Bill (worker, 40)

Bill Radford has a job in a small factory. He doesn't much like the work, but he enjoys the relationships with the other workers, and he gets on with the boss. Sometimes he has a chance to travel on business which he enjoys very much.

His wife, Ann, has been unemployed for the last two years. She stays at home and looks after the house. After getting their six-year-old daughter Sally ready and driving her to school, she starts on the housework. Although she likes being on her own, she finds housework boring and doesn't like to stay at home all day. So she tries to get through the washing up, the cooking, the ironing, the shopping and so on as quickly as possible. This takes her about two or three hours, after that she usually has lunch. She doesn't like to waste time. After lunch she goes off to the public library and reads books on politics or history until it's time to fetch Sally from school. In the evening Bill and Ann share the housework.

At weekends they try to spend some time outdoors: they often go walking to the country, or take Sally on trips to places like the zoo or the seaside.

Money is a big problem. Bill doesn't earn a very good salary, and their income is hardly enough for three people to live on, so they have to be very careful about what they spend. They can't really afford to keep the car, and will have to get rid of it soon, but they have decided to put off selling it until Sally is old enough to go to school by bus. They are just not able to save money and they're extremely worried about their old age. Sally wants to be a teacher or a nurse when she grows up, but Ann and Bill hope she will do something where she can earn enough money to live a better life than her parents.

Text 3. Read about Michael’s day and complete the information about his typical working day.

Would you like to lead the same sort of life?

MICHAEL DELL’S WORKING DAY

For one of America’s richest men, Dell Chairman lives a remarkably unglamorous life. Michael Dell spends about 30 % of his time traveling to the company’s operations overseas and meeting international customers. Every month he makes two trips to Europe and another two to Asia.

When he is at home in Austin, Texas, he gets up at 5.30 a.m. each day. Dell lives with his wife Susan and their four children. In the morning he exercises at home for an hour from 6 a.m. and then he drives to his office. He arrives to work at 8 a.m. At work he discusses and makes decisions about customers, company strategy and operations, and planning for the organization. ‘I leave the office at about 6.15 p.m., have dinner with the family, do story time with the kids’. Dell often does email and surfs the Internet, reads newspapers in the evenings. ‘Then I go to sleep, get up and do it all again,’ he says.

Home town ………………. Time traveling abroad…………………

Marital status……………….. Number of trips abroad a day …………