ACADEMIC LISTENING TEST PRACTICE
STRESSFUL JOBS
STRESSFUL JOBS
For Students Preparing for Academic Tests / IELTS and TOEFL
Listen as you read the script.
Playing Time: 1 minute 49 seconds
Last week, my five-year-old son came up to me and proudly announced that he wants to become a commercial airline pilot when he grows up. I’m very happy for him because he spends hours looking at picture books about airplanes, and he loves to play airplane game apps. It’s great to know what career you want at such a young age. I mean, I didn’t really know what I wanted to be until I was in my twenties! As well, the average annual salary for an airline pilot is quite good: 105,270 US dollars. Also, being an airline pilot means that you might travel to many exotic far-away locations around the world, places that most people will probably never get a chance to see in their lifetimes.
However, I wonder if his choice of career is one that I should encourage. You see, this morning I googled “most stressful jobs”, and I discovered that my son’s dream career is actually the third most stressful on a list of top ten most stressful jobs. I suppose this makes sense because, as a pilot you are responsible for the lives of hundreds of people. In addition, you are away from home for many days at a time, and you may have to fly through many different time zones which can be very difficult for your body to adjust to.
Number one on the list of most stressful jobs was “military personnel”, and number two was “firefighter”. That’s understandable, I think, because jobs like these are very dangerous – you must put your very life in danger on an almost daily basis. Interestingly, however, “taxi driver” was also on the list (at number ten). I wonder why this might be?
However, I wonder if his choice of career is one that I should encourage. You see, this morning I googled “most stressful jobs”, and I discovered that my son’s dream career is actually the third most stressful on a list of top ten most stressful jobs. I suppose this makes sense because, as a pilot you are responsible for the lives of hundreds of people. In addition, you are away from home for many days at a time, and you may have to fly through many different time zones which can be very difficult for your body to adjust to.
Number one on the list of most stressful jobs was “military personnel”, and number two was “firefighter”. That’s understandable, I think, because jobs like these are very dangerous – you must put your very life in danger on an almost daily basis. Interestingly, however, “taxi driver” was also on the list (at number ten). I wonder why this might be?
Note: For more cool ESL resources about jobs, visit my All Things Topics site.
