Question

Read this sentence from paragraph 7 of the passage.

At school you probably interact only with the people you want to; in contrast, many jobs will require you to talk to strangers.

Which word from the sentence helps you understand the meaning of the word interact?


talk


require


contrast


probably

Reading Passage
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Should You Work During the School Year?

by Staff Writer Maryam Khan

1 Every Tuesday and Thursday, high school junior Kayla Morrison goes to a local café—not to eat, but to work. For the last four months, she's been working at the café those two afternoons a week and every Saturday morning.

2 Kayla is one of the many American high school students who work. In fact, around eighty percent of all high school students will have had some kind of job by the time they graduate. But is working during the school year a good thing? Let's find out.

Benefits

3 Kayla's friend Sergio Morales is a senior who works fifteen to twenty hours a week bagging groceries. He says, “Per hour, the money doesn't sound like much, but it adds up. I like being able to spend it on things I want to buy. And I am also saving a little to go to a community college next year.”

4 Sergio has named an obvious benefit of working—getting money in return for your labor—yet there are other benefits too.

5 A job helps you learn how to manage time. Adding a job to your already busy life can be tricky. To do this successfully, you have to schedule activities and plan. You also have to be willing to prioritize activities by assigning them varying degrees of importance.

6 A job can positively affect your future employment. Getting a job as a teen tells potential future employers that you have initiative, that is, the energy that's needed to do something. You'll probably have several jobs in your lifetime; most of them will require good communication skills as well as good work habits, such as being punctual and following directions well. You can sharpen these skills even if your job is part-time. Having to fill out job applications and going through job interviews as a teen will make you feel more at ease when you repeat the process as an adult.

7 A job provides you with valuable life experience. The work environment is very different from your school environment. “I learned things from my work that I never would have learned in a classroom,” is the response of many people when asked to talk about their first job. At school you probably interact only with the people you want to; in contrast, many jobs will require you to talk to strangers. You will have to answer questions with a sense of sureness. You may also be forced to deal with impatient or angry customers calmly (since the customer is “always right”). All of these things increase your self-confidence.

8 You meet new people on a job. Kayla Morrison says, “I work with two college students from the East Coast, and it's been interesting learning about their lives.” Kayla has also come to think of the café owner as a mentor who is providing her with valuable information about the food service industry. Kayla is even thinking about applying for the culinary arts program at her high school.

9 You also learn what it takes to make money: a lot of effort. This knowledge should cause you to think more carefully about what you choose to buy with your hard-earned cash.

Drawbacks

10 Working while in high school isn't all positive. Morales points

Answer 1

talk

"Talk" clarifies that "interact" here means to speak or communicate with people.