Comprehension check

1. Look back at the suggestions in the Pre-reading task.

Have you changed your mind about any of them?

2. Answer the questions:

a. Does the magazine article talk more about the positive side of winning a lot of

money, or the negative side?

b. How can a large amount of money affect…

…our work? …our home? …our friends?

c. How does the article say money can be 'frittered away'?

d. The following groups are mentioned in the article:

charities, relatives, lawyers, security guards, psychotherapists.

Which of them is speaking in the following lines?

'Tell me about your relationship with your father'.

'Twenty pounds will feed a family for a month. Please, give generously'.

'Now, John, you know you've always been my favourite nephew'.

'Sorry, sir. You can't go any further without permission'.

'I strongly advise you to take them to court'.

e. Give three facts each about the lives of Val Johnson, Alice Hopper, and Malcom

Price.

f. In the imaginary family that has won £1 million, who says, 'It won't change us?’

Who says, 'I want it to change us'?

g. What do the children want to have? What does the neighbour want?

h. Who in the family doesn't buy anything? What do the others buy?

— Speaking

Discuss the following points with your partner:

1. In what way is our life like a jigsaw?

2. How does winning a large amount of money smash the jigsaw?

3. Why do we need work in our lives?

4. In the story of the family that has won £1million, what is the joke about the toilet seat? What does he mean when he says, ‘It won't change us’? What does his wife want to change?

5. What for you are the answers to the questions in the last paragraph of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’?

Exercise 1

Find a word or words in the text that mean the same as the following definitions. They are in the same order as they appear in the text.

a. not often b. very big c. break violently d. area around your house e. asking (for something) very strongly f. keep (something) safe, defend

g. a time when you go to the shops and spend a lot of money h. having not a penny i. basic things to eat like bread, sugar, vegetables j. a hole through which water gets in