns______ a of almost $100,000/year.

3. Dean doesn't work anymore. He gets a small_______ from the government.

4. The workers were offered $20,000 in________ to leave the company.

5. The government has decided to introduce________ in schools in order improve the quality of teaching.

6. Due to the difficult economic situation, government workers had to accept a______ .

7. At the end of each week, the shop keeper pays the staff their_______ .

8. Paul's boss agreed to give him________ a because he had worked so hard over the past few years.

3.Pay vocabulary

Study the sentences below and match the underlined phrases to their definitions below.

1. In the United States, the minimum wage is $7.25/hour.

2. For the right person, we are willing to pay a basic salary of $50,000, plus bonus.

3. The employer paid a back payment to his employee on his wages from 3 months earlier.

4. The workers all agreed to work overtime after their employer promised to pay them extra wages.

5. Mark is definitely underpaid. He deserves a much higher salary than what he is currently receiving.

6. I think professional footballers are overpaid. There are far more important jobs out there.

a. an overdue payment from an employer to an employee

b. in addition to normal working hours

c. paid less than what is normal

d. paid more than what is normal

e. the lowest amount of money that you can be paid for work, according to the law

f. what an employee earns before other sums of money, such as payments for working extra hours, are added

4 Talking point

Discuss any of the questions below:

1. What is the minimum wage in your country?

2. Which jobs do you think are overpaid?

3. Which jobs do you think are underpaid?

4. Is working overtime common in your business or industry?

5. Do you think performance-related pay is a good idea?

6. Have salaries changed in your country in recent years?

7. Is severance pay common in your country?

Ponomareva Oksana

Teenage Inventions

Before you start…

1. What things are teenagers interested in nowadays?

2. What problems are teenagers worried?

Reading.

3. Read about 4 teenage inventions and complete the table.

	Invention№1	Invention№2	Invention№3
Name of invention
Importance of the invention
Name and age of the inventor

Continuation of the activity

The 11-year old who invented a gadget to prevent parents from leaving their babies in hot cars

An 11-year-old Nashville student has invented a simple device that could save lives.

After learning approximately 38 children die each year from being left in hot cars, young Andrew Pelham felt compelled to do something. He entered The Rubber Band Contest for Young Inventors, which is held each year in Akron, Ohio. (The city is also known as the rubber capital of the United States.)

There is only one rule for contestants – they must use rubber bands in their invention. With that in mind, Andrew created the E-Z Baby Saver and won second place, taking home US$500.

Andrew thought his amazing invention might be a cheap way to help parents remember when they have a child in the back seat. The E-Z Baby Saver is a simple device made of duct tape and rubber bands. The device renders parents unable to walk away from the car when a child is still inside. It is a strap that stretches from the back seat to the front and attaches to the driver's side door.

Andrew used his prize money to buy a laptop and create his website.

The 11-year old cancer survivor who invented a chemotherapy bag

When she was 8 years old, Kylie Simonds of Naugatuck, Connecticut was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of the connective tissues. She is now in remission and recovering from the ordeal.

Throughout her illness, one of the obstacles she endured were I-V pole wires that would cause her to constantly trip. She also needed to help pushing the pole around because it was too heavy for her.

Kylie invented a pediatric IV backpack – a wearable, portable IV machine for kids receiving chemotherapy or transfusions. The bag even comes in colorful designs. She calls it the I-Pack.

Kylie's design won a prize at the Connecticut Invention Convention in August 2014. She has secured a patent and is trying to raise money to put the backpack into production.

The 13-year old who claimed to have invented a lollipop that cures hiccups

In 2012, a thirteen-year-old girl launched a potentially lucrative business built around her unusual cure for hiccups. Kievman's idea for a cure came after she was afflicted with a stubborn case of the hiccups two years before and decided to test a number of folk remedies, from sipping water out of an upside-down cup to drinking salt water.

Eventually, after curing her hiccups, the future doctor combined her three favorite remedies to form her own (patent pending) cure for the annoying ailment.

Her three part cure is composed of sugar, apple cider vinegar, and lollipops. While she claims she is still in the process of “tweaking the taste,” her invention has already received a considerable amount of attention and has resulted in her enlistment of M.B.A. students, who will assist with launching her start-up.

She named her product Hiccupops.