Vocabulary

What do the words in bold below mean? Make some notes on paper to aid memory and then check below.

The table in question details the salaries for secondary school teachers in 5 countries in 2009. Looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that teachers in Luxembourg generally earned the highest salaries though, similar to Korea and Japan, it required a long time to reach one’s maximum salary. In contrast, salaries in the other nations were comparable with Australia and Denmark requiring notably little time to top salaries.

In Luxembourg, the starting salary was $80,000 each year, considerably higher than Denmark ($47,000), and all other countries which were centered loosely around $30,000. The average salary per year displayed a similar pattern with Luxembourg by far the highest at $112,000 and the other nations grouped tightly around $50,000.

In terms of maximum salaries, Luxembourg is again the highest ($139,000) though in this category Korea was second ($84,500), followed by Japan ($62,400), Denmark ($54,000), and Australia ($48,000). The time required to earn those figures was longest in Korea, Japan, and Luxembourg at 37, 34, and 30 years, respectively. In comparison, teachers only needed to work 8 and 9 years in Denmark and Australia in turn to achieve their top salaries.