Man: Good morning. Golden Fruit Orchard. Mike speaking.
Woman: Oh, hello. I am interested in the part-time job in your orchard, I mean, the fruit picking job, and I was told to give you a call.
Man: Great. Could I have your name, please?
Woman: Yes, it’s Eva Green.
Man: Okay. Well, let me take down some of your details. First of all, how old are you? You know this job is for young people aged from 18 to 24.
Woman: I have just turned 19.
Man: Good. May I know how you knew about this job? From our ad or...
Woman: My friend Naomi just started working in your orchard last week, and she recommended it to me.
Man: That’s good. We do need more hands for work recently.
1Woman: I heard that we are required to remove the clay at some parts of the orchard since it hardens when it becomes dry...
2Man: Yes, that’s right. And you have to make sure that you don’t have any fear of heights. We pick most fruits with a ladder, usually of 5 meters long or so...
Woman: Oh, I don’t have acrophobia, so I will be comfortable with that.
3Man: Great. And our workers usually have to work outdoors, so the working environment can be hot.
June is approaching, working outdoors can make you sweaty.
Woman: I see, my friend said there would be free refreshments and cold drinks.
Man: Yes, we do offer those for our workers.
Woman: Sounds good. Are there any other skills required for the job?
4Man: Well, this task also requires a quite high level of concentration, so as to make sure the ripest fruits are collected.
{[Woman: Got it. That’s not a problem for me I suppose. So how about the wages. Is that $5 per hour?
Man: Not really, it’s $4.5 for every bucket.][5]} We pay by workload.
Woman: Okay, I see. We will only work on weekdays, right?
Man: Yes, you will have weekends off, and we close our orchard every Tuesday, so you can have some rest on that day.
Woman: How about extreme weather? Like high temperatures and heavy rains? It’s quite common here in summer.
6Man: Yes, it’s not a good idea to work if it’s raining. Don’t worry, we will check the weather report and inform you if the weather affects work.
Woman: Ummm, I know that you also need extra workers to manage packaging. The wages are different, right?
7Man: Yeah, it’s different from that of fruit-picking. We used to pay our workers 10 dollars per hour, but we’ve increased that to 13.75 dollars per hour. I hope that is reasonable for you.
Woman: Absolutely, will this job be a little bit physically demanding?
Man: That depends on the season. We used to have a lot work to do in February and November.
8Since we have introduced some equipment to reduce the workload, now January is our busiest month.
Woman: I see. I just checked the location of the orchard, it’s far from where I live, I wonder if you provide accommodation?
9Man: Yes, we do take that into consideration, and we will offer workers who live far away free lodging. But you will have to do laundry on your own.
Woman: Understandable. Oh, right, is there a bus station or subway station nearby? I haven’t got my driver’s license yet.
10Man: Um, I’m afraid our orchard doesn’t have easy access to any bus or subway stations. If you don’t drive, riding a bike can be a good choice I think.
Woman: Okay. Thank you.
