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3.1. Which words would you use to describe: a) John Sut-ter; b) one of the Forty-Niners?

risk-taker, visionary, farmer, opportunist, businessman, dreamer, entrepre-neur, conservative

3.2. Put the lines of this summary in the correct order:

a) a fortune. John Sutter, on whose land gold was discovered, had

b) The gold rush is the story of thousands of ordinary people willing to take

c) a chance on gold in the hope that they might make

d) a statement in Congress declaring that the discovery was a fact, it created

e) A sensation, and thousands of adventurers poured into Cal-ifornia.

f) no idea of the impact gold would have. When President Polk made

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3.3. Match the beginnings (a–g) with the ends of the sen-tences (1–7):

a) During the gold rush, Sam Brannan became b) When gold was discovered in 1848, he owned

c) He recognized a gap in the market and bought up all d) Having cornered the market, he ended up

e) He became the first

f) However, Brannan lost his fortune and his health g) In the end California’s first millionaire

1) died an unnoticed death.

2) one of the most successful businessmen in California. 3) with more gold than the gold diggers.

4) the only store between San Francisco and the goldfields. 5) because of alcoholism.

6) the picks, shovels and pans he could find. 7) gold rush millionaire.

4. MONEY IN OUR LIFE

Text 4

Read the text and discuss it in groups. The following ques-tions will help you:

1. What kind of person do you consider yourself, a miser or a spendthrift?

2. Do you think having much money is a pleasure or a prob-lem?

People may be divided, according to their attitude towards money, into two classes: one wants to have money: the other wants to spend it. One wants security, the other wants pleasure. Of these two extremes — misers and spendthrifts — the misers are the more logi-cal, because security can give you pleasure, but pleasure cannot give you security. There are no pure types, of course, but we may safely generalize. To save money for your children’s education and buy a life-insurance is right — indeed, it’s your duty. Looking into the fu-ture is altogether very laudable, but I look into the near future only.

I am not prepared to give up my enjoyment at an age when I can enjoy books, travels and society in order to save up everything for my old age. I am absolutely sure that I have actually reached my

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present age; I am not at all convinced that I shall be alive at the age of seventy-two or even forty. I have no desire to save for my tomb. I have been badly dressed all my life and cared so little about it that I do not wish to wear an elegant sepulchral monument after my death. Forget me if you can; or else remember me but not my mon-ument. No, I am not going to save up for a mausoleum. I am not going to pay rent after my death as well as all my life.

The art of saving is not a simple one. If I try to cut down my Miioking and buy one hundred cigarettes less a week, I say to my-self: ‘Now I have saved about one pound, so a) I may buy a book, b) go to the theatre with my wife, c) buy a toy for my son’. In such cases I have the gratifying feeling that I too can save if I want to. Slowly, however, I have arrived at an economic truth which may be self-evident but is not. It is this: to spend £5 just because you have saved £1 is not real saving.

The miser is that exceptional person who really has the mon-ey he does not spend on one thing or another. He is the person who walks two miles to save three halfpennies which he puts in a sock or in the bank and when he dies leaves 123,000 to the N. S. P. C. S. (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sardines). The real miser, generally speaking, loves settling things after his death. He thinks of his old age with profound joy. It will be simply lovely! He will be slightly senile, will have the gout, will not be allowed to drink alcohol or eat anything but mashed potatoes and will be pro-hibited from saying ‘How do you do?’ to women. Those will be the days!

The only hitch is that I have never seen a miser who in his old age did spend the money he saved in his youth. It is always the sardines who inherit it.

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