B1 Career Part 3: Career
Lesson 13 of 10 in this unit.
📖 Reading Passage
In a small library room every Thursday, volunteers fix broken things for free. Retired electricians mend lamps, students patch laptop screens, and a tailor sews torn jackets. Visitors bring kettles, toys, and bicycles, then watch and learn while the repair happens. The founder, a former engineer, says the goal is to fight waste: half of discarded appliances need only a fuse or a loose wire. Last year the café saved over two tonnes of rubbish. Regulars say the best part is not the free repair but the coffee, conversation, and the skill they take home. The volunteers keep a ledger of every repair. It records the object, the fault, and the fix, so newcomers can look up a similar problem before opening a kettle. Many faults turn out to be the same handful of causes: a blown fuse, a worn cable, a blocked filter, a loose screw. Visitors who watch a repair once often return with tools and a plan to try the next one themselves. Schools now send design students to learn how products are built and why they fail. The organisers insist the cafe is not an anti-technology protest. Machines, they say, are worth keeping, and a society that can mend its possessions wastes less money and fewer materials.
📘 Vocabulary
20 words from this lesson
- don
- A university professor, particularly one at Oxford or Cambridge.
- “You don't have to answer these questions.”
- educational
- Of, or relating to education.
- “They discussed educational during the lesson.”
- entertainment
- An activity designed to give pleasure, enjoyment, diversion, amusement, or relaxation to an audience, no matter whether the audience participates passively as in watching opera or a movie, or actively as in games.
- “They discussed entertainment during the lesson.”
- extreme
- Of a place, the most remote, farthest or outermost.
- “They discussed extreme during the lesson.”
- facility
- The physical means or contrivances to make something (especially a public service) possible; the required equipment, infrastructure, location etc.
- “They discussed facility during the lesson.”
- goods
- That which is produced, then traded, bought or sold, then finally consumed.
- “They discussed goods during the lesson.”
- hang
- To be or remain suspended.
- “They discussed hang during the lesson.”
- info
- information.
- “I gather information about the quality of goods.”
- mainly
- Of a person or thing being the driving force influencing the outcome of an event; chiefly; certainly for the most part.
- “They discussed mainly during the lesson.”
- maximum
- The highest limit.
- “They discussed maximum during the lesson.”
- newspaper
- A publication, usually published daily or weekly, containing news and other articles. Traditionally a print publication typically printed on cheap, low-quality paper; today usually digital and often also available in print.
- “They discussed newspaper during the lesson.”
- painting
- An illustration or artwork done with the use of paint.
- “They discussed painting during the lesson.”
- republic
- A state where sovereignty rests with the people or their representatives, rather than with a monarch or emperor; a country with no monarchy.
- “They discussed republic during the lesson.”
- reserve
- A restriction.
- “They discussed reserve during the lesson.”
- returns
- Merchandise returned to the retailer, wholesaler or supplier.
- “They discussed returns during the lesson.”
- row
- A line of objects, often regularly spaced, such as seats in a theatre, vegetable plants in a garden, etc.
- “My pen has run out of ink! Can I borrow your pen?”
- salt
- A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a food ingredient, seasoning, condiment, and preservative.
- “They discussed salt during the lesson.”
- scared
- Feeling fear; afraid, frightened.
- “They discussed scared during the lesson.”
- statistics
- A discipline, principally within applied mathematics, concerned with the systematic study of the collection, presentation, analysis, and interpretation of data.
- “They discussed statistics during the lesson.”
- switch
- A device to turn electric current on and off or direct its flow.
- “They discussed switch during the lesson.”
📐 Grammar Notes
This lesson practices clear paragraph structure: one main idea per paragraph, stated first, supported with two concrete details, and closed with a linking sentence. Prefer active verbs and precise nouns. Connect ideas with however for contrast, furthermore for addition, and therefore for consequence. Keep sentences under twenty-five words so each claim stays traceable to its evidence. Practice by labeling each sentence in the reading: underline the main verb, circle the time marker, and check that every they and it points to a named noun. Rewrite any three sentences in your own words while keeping tense and meaning intact. Theme: career. Reading: The Repair Café.
Practice Exercises
Work through each exercise to complete this lesson.
___'t run so fast.
Women, then, are only children of a larger g___th.
What does 'don' mean?
What does 'educational' mean?
What does 'entertainment' mean?
What does 'extreme' mean?
What does 'facility' mean?
What does 'goods' mean?
Write a sentence using 'don'.
Summarize the passage in two sentences.
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