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Read the passage and choose the best answer for each question.
Marek stands outside a London courtroom every Tuesday at six in the morning. He has no case of his own. Someone pays him £15 an hour to hold their place in the queue instead. "Professional queuer" is a real job. Busy lawyers, tourists, and fans of new phone releases hire people like Marek. They never have to wait in line themselves.
Around the world, thousands of people earn a living from jobs that sound made up. In Amsterdam, a small team fishes more than 12,000 bicycles out of the canals every year, using a crane mounted on a boat. In offices for perfume and deodorant companies, trained "odour judges" smell test a product on real people, then score how well it worked. Video game studios pay testers to play the same ten minutes of a game hundreds of times. They hunt for tiny bugs that most players would never notice.
These jobs share something in common: they exist because ordinary people do not want to do a specific, unpleasant, or time-consuming task themselves. Someone has to stand in the queue, clear the canal, judge the smell, or find the bug. Companies have learned it is cheaper to pay a specialist than to lose customers. Unusual does not mean unnecessary; behind almost every strange-sounding job is a real problem that needed solving.
This B1 English reading explores four real jobs that most people have never heard of: a professional queuer, a canal bicycle-fisher, an odour judge, and a video-game bug-hunter. Behind each strange job title is a genuine, paid role that solves a real problem for a business or a busy customer.
As you read, notice how the writer moves from a specific example (Marek) to a wider pattern, then draws a conclusion about why unusual jobs exist. This structure — example, evidence, conclusion — is common in B1 and IELTS reading passages, so recognising it here will help you in other tests too.
Keep practising with related reading and grammar units at your level.
يأخذك هذا النص الإنجليزي للمستوى المتوسط في جولة داخل بعض أغرب الوظائف الحقيقية في العالم — واقف طابور محترف، وصياد دراجات في القنوات، و'حكم رائحة' يختبر مزيلات العرق. ستتعلم مفردات العمل، وتتدرب على مهارات الاستيعاب والاستنتاج، ويمكنك ترجمة أي كلمة داخل التطبيق.
جميع أسئلة القراءة لمستوى B1 لـ “وظائف غريبة وعجيبة – قراءة بالإنجليزي للمستوى المتوسط مع الأسئلة والإجابات”، كل سؤال مع الإجابة الصحيحة وشرح موجز. اقرأ النص أعلاه، وجرّب التمارين التفاعلية، ثم تحقق من إجاباتك هنا.
1. Why does Marek stand in a queue every Tuesday morning?
الإجابة: He is paid to hold someone else's place in the queue
Correct. The text says he has no case of his own — someone pays him to hold their place in the queue instead. This directly rules out the court-case distractor.
2. Who, according to the text, typically hires a professional queuer like Marek?
الإجابة: Busy lawyers, tourists, and fans of new phone releases
Correct. Paragraph 1 names these three groups exactly. "Companies that make deodorant" is a distractor mixed in from a later paragraph about a different job.
3. What do the workers in Amsterdam mentioned in the text do?
الإجابة: They remove bicycles from the canals using a crane
Correct. The passage says the team "fishes... bicycles out of the canals... using a crane mounted on a boat." Repairing bicycles is never mentioned.
4. How many bicycles does the text say are pulled from Amsterdam's canals each year?
الإجابة: More than 12,000
Correct. The exact figure "more than 12,000 bicycles" is stated in paragraph 2 — a scanning question with one clear, stated answer.
5. What does an "odour judge" do, according to the passage?
الإجابة: Smell-tests a product on real people to score how well it worked
Correct. The text says odour judges "smell test a product on real people, then score how well it worked." The other options are plausible-sounding jobs that the text never describes.
6. Why do video game testers replay the same short section of a game many times?
الإجابة: To find small bugs that most players would never notice
Correct. The text says testers "hunt for tiny bugs that most players would never notice." The distractor about training new staff is never stated.
7. According to the writer, why do jobs like these exist?
الإجابة: Because ordinary people prefer not to do a specific unpleasant or time-consuming task themselves
Correct. The final paragraph directly states this reason, then adds: "Companies have learned it is cheaper to pay a specialist than to lose customers." Pay level, robots, and government law are never mentioned — this question tests understanding of the writer's overall argument, not just one fact.
1. People often wait in a long _____ outside the shop on the first day of a big sale.
الإجابة: queue
A queue is a line of people waiting for something — like Marek's job holding someone else's place in one.
2. Amsterdam has many beautiful _____s where people cycle and boats travel.
الإجابة: canal
A canal is a man-made waterway — the same canals the bicycle-fishing team clears every year.
3. A tall _____ lifted the shipping container onto the truck.
الإجابة: crane
A crane is a machine that lifts heavy objects — the same equipment used to pull bicycles out of the water.
4. Cleaning the office bathroom is an _____ job, but someone has to do it.
الإجابة: unpleasant
Unpleasant means unenjoyable or disagreeable — the kind of task the passage says people pay others to do instead.
5. The company hired a _____ to fix the complicated computer problem.
الإجابة: specialist
A specialist is an expert in one particular task — exactly why companies hire odour judges and bug-hunters instead of doing the job themselves.