The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower
Paris, 1925. World War I had finished and the city was
full of people with cash looking for business opportunities. Victor Lustig was
reading the newspaper one day and found an article about the Eiffel Tower. It
said the tower was being neglected because it was too expensive to maintain.
Lustig a great ‘business opportunity’ – he would sell the Eiffel Tower!
Lustig wrote to six important businessmen in the city
and invited them to a secret meeting in a well-known Paris hotel. He said he
was a government official and he told them that he wanted to talk about a
business deal. All six of the businessmen came to the meeting.
At the meeting, Lustig told them that the city wanted
to sell the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal and that he had been asked to find a
buyer. He said that the deal was secret because it would not be popular with
the public. The businessmen believed him, perhaps the Eiffel Tower was never planned
to be permanent. It had been built as part of the 1889 Paris Expo, and the
original plan had been to remove it in 1909.
Lustig rented a limousine and took the men to visit
the tower. After the tour, he said that if they were interested, they should
contact him the next day. Lustig told them he would give the tower contract to
the person with highest offer. One of the dealers, Andre Poisson, was very
interested, but he was also worried. Why was Lustig in such a hurry?
The two men had a meeting, and Lustig confessed that
he wasn’t looking for the highest offer. He said he would give the contract to anybody
– for a price. Poisson understood: Lustig wanted a little extra money “under
the table” for himself. This was Lustig’s cleverest lie, because now Poisson
believed him completely.
Lustig sold Poisson a false contract for the Eiffel
Tower – and on top of that, Poisson paid him a little extra money “under the
table”.
Lustig put all the money in a suitcase and took the
first train to Vienna. Poisson never told the police what had happened – he was
too embarrassed. After a month, Lustig returned to Paris and tried to sell the
Eiffel Tower again, but this time somebody told the police and he had to escape
to America. There, he continued his criminal career and finished his days in
the famous Alcatraz prison.
(Oxford UP 2009 - English Result, p.62. Adapted.)
1. According
to the text, Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower because
a) he intended to sell the scrap metal of the tower.
b) it was too expensive for him to maintain the monument.
c) some investors approached him with the interest in buying the tower.
d) he had the intention to make a profit.
Read the extract below:
"At the meeting, Lustig told them that the city
wanted to sell the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal and that he had been asked to
find a buyer."
2. Which of the alternatives below cannot be
considered a synonym for the word scrap?
a) Discarded.
b) Waste.
c) Inexpensive.
d) Leftover.
Read the reported sentence below, from the text.
Lustig told them he would give the tower contract to
the person with the highest offer.
3. Which of the alternatives below corresponds to Lustig’s direct
speech?
a) “I will
give the tower contract to the person with the highest offer”.
b) “I would give the tower contract to the person with the highest
offer”.
c) “I shall give the tower contract to the person with the highest
offer”.
d) “I could give the tower contract to the
person with the highest offer”.
4.The expression “under the table”, related to the money that Victor
Lustig wanted, means:
a)
acknowledged.
b) clandestine.
c) evident.
d) unconcealed.
In the sentence “The two men had a meeting, and Lustig
confessed that he wasn’t looking for the highest offer”, the expression the
highest is a superlative.
Read the following adjectives: cheap - tall - good - smart
5. Which of the sequences below has the correct
superlative form of the adjectives above?
a) the cheapest - the tallest - the goodest - the
smartiest
b) the cheapiest - the tallest - the best - the
smartest
c) the cheapest - the talliest - the goodest - the
smartiest
d) the cheapest - the tallest - the best - the
smartest
Read the sentences below:
• Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower.
• He went to Vienna.
6. According to the text, which actions in the
sentences below occur in the correct order?
a) Lustig was in Vienna when he sold the Eiffel Tower.
b) Lustig went to Vienna after he had sold the Eiffel
Tower.
c) Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower as soon as he had gone
to Vienna.
d) By the time Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower, he was in
Vienna.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário