Practice English Listening B1 Exercises – Working in a man’s world

design engineer

APRIL:   You’ve got to be a really hard worker. Some jobs will come in on a Friday afternoon and they need to be done by Sunday morning, so you have to work over the weekend. … um … you need to be able to work on your own as well as work with a team. You’ve got to be able to communicate with the others to understand if anything they’re doing affects you … umm … you’ve got to be quite organised and quite decisive really.

2

a   Her father did.

b   She thinks it’s a good thing (you get noticed, people know who you are), although there is a lot of pressure to prove yourself.

3

a F (He’s half-Irish.)

b T   c T   d T   e T   f T

g F (She used to work in the hangars.)

h F   i  F

5

a   He’s always liked it a lot.

b   small little parts of engines and things like that

c   a small amount

d   started to do a lor of it (and liked it)

e   it’s your responsibility

f   do the smallest amount of work that you can do

g   look at/watch

h   how things were going/how I was managing in the job

APRIL:   I come from a very small village … umm … my father, well, he’s half Irish. He’s … er … a lorry driver, but he’s always been really keen on engineering and he’s always working on cars and bits and pieces. I suppose I picked up a bit from him and he’s always been really interested in flying – he did a little hit himself – but then … umm … he got interested in the gliding club that moved to our village. I started going up in gliders with him to look around, you know, try it out, and then I got involved with that and learned to fly. Then that led me on to working for Marshall Aerospace.

INTERVIEWER:   What sort of personal qualities do you think a good designer like you needs?

APRIL:   You’ve got to be a really hard worker. Some jobs will conic in on a Friday afternoon and they need to be done by Sunday morning, so you have to work over the weekend. … umm … You need to be able to work on your own as well as work with a team. You’ve got to be able to communicate with the others to understand if anything they’re doing affects you … umm … you’ve got to be quite organised and quite decisive really.

You’re doing a job that will affect an aeroplane and, even though about four other people check your work to ma e sure it’s OK, it still comes down to you. You’re responsible and you’ve got to make sure it’s right.

INTERVIEWER:   Most engineers are men, so what sort of qualities does a 22-year-old woman need working in a male environment?

APRIL:   Yeah, umm. I think you’ve got to be able to prove yourself to people that might, might wonder how well you’re going to do the job. … umm … You’ve got to show initiative really and ask questions and want to learn. You won’t be very successful if you just sit there and just do the minimum. There’ll always be I think that bit extra to do so that people will notice you for the right reasons, I suppose. But as a woman you are watched a lot. Well, not watched but people follow your progress more. When I worked on the planes in the hangars everyone knew me because I was the only girl there, so that now they all know my name and they all keep an eye on what I’m doing, how well I’m getting on – that’s unusual. I know a lot of the male apprentices know very few people in the hangars even though they worked here for the same time, but when I worked in there a lot of people spoke to me to find out how I was getting on.