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Views #678 | High Intermediate 6

Medicine Man

Jeff talks about one odd job that had to do with the medical profession.
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Todd: OK, now Jeff, I've know you for along time. You are a very resourceful person. You always have these crazy jobs, and recently you had at a hospital, but you weren't a doctor. Could you please describe your job?

Jeff: Todd, it was a pharmaceutical company clinic that I was working at and it was, I was a guinea pig, a medical guinea pig which means that a new drug that is being introduced into a foreign country must be tested on an individual before it can be sold on the open market so I'm a guinea pig. It's tested on me, and once the results come back and everything is OK then it is sold to the public.

Todd: So when you say you were a guinea pig, like what did they do to you everyday, or what was your routine?

Jeff: Well let me qualify that it's not good work. You can't really make a living at it and bring up children but it pays very well,..., very very well. It's very lucrative so that's one of the enticements for doing this kind of work but it's just, your day is you get up are administered the drug, for example a flu medicine and then you remain in the clinic all day long and you read and write. You have the freedom to do whatever you like, but it's very monitored so you can't leave the clinic but you can do whatever you like to do in the clinic.

Todd: OK, so you're in the clinic and what would a daily routine be? What do you do? Do you get up and exercise or what?

Jeff: A daily routine varies between individuals, so with me there were twelve on the study, twelve young men, and some of the guys would get up late and sleep until noon. Well, they would get up for breakfast. You have to have breakfast at seven a.m. and what you eat is monitored and then you eat lunch at noon and you eat your dinner at six. In between a lot of the guys read or watched movies or played video games. I used my time by doing yoga or reading, doing work, studying Japanese. I tried to use my time a little bit constructively, whereas some of the other guys sort of just used it as a vacation.

Todd: OK, so you're in this clinic for a week or whatever. So when you get out from being sequestered in there, what is the first thing you do?

Jeff: The first thing that I did when I got out was..no, OK, no....I can't say that. The second thing I did when I got out of the clinic was have a nice meal because the food in the clinic wasn't very good so, the second thing was that I had a really good meal, a nice meal of food.

Todd: Alright, Jeff. Thank you for sharing that.

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

resourceful

I've known you for a long time and I know that you're a very resourceful person.

Someone who is 'resourceful' is very good at resolving situations quickly, using the materials that they have available. Notice the following:

  1. He is one of the most resourceful people that I know.
  2. When you are a single parent, you are forced to be resourceful.

crazy jobs

You always have these crazy jobs, like recently at a hospital.

'Crazy jobs' would be ones that would not be considered your typical job. These might be jobs that are dangerous or have you doing very odd tasks. Notice the following:

  1. She is more interested in crazy jobs than normal office jobs.
  2. After he graduated from college, he had to do all these crazy jobs just to get by.

guinea pig

I was a guinea pig for a pharmaceutical company testing its new drug.

You are a 'guinea pig' when new products or procedures are tested on you. Notice the following:

  1. Would you be interested in being a guinea pig for new medicines'
  2. The university is looking for some guinea pigs to test out new teaching techniques.

lucrative

This job is very lucrative and it pays very well.

A 'lucrative' job is one where you make a lot of money. Notice the following:

  1. He found that cutting grass in the summer was actually very lucrative work.
  2. She enjoys her job but recognizes that it is not the most lucrative.

sequestered

So what is the first thing you do when you get out from being sequestered in there?

Here, Todd is using 'sequestered' to mean something like isolated or held in some place. Notice the following:

  1. We plan to sequester the sick individuals, so they don't infect the rest of the students.
  2. You child tends to sequester himself from his peers.
Answer these questions about the interview.

Vocabulary Quiz

resourceful • crazy • guinea
lucrative • sequestered
  1. What sort of jobs have you had over the years?
  2. Waitressing can be a very job.
  3. I think I would be too scared to be a pig for new medical procedures.
  4. Both of the children were after they got in the fight.
  5. Don't just give up on the problem. You have to try to be .

 

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