ESL for IT · Level B1 · Complete Interactive Workbook

Unit 1: IT Roles & Daily Routine — all 27 tasks

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Every exercise of Unit 1 in one place, in textbook order — with full task texts, tables, theory and examples, exactly as in the Student's Book. Auto-checked tasks turn green when correct; speaking, writing and discussion tasks are completed with a "Done" button. Finish all 27 to unlock the certificate.

1 Quotes: who said it? §1.1A ○

Look at the three quotes below. Which IT role does each person probably have? Click a quote, then the role.

2 Discuss the quotes §1.1B ○

  1. Which quote describes your job best? Why?
  2. What is the most unusual thing about your daily routine?
  3. Imagine the bug lifecycle: bug found → logged in Jira → assigned to a developer → fixed & tested → deployed to production. At which stage does your work usually happen?

3 Match roles and descriptions §1.2A ○

Match the job titles (1–8) with their descriptions: click a role, then its description.

4 Odd one out §1.2B ○

Which word is different in each line? Why? Click the word that does not belong.

5 Complete with job titles §1.2C ○

Complete the sentences with the correct job title from Exercise 3. Then check.

6 Match verbs with nouns §1.3A ○

Match the verbs (1–8) with the nouns they commonly go with: click a verb, then its noun.

7 Fill in the verbs §1.3B ○

Fill in the gaps with the correct verb from the box. Use each verb once: attend · debug · deploy · estimate · log · merge · push · review. Then check.

8 Busya's routine: Present Simple §1.3C ○

Put the verbs in brackets into the Present Simple. Then check.

"Hi, I'm Busya. I (1) (work) as a QA engineer. Every day I (2) (start) at 9 a.m. First, I (3) (check) Jira for new bugs. Then I (4) (write) test cases for the new feature. At 10 a.m. I (5) (attend) the stand-up. After lunch, I (6) (test) the build and (7) (log) any issues I find. In the evening, I (8) (drink) tea and (9) (watch) the developers panic. It (10) (be) a good life."

9 Reading: True / False / Not Stated §1.4A ○

Read the blog post and mark the sentences T / F / NS.

A Day in the Life of a DevOps Engineer. My name is Alex, and I work as a DevOps engineer at a fintech startup. My job is to make sure that our code runs smoothly in production and that developers can deploy new features quickly and safely.

I usually start my day at 8:30 a.m. with coffee and a look at the monitoring dashboards. Grafana and Datadog are my best friends — they tell me if there are problems with the servers, the databases, or the APIs. If I see a red alert, I drop everything and start troubleshooting.

At 10 a.m. we have our daily stand-up. I usually say something like: "Yesterday I fixed the CI pipeline. Today I'm setting up a new staging environment. No blockers." After the stand-up, I work on tickets from our Jira backlog. Most of my tasks are about automation — writing Terraform scripts, configuring Kubernetes clusters, or improving our GitHub Actions workflows.

I don't write a lot of code, but I write a lot of YAML and Bash scripts. I also spend time in Slack — developers ask me questions all day: "Alex, why is the build failing?", "Alex, can you give me access to the staging database?"

The hardest part of my job is on-call rotations. Once a month I have to be available at night in case the servers crash. It's not fun, but it's part of the job.

What I love about DevOps is that every day is different. One day I'm learning about security, the next day I'm optimizing costs in AWS. You never get bored.

10 Reading: answer the questions §1.4B ○

Answer the questions in writing (in class or in your notebook), then compare with the model answers.

  1. What tools does Alex use to monitor the infrastructure?
  2. What does Alex usually say at the daily stand-up?
  3. What kind of tasks does he work on after the stand-up?
  4. Why do developers write to him in Slack?
  5. What is the most difficult part of his job?

11 Words in the text mean… §1.4C ○

Find words in the text that mean the following. Type them below. Then check.

12 Grammar: choose the correct form §1.5A ○

Present SimplePresent Continuous
Useroutines, facts, permanent situationsactions now, temporary situations, current projects
Signalsusually, always, every day, often, nevernow, at the moment, this week, currently, today
FormI work · he/she/it worksam/is/are + verb-ing
ExampleI usually work with React.This week I am working on a new feature.
⚠️ Stative verbs are NOT used in Continuous: know, understand, believe, need, want, like, prefer. ❌ I am knowing Docker. → ✅ I know Docker.

Choose the correct option in each sentence.

13 Find the mistake (or click "No mistake") §1.5B ○

Find and correct the mistake in each sentence. Two sentences are correct — for those, click "No mistake". To correct a sentence, click the wrong word.

14 Grammar: complete with verb forms §1.5C ○

Complete with the correct form of the verbs in brackets. Then check.

1. I normally (start) work at 9, but this week I (start) at 8 because of the release.
2. Busya (not / like) manual testing. She (learn) Python for automation right now.
3. you (use) Git in your daily work?
4. Be quiet! The DevOps team (deploy) to production.
5. Our company (have) offices in Berlin and Warsaw.
6. This month I (take) an AWS certification course.

15 About you (true sentences) §1.5D ○

Complete with true information about yourself (in writing or aloud):

  1. I usually ______________________________________.
  2. Right now, I am ________________________________.
  3. My team usually ________________________________.
  4. At the moment, I am ____________________________.
  5. I don't usually ____________, but this week I am ____________.

16 Listening: complete the stand-up table §1.6A ○

Listen to the morning stand-up and complete the table. Your teacher reads the script aloud; for self-study, open the script below. Then check.

🎧 Script (self-study mode)
Sarah: Good morning, team! Let's start the stand-up. Mark, you first.
Mark: Morning! Yesterday I finished the login feature and pushed the code. Today I'm going to write unit tests for it. No blockers.
Sarah: Great. Busya, over to you.
Busya: Hi everyone. Yesterday I tested the login feature and found three bugs. I logged them in Jira. Today I'm retesting the fixes. One blocker — I still don't have access to the staging database.
Sarah: OK, I'll ask DevOps to give you access after the meeting. Alex?
Alex: Hey. Yesterday I was setting up the new staging environment, but the build kept failing. Today I'm debugging the CI pipeline. Blocker — I need the new API keys from the backend team.
Sarah: Got it. I'll ping them on Slack. Thanks, everyone!
PersonYesterdayTodayBlocker
Markfinished the featurewrite testsnone
Busyatested login, found bugs the fixesno access to
Alexsetting up environmentdebugging the pipelineneeds keys

17 Listening: True or False §1.6B ○

Listen again (or re-read the script). True or False?

18 Listening: phrases for (a) start, (b) blocker, (c) close §1.6C ○

Look at the script and find the phrases they use to: (a) start the meeting, (b) report a blocker, (c) close the meeting. Write them down, then check.

19 Slack or Jira? §1.7A ○

The rule:
1. Urgent (needs an answer within an hour)? → Slack. But don't use @channel unless the building is on fire.
2. Not urgent, but it's a task / bug / feature request? → Jira ticket with a clear description.
3. Not urgent, just a quick question (under 2 minutes to answer)? → Slack DM.
4. Everything else → schedule a meeting or write an email.

Study the rule. Where would you put these situations: Slack or Jira?

20 Match Slack messages with purposes §1.7B ○

Match the Slack message (1–4) with its purpose: click a message, then its purpose.

21 Speaking: interview, report & role-play §1.8 ○

A. Interview your partner. Take notes. Ask:

  1. What is your exact job title?
  2. What tools do you use every day?
  3. What time do you usually start and finish work?
  4. What is your most boring task? Your most interesting one?
  5. What are you working on this week?
  6. Are you learning any new technology at the moment?

B. Report back about your partner in the third person (he/she). Model:

"This is Mark. He works as a frontend developer. He usually uses React and VS Code. His most boring task is writing documentation, but he enjoys designing components. This week he is working on a new checkout page. He is also learning TypeScript."

C. Role-play: first day at a new job.

Student A. You joined the team today. Introduce yourself: your role, tools, and what you are working on now. Ask your colleague questions about the team.
Student B (or Teacher as Busya 🐱). You are a cynical senior engineer. Welcome the new colleague — but ask tricky questions: "What do you usually do when your build fails?", "Are you working on anything interesting right now?"

22 What NOT to say: discuss §1.9 ○

Read the table. Which phrase have YOU said at least once? Be honest. Discuss: why are the "✅" versions safer?

❌ Instead of...✅ Say...Why?
"It works on my machine!""Let me check the environment differences."Your machine ≠ production.
"This is impossible!""This will take longer because..."Nothing is impossible, just expensive.
"Who broke production?""Let's do a blameless post-mortem."Find the cause, not the culprit.
"I'll just quickly fix this...""Let me estimate this properly first.""Quickly" is how bugs are born.
"It's not my job.""That's [team]'s area — let me redirect you."Helpful, not dismissive.
Culture: in healthy Western IT teams, when production goes down, nobody asks "Whose fault is it?" They ask "What in our process allowed this to happen?" This is called a blameless post-mortem. What does it mean for you personally at work?

23 Writing: Slack introduction (80–100 words) §1.10 ○

Write an introduction message (80–100 words) for the #general channel of your new international team. Follow the plan:

  1. Greeting
  2. Name + job title
  3. What you usually do (Present Simple)
  4. Your favourite tools
  5. What you're working on now (Present Continuous)
  6. One fun fact about yourself
  7. Closing line
Useful phrases:
Hi everyone! / Hello team!
I'm the new … on the team.
Usually, I … / My main responsibility is …
My go-to tools are …

Right now, I'm working on …
Outside of work, I …
Looking forward to working with you all!
0 words

24 Mini-crossword §1.11A ○

Solve the mini-crossword (answers from this unit): Across — 3. a tool for task tracking (4); 5. a person who tests software (2 words); 7. to send code to production (6). Down — 1. a person who manages the team (2 words); 2. to find and fix errors in code (5); 4. a 3-letter tool for version control; 6. a person who designs interfaces (2 words). Use the interactive version, then come back.

Open crossword →

25 Word formation §1.11B ○

Complete the table with the correct forms. Then check.

VerbPersonThing / Activity
to developdevelopment
to design
to testtesting
to manage
engineerengineering
analystanalysis

26 Unit self-check §1.12 ○

Tick what you can do — honestly. This is your personal progress map.

27 Homework 🏠 ○

  1. Writing. Find a real English job description for your role (LinkedIn / Wellfound / remote boards). Write a message to a friend explaining what the company wants (60–80 words, 5+ words from this unit).
  2. Vocabulary. Create your personal word list: 10 items from this unit + one example sentence for each.
  3. Culture. Watch any "Day in the Life of a Software Engineer" video on YouTube (5–7 min). Write down: 3 phrases you understood immediately, 2 phrases that surprised you, 1 phrase you want to steal for your next stand-up.