2015-09-06
512
& Reading
Read the newspaper extract about an old lady who left 500,000 pounds when she died.
a) What is strange about the way the old lady lived?
b) Why do you think she chose to live like that? Give your opinion.
When she died she had lived alone in a six-bedroom home for fourteen years, and dressed in second-hand clothes from jumble sales. She only went out twice a day - early in the morning, to look for useful things on the beach to take home, and then for a session on the fruit machines later on. Among the rubbish found in her house after her death were her diaries. She had written down every penny she spent, including jumble sale bargains, and anything she won on the fruit machines.
Grocer, George Bumstead, 70, says: 'Every Monday she used to come into my shop and buy her weekly order of six eggs, seven bananas and seven pounds of potatoes. The order never changed, and all she had to cook with was an old gas cooker with two rings the oven didn't work.'
The irony of the story is that this eccentric old lady, who used to love watching American soap operas, could have lived in the extravagant style of her favourite soap opera, Dallas, if she had wanted to.
Listening
| Exercise 1 Listen to the first song and answer the questions: a) Does the singer have a job? b) Is she rich or poor? c) What does she hope to do? Why? d) What does she think is “funny” and “sunny”? Do you agree? | Exercise 2 Listen to the second song and answer the questions: a) Is the singer rich? b) What does he want to do? c) What would he build if he were rich? d) Where would he build it? |
— Speaking
