Unit 4: The daily grind
Adverbs of frequency
Select a unit
- 1 Nice to meet you!
- 2 What to wear
- 3 Like this, like that
- 4 The daily grind
- 5 Christmas every day
- 6 Great achievers
- 7 The Titanic
- 8 Travel
- 9 The big wedding
- 10 Sunny's job hunt
- 11 The bucket list
- 12 Moving and migration
- 13 Welcome to BBC Broadcasting House
- 14 New Year, New Project
- 15 From Handel to Hendrix
- 16 What's the weather like?
- 17 The Digital Revolution
- 18 A detective story
- 19 A place to live
- 20 The Cult of Celebrity
- 21 Welcome to your new job
- 22 Beyond the planets
- 23 Great expectations!
- 24 Eco-tourism
- 25 Moving house
- 26 It must be love
- 27 Job hunting success... and failure
- 28 Speeding into the future
- 29 Lost arts
- 30 Tales of survival
Session 4
Rob is a producer here at BBC Learning English. He likes his job, but he spends a lot of his day travelling. Read his blog to find out why he does it.
Activity 2
News Report
Extreme commuting
So, we heard about Rob. He journeys 20 miles to work and travels using 3 different forms of transport. What about you? What's your commute to work or the place where you study?
Well, this week's News Report is about extreme commuting - and you'll find out about one very long commute. If you need any help, there's a transcript to read while you listen - but if you like a challenge, listen without the transcript. You can use the vocabulary list to help you learn some new words while you're listening.
Listen to the audio
The average worker in Britain spends 54 minutes commuting each day.
But some travel for much longer. These are the UK's 'extreme commuters'.
Gary Egen lives in Wales and commutes five days a week to Watford, which is 170 miles away.
"My alarm goes off at 03:30 each day and my journey takes two-and-a-half to three hours," he says.
But he says he enjoys the time spent travelling: "I have quite a stressful job so I use the journey home to sort my day out in my head and to make a plan for the following day."
Research from the Office for National Statistics says extreme commuting is becoming more common, and that a travel time of three hours or more is often a happier experience than shorter journeys.
This may be because these extra-long journeys are a lifestyle choice for extreme commuters. They often have a higher than average income and can therefore use their travel time more productively.
Download
You can download News Report from our Unit 4 downloads page (size 1.17MB).
Vocabulary
extreme commuters
people who spend a very long time travelling to work
stressful
making you feel worried or nervous
following
next: the 'following day' is the 'next day'
lifestyle choice
a choice about how you live
income
money people receive, usually for working
productively
successfully; usefully
Related story
This report is based on an original BBC News story.
End of Session 4
Well done, you have completed session 4. Join us in session 5 where we continue our drama, The Race, and there will be a chance to test what you've learned in unit 4. See you there!
Session Vocabulary
extreme commuters
people who spend a very long time travelling to workstressful
making you feel worried or nervousfollowing
next: the 'following day' is the 'next day'lifestyle choice
a choice about how you liveincome
money people receive, usually for workingproductively
successfully; usefully