Task: we are going to discuss certain jobs at this time of health emergency due to the COVID-19.
Jobs: actor, comedian, politician, doctor and scientist.
Context: health crisis due to the COVID-19.
Task description: with every given word or expression below try to make a sentence using one of the jobs above in the context of COVID-19.
Expressions:
1. give somebody their marching orders
meaning:
to be ordered to leave a place, a job, etc.
E.g.
Scientists shouldn't be given their marching orders at a time of crisis.
Students' own answers:
2. lay sb off
meaning:
to stop employing somebody because there is not enough work for them to do
E.g.
Many doctors have been laid off in recent years.
Students' own answers:
3. step down
meaning:
to leave an important job or position and let somebody else take your place
E.g.
The scientific adviser decided to step down because he didn't see eye to eye with the president.
4. saddle sb with sth:
meaning:
to give somebody/yourself an unpleasant responsibility, task, debt, etc.
E.g.
Scientists are saddle with the job of finding a cure or a vaccine
Students' own answers:
5. lean on sb:
meaning:
to depend on
E.g.
Politicians lean on scientists and doctors
Students' own answers:
6. pull your weight
meaning:
to work as hard as everyone else in a job, an activity, etc.
E.g.
Scientists are currently pulling their weight.
Students' own answers:
7. burn the midnight oil
meaning:
to study or work until late at night
E.g.
Scientists are burning the midnight oil to develop a vaccine.
Students' own answers:
8. be thrown in at the deep end
meaning:
be made to start a new and difficult activity that you are not prepared for
E.g.
Politicians have been thrown in at the deep end not knowing what to do at this time of health and economic crisis.
Students' own answers:
9. leave somebody to their own devices
meaning:
to leave somebody alone to do as they wish, and not tell them what to do
E.g.
At this time of crisis politicians cannot be left to their own devices.
Students' own answers:
10. wet behind the ears
meaning:
young and without much experience
E.g.
Some politicians are wet behind the ears when it comes to a crisis of such extraordinary proportions.
Students' own answers:
11. free hand
meaning:
the opportunity to do what you want to do and to make your own decisions
E.g.
If some politicians were given a free hand in making decisions at this time of a health emergency, disasters could happen.
Students' own answers:
12. of your own accord
meaning:
without being asked, forced or helped
E.g.
The actor made a contribution of his own accord.
Students' own answers:
13. see fit
meaning:
to consider it right or acceptable to do something; to decide or choose to do something
E.g.
Scientists give politicians their opinion, but at the end of the day, politicians do what they see fit.
Students' own answers:
14. be at liberty to do something
meaning:
having the right or freedom to do something
E.g.
Comedians are at liberty to express their own opinions humorously.
Students' own answers:
15. at will
meaning:
whenever you want and in whatever way you want
E.g.
I don't believe politicians should have the right to hire and fire their scientific advisers at will.
Students' own answers:
16. no mean feat
meaning:
something that is very difficult to do, so that someone who does it deserves to be admired
E.g.
The development of a vaccine is no mean feat for our scientists.
Students' own answers:
17. pull strings
meaning:
to secretly use your influence with important people in order to get what you want or to help someone else
E.g.
Some politicians manage to pull strings to get what they want.
Students' own answers:
18. pull the plug on something
meaning:
Prevent something from happening or continuing.
E.g.
Governments won't be able to pull the plug on hospital funding after this health crisis.
Students' own answers:
19. not pull any/your punches
meaning:
to express disapproval or criticism clearly, without trying to hide anything
E.g.
The president doesn't pull any/his punches; he can be quite offensive.
Students' own answers:
PART TWO
What's this man's occupation?
KEY:
Anthony Stephen Fauci ( /ˈfaʊtʃi/; born December 24, 1940) is an American doctor and immunologist who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984. Since January 2020, he has been one of the lead members of the Trump Administration's White House Coronavirus Task Force addressing the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Fauci is widely seen to be one of the most trusted medical figures in the country.
- What are the benefits and drawbacks of having this job?
- Put yourself in his shoes. What do you think he is thinking/feeling?
- In a TV interview Dr. Anthony Fauci was once asked what actor he would like to play him in a comedy sketch. Who do you think he chose?
KEY
https://youtu.be/pNzFw-xWWtU
Watch this video. What expressions from the list above spring to mind?
https://youtu.be/ot5Ee6k2Zbk
- Write a couple of sentences about this video using the expressions we have learnt today.
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