How much are you worth!

One of the most difficult questions to answer is how much a job is worth. We naturally expect that a doctor´s salary will be higher than a bus driver´s. But the question becomes much more difficult to answer when we compare, say, a miner and an engineer, or an unskilled man working on an oil rig in the North Sea with a teacher in a secondary school. What the doctor, the engineer and the teacher have in common is that they have devoted several years of their lives to studying in order to obtain the necessary qualifications for their professions. We feel instinctively that these skills and years when they were studying instead or earning money should be rewarded. At the same time, we recognise that the work of the miner and the oil rig labourer is both hard and dangerous, and they must be highly paid for the risks they take.

However, you can argue that a man who does a job which brings him personal satisfaction is already receiving part of the reward in the form of the so called "psychic wage", and that it is the man with the boring, repetitive job who needs more money to make up for the soul destroying monotony of his work. It is significant that those jobs which are draditionally regarded as "vocations"- nursing, teaching and the Church, for example, -continue to be poorly paid, while others, such as those in the world of sport or entertainment, carry financial rewards out of all proportion to their social worth.

Questions

A. True or False. Quote the evidence from the text.

1. Working on an oil rig requires high qualifications and a special training. T/F

2. The argument of the "psychic wage" is used to explain why people who do socially important work are not always well paid. T/F

3. Some jobs are overpaid. T/F

B. Answer the questions according to the text, in your own words.

1. Why doctors, teachers and engineers should be rewarded?

2. What does "psychic wage"mean?

C. Find a synonym in the text for each of these words or expressions.
1. value (noun)

2. bonus, compensation(noun) 

3. boredom (noun)

4. dedicate verb)

D. Rewrite the sentences without changing the meaning.

1. You should work harder, otherwise you´ll be fired.

You´d ...........................................

2. "Why don´t you get up earlier? Then you won´t miss the bus" Mary asked Tom.

Mary suggested that........................

3. I haven´t attended a conference for two months.

It´s ................................................

4. The boss gave him the sack last week.

He.................................................

E. Write a composition (80-120 words) one of these tittles:
Add your personal opinion.
1. Difficulties in finding a job nowadays.
2. What would you look for in a prospective job?