- •Содержание
- •Предисловие
- •Методическая записка
- •Classroom activities (1)
- •1. A) Answer the questions:
- •2. A) Skim through the text and say what the message of the text is.
- •3. A) Open the brackets using the correct forms of the verbs.
- •4. A) Read the text filling in the gaps with the proper words.
- •Home activities (1)
- •5. A) Go through the texts in exercises 2–4 and find the English for
- •6. Retell any of the three texts (see exercises 2-4). Classroom activities (2)
- •7. Paraphrase and add a sentence logically connected.
- •8. A) Read the article and say in one sentence what it deals with. Новое поколение выбирает прагматизм
- •Home activities (2)
- •9. Give a brief summary of the article (see exercise 8) in English using the suggested key words and phrases:
- •1. Introduction:
- •In conclusion/Finally, the writer says that...
- •Classroom activities (3)
- •The Infinitive
- •12. Read the following sentences and translate them into Russian. Comment on the forms of the Infinitive. Compare
- •Complex Subject with verbs in the Active Voice
- •13. Translate into Russian.
- •14. Paraphrase using the Complex Subject.
- •16. Answer the teacher’s questions and add sentences logically connected.
- •18. Answer the teacher’s questions and explain why you think so. Home activities (3)
- •Classroom activities (4)
- •21. A) Match the following phrasal verbs with their definitions. Translate them into Russian.
- •22. Translate into English.
- •23. Read the following paragraph and speak about the changing family pattern in the uk and the us using the suggested key phrases:
- •24. A) Speak about the present-day family pattern in your country. Base your answer on the key phrases suggested in exercise 22.
- •Home activities (4)
- •Classroom activities (5)
- •Complex Subject with verbs in the Passive Voice
- •28. Translate into Russian.
- •29. Make sentences with the Complex Subject using the suggested words and word combinations.
- •30. Paraphrase using the Complex Subject.
- •Substantivised Adjectives
- •31. Paraphrase as in the model:
- •Class in America
- •32. Paraphrase, translate or explain.
- •33. Answer the teacher’s questions. Home activities (5)
- •35. Get ready to retell Text 1. Classroom activities (6)
- •36. Paraphrase using the active vocabulary:
- •37. Complete the sentences with the derivatives of the words given in the right-hand column:
- •38. Complete the sentences using the word combinations given in the box:
- •39. Develop the ideas.
- •40. Paraphrase the sentences using the For-to-Infinitive Construction.
- •41. Complete the sentences. Translate the for-phrases into English.
- •Home activities (6)
- •43. Read the text Walking into the Wind and get ready to answer the questions (see exercise 49).
- •44. Open the brackets using the For-to-Infinitive Construction.
- •Classroom activities (7)
- •45. Translate into Russian.
- •Word building
- •46. Complete the sentences with verbs in proper forms.
- •Walking into the Wind
- •47. Find the Russian for:
- •48. Find the English for:
- •49. Answer the questions.
- •Home activities (8)
- •50. Retell the text as if you were
- •Classroom activities (8)
- •52. Paraphrase using a Complex Subject.
- •54. Express your opinion and support it using the suggested words and word combinations.
- •Home activities (9)
- •55. A) Complete the sentences with the words and word combinations from the box. Learn the words and word combinations from the box.
- •Classroom activities (9)
- •56. Open the brackets using the correct forms of the Infinitive.
- •57. A) Paraphrase the sentences below using the words given in brackets.
- •58. A) Open the brackets using the correct forms of the verbs.
- •Class divisions bar students from university
- •Classroom activities (1)
- •1. Answer the questions:
- •2.A) Skim through the text and say what the message of the text is.
- •3. A) Read a story about a man who managed to change his life for the better. Open the brackets using the correct forms of the verbs.
- •4. A) Read the text filling in the gaps with the proper words.
- •Pursuing Happiness In a Complex World
- •Home activities (1)
- •5. A) Go through the texts in exercises 2 – 4 and find the English for
- •6. Retell any of the three texts (see exercises 2-4). Classroom activities (2)
- •7. Paraphrase and add a sentence logically connected.
- •8. A) Read the article and say in one sentence what it deals with. Есть ли что-то важнее денег?
- •Home activities (2)
- •9. Render the article (see exercise 8) in English using the suggested key words and phrases:
- •1. Introduction:
- •2. Main body of the report:
- •According to; devaluation; social system; moral principles; poverty; unemployment; to survive;
- •3. Conclusion:
- •Classroom activities (3)
- •The Gerund
- •12. Read the following sentences and translate them into Russian. Comment on the forms of the Gerund.
- •Patterns with the Gerund Pattern 1 (Gerund as subject)
- •13. Translate into Russian.
- •14. Paraphrase using the Gerund.
- •Pattern 2 (Gerund as predicative)
- •15. Complete the sentences using the Gerund.
- •Pattern 3 (Gerund as adverbial modifier)
- •16. Translate into Russian.
- •17. Paraphrase using the Gerund.
- •Pattern 3 (Gerund as attribute)
- •18. Complete and add a sentence logically connected.
- •Home activities (3)
- •Classroom activities (4)
- •Pattern 4 (Gerund as direct object)
- •21. Complete the sentences using the gerund of a suitable verb.
- •22. Translate into Russian paying particular attention to the use of possessive and objective pronouns.
- •Pattern 4 (Gerund as prepositional object)
- •24. Insert prepositions where necessary.
- •25. Paraphrase using the Gerund.
- •26. A) Read the following opinions and complete the sentences using the Gerund.
- •Home activities (4)
- •27. A) Render the article in English using the suggested key words and word combinations. Больше работы, денег, секса
- •In conclusion the writer says that...
- •Classroom activities (5)
- •Verbs taking the Gerund and the Infinitive
- •30. Translate into Russian:
- •31. Open the brackets using either the Gerund or the Infinitive.
- •32. Complete the sentences, using the Gerund or the Infinitive:
- •Cross-cultural Notes:
- •33. Paraphrase, translate or explain.
- •34. Answer the teacher’s questions. Home activities (5)
- •36. Get ready to retell Text 1. Classroom activities (6)
- •37. Paraphrase using the active vocabulary:
- •38. A) Complete the sentences with the words and word combinations from the box. Learn the words and word combinations from the box.
- •Love Is Real Medicine Loneliness fosters cardiovascular disease. Fortunately, there’s an antidote.
- •Home activities (6)
- •40. Read the text Brave New World and get ready to answer the questions (see exercise 45).
- •Classroom activities (7)
- •41. Paraphrase using the active vocabulary of the unit.
- •42. Fill in the blanks with prepositions where necessary.
- •43. Complete and add a sentence logically connected.
- •Brave New World After Aldous Huxley
- •44. Give the Russian for:
- •45. Find the English for
- •46. Answer the questions:
- •Home activities (7)
- •47. Retell the text as if you were
- •48. Translate into English.
- •Classroom activities (8)
- •The Gerund and the Infinitive after Aspect Verbs
- •49. Complete the sentences with the proper forms of the Verb.
- •50. Translate into Russian.*
- •52. Develop the situation / idea.
- •53. Express your opinion and support it using the vocabulary of the unit.
- •54. Comment on the following statements:
- •Home activities (8)
- •52. Translate into Russian.
- •Classroom activities (1)
- •1. A) Answer the questions:
- •What does success mean to you?
- •2. A) Skim through the text and say what the message of the text is.
- •'Assets - активы
- •Land of the Giants
- •3. A) Open the brackets using the correct forms of the verbs.
- •The Shy Sorceress
- •4. A) Read the text filling in the gaps with the proper words.
- •Home activities (1)
- •5. A) Go through the texts in exercises 1 – 3 and find the English for
- •6. Retell any of the three texts (see exercises 2-4). Classroom activities (2)
- •7. Paraphrase using the words and word combinations from exercises 1-4.
- •8. A) Read the article and say in one sentence what it deals with. Эсти лаудер – бизнес-гений XX века
- •9. Paraphrase as in the model:
- •Home activities (2)
- •Estée Lauder [LesteI'lO:dR(r)]; cosmetic empire; Josephine Esther Mentzer; a chemist; skin creams concocted by her uncle; substances
- •Strength of character; confidence; ambition; to hand out; samples of her products / potions; Fifth Avenue; calculations; beauty shops; cosmetics; to tell stories;
- •Commercial breakdown
- •Classroom activities (3)
- •The Participle
- •12. Read the following sentences and translate them into Russian. Comment on the forms of the Participle.
- •Patterns with the Participle Pattern 1 (Participle I as an attribute)
- •13. Make phrases using Participle I.
- •14. Paraphrase using Participle I where possible.
- •15. Translate into English.
- •Pattern 2 (Participle II as an attribute)
- •16. Paraphrase using Patterns 1 and 2.
- •17. Complete the sentences using the phrases suggested in the box as participles or clauses.
- •18. Translate into English.
- •Home activities (3)
- •Classroom activities (4)
- •Pattern 3 (Participle I as an Adverbial Modifier)
- •21. Paraphrase the sentences using Participle I.
- •Pattern 4 (Participle II as an Adverbial Modifier)
- •22. Paraphrase the sentences using Participle II as an adverbial modifier.
- •24.* Complete the sentences with the proper forms of the Participle.
- •25.* Join two sentences into one using participles.
- •Home activities (4)
- •26.* Complete the sentences with the proper forms of the Participle.
- •28. A) Listen to the text The Self-Made Man. Read it after the speaker.
- •Classroom activities (5)
- •Patterns with the Participle Pattern 5 (Unrelated Participle)
- •29. Paraphrase using unrelated participles.
- •Pattern 5 (Participles as Adjectives )
- •30. Complete the sentences using participles as adjectives.
- •31. Paraphrase, translate or explain.
- •32. Answer the teacher’s questions. Home activities (5)
- •33. Get ready to retell Text 1.
- •34. Complete the sentences using participles as adjectives.
- •35. Translate into English.
- •Classroom activities (6)
- •36. Paraphrase using the active vocabulary:
- •37. A) Complete the sentences with verbs in proper forms. A Strange Cry for Millionaire: Tickets Please!
- •Home activities (6)
- •39. Read the text The Hotel and get ready to answer the questions (see exercise 48).
- •Classroom activities (7)
- •40. Complete the sentences with the derivatives of the words given in the box:
- •41. Translate into Russian.
- •42. Complete the sentences as shown in the model. Pay particular attention to the use of Participle (a) and Gerund (b). Let your fellow-students ask questions.
- •The Hotel After Arthur Hailey
- •44. Give the Russian for:
- •45. Find the English for
- •46. Answer the questions:
- •Home activities (7)
- •47. Retell the text as if you were
- •48. Translate into English.
- •Classroom activities (1)
- •2. A) Skim through the text and say what the message of the text is.
- •3. A) Open the brackets using the correct forms of the verbs. Demise [dI'maIz] – (very formal) the time when something stops existing to shroud – to cover or hide something
- •4. A) Read the text filling in the gaps with the proper words.
- •Energy saving in the home
- •Home activities (1)
- •5. A) Go through the texts in exercises 2 – 4 and find the English for
- •6. Retell any of the three texts (see exercises 2-4) classroom activities (2)
- •7. Paraphrase and add a sentence logically connected.
- •8. Translate into Russian.
- •9. A) Read the article and say in one sentence what it deals with. Северный Ледовитый океан может растаять
- •Home activities (2)
- •10. Give a brief summary of the article (see exercise 8) in English using the suggested key words and phrases:
- •In conclusion / Finally, the writer wonders if...
- •Arctic Thaw Melts Away Old Habits in Far North
- •Classroom activities (3)
- •Modal Verbs with Suppositional Meaning
- •Should the Sport of Hunting be Completely Banned?
- •13. Read the following sentences and translate them into Russian. Comment on the forms of modal verbs.
- •14. Paraphrase using modal verbs.
- •15. Express surprise and disbelief, add a sentence logically connected to support your opinion.
- •Home activities (3)
- •17. A) Complete the sentences with the proper forms of the Verb.
- •18. Complete the sentences with the proper modal verbs and the appropriate forms of the verb.
- •Classroom activities (4)
- •Modal Verbs with Suppositional Meaning
- •20. Paraphrase as in the models:
- •London Calling The British capital has let the world in, and become a model for making a 21st-century metropolis work.
- •21. Paraphrase, translate or explain.
- •22. Answer the teacher’s questions. Home activities (4)
- •23. Fill in the gaps with proper words from the box in proper forms.
- •25. Get ready to retell Text 1.
- •Classroom activities (5)
- •26. Develop the conversations as in the model:
- •27. Paraphrase using the active vocabulary.
- •28. Make sentences using the suggested words and phrases:
- •29. Insert the required prepositions.
- •30. Develop the ideas.
- •Home activities (5)
- •Classroom activities (6)
- •33. Complete the sentences with the correct forms of the Infinitive.
- •35. Paraphrase using the modal verbs may / might, can / could, must.
- •36. A) Read the text filling in the gaps with the proper words.
- •37. Translate into English.
- •Home activities (6)
- •38. Read the text Deception Point and get ready to discuss it in class.
- •Classroom activities (7)
- •40. Complete the sentences choosing the proper modal.
- •Deception Point
- •41. Give the Russian for:
- •42. Find the English for
- •43. Answer the questions:
- •Home activities (7)
- •44. Give a brief retelling of the text and express your viewpoint on the problems raised by the writer. Classroom activities (8)
- •45. A) Complete the sentences with the derivatives of the words given in the right-hand column: Sour times
- •46. Translate into Russian.
- •47. Develop the situations as in the model:
- •48. Gabriel Ashe has just told the news to her friend Yolanda Cole. Act as Yolanda expressing your attitude to the information and give advice wherever necessary.
- •49. Express your opinion and support it using the vocabulary of the unit.
- •Marjorie Tench:
- •Home activities (8)
- •50. A) Complete the sentences with phrases made of noun combinations given in the box.
- •51. Prepare a three-minute talk on “Scientific and industrial development – curse or blessing for the planet”.
- •Classroom activities (9)
- •52. Match the beginning of each sentence with a suitable ending.
- •53. Choose the correct phrase to complete the situation.
- •54. Choose the correct grammar form.
- •55. Complete the letter with proper phrases based on the hints in the box.
- •56. Complete the sentences.
- •57. Translate into English.
- •58. A) Open the brackets using the proper forms of the verbs.
- •1. A) Answer the questions:
- •2. A) Skim through the text and say what the message of the text is.
- •Return to Babel
- •E). Find examples of linguistic similarities in your mother tongue and/or European languages.
- •3. A) Open the brackets using the correct forms of the verbs.
- •4. A) Read the text filling in the gaps with the proper words.
- •Home activities (1)
- •5. A) Go through the texts in exercises 1 – 3 and find the English for
- •6. Retell any of the three texts (see exercises 2-4). Classroom activities (2)
- •7. Paraphrase and add a sentence logically connected.
- •8. A) Read the article and say in one sentence what it deals with.
- •Home activities (2)
- •9. Give a brief summary of the article (see exercise 8) in English using the suggested key words and phrases:
- •In conclusion the writer says that...
- •10. A) Complete the sentences with the proper forms of the Verb.
- •Classroom activities (3)
- •Unreal condition (suppressed type)
- •12. Make sentences as in the model:
- •13. Complete the situations as in the model.
- •Real and Unreal Condition in complex sentences
- •14. A) Read and compare sentences of real and unreal condition.
- •15. Read the following sentences and translate them into Russian.
- •16. Match the beginning of each sentence with a suitable ending.
- •17. Translate into English.
- •Home activities (3)
- •18. Complete the sentences with the proper forms of the verbs in brackets.
- •19. Read the following article and be ready to speak about the uses and misuses of English loan-words in the Russian language using the phrases suggested below. Repelling the English Invasion
- •Classroom activities (4)
- •Unreal condition (mixed type)
- •20. Combine the sentences as in the model.
- •21. Translate into English.
- •22. Paraphrase the sentences using “but-for” phrase.
- •23. Complete the sentences using “but-for” phrase.
- •24. Translate into English.
- •25. Complete the sentences to make a chain-story.
- •Home activities (4)
- •27. Open the brackets using the proper forms of the verbs.
- •28. Give a brief summary of the article in English using the suggested words and phrases:
- •Classroom activities (5)
- •30. Translate into Russian.
- •Not the Queen’s English
- •32. Paraphrase, translate or explain.
- •33. Answer the teacher’s questions. Home activities (5)
- •35. Get ready to retell Text 1. Classroom activities (6)
- •36. Paraphrase and develop the situation.
- •37. Open the brackets using the proper forms of the verbs.
- •38. Paraphrase using the active vocabulary of the unit.
- •39. Complete and add a sentence logically connected.
- •40. A) Complete the sentences with the words and word combinations from the box. Learn the words and word combinations from the box.
- •A question of language
- •Home activities (6)
- •42. Read the text Poshos and get ready to answer the questions (see exercise 50).
- •Classroom activities (7)
- •It’s time sb did sth
- •43. Translate into Russian.
- •45. Translate into English.
- •46. Translate into Russian.
- •47. Make new words according to the patterns of word building. Translate them into Russian.
- •48. Give the English for:
- •49. Find the Russian for:
- •50. Answer the questions.
- •Home activities (7)
- •51. Retell the text as if you were
- •52. Translate into English.
- •Classroom activities (8)
- •Had better / Would rather
- •53. Give advice as in the model:
- •54. Answer as in the model:
- •55. Complete the sentences as in the model.
- •57. Complete the sentences with the proper forms of the Verb.
- •58. Express your opinion and support it using the active words and word combinations.
- •Who do you side with?
- •English by no means the ‘universal’ language
- •‘Global English’ is already becoming a pidgin language
- •English is a link language
- •Home activities (8)
- •59. Open the brackets using the proper forms of the verbs.
- •60. Translate into English.
- •Classroom activities (9)
- •61. A) Open the brackets using the proper forms of the verbs.
- •62. Complete the sentences translating into English the phrases given in brackets.
- •63. Complete the sentences.
- •64. Translate into English. Use the hints from the box.
- •65. A) Complete the sentences with the words and word combinations from the box.
- •66. A) Read the text. Political Correctness and Identity Politics
- •1. Answer the questions:
- •2. A) Skim through the text and say what the message of the text is.
- •All Cultures Are Not Equal
- •3. A) Open the brackets using the correct forms of the verbs.
- •Culturally Confused
- •4. A) Read the text filling in the gaps with the proper words.
- •End of the Road
- •Home activities (1)
- •5. A) Go through the texts in exercises 1 – 4 and find the English for
- •6. Retell any of the three texts (see exercises 2-4). Classroom activities (2)
- •7. Paraphrase and add a sentence logically connected.
- •8. A) Read the article and say in one sentence what it deals with.
- •Home activities (2)
- •9. Give a brief summary of the article (see exercise 8) in English using the suggested key words and phrases:
- •In conclusion / Finally, the writer says that...
- •Classroom activities (3)
- •So that (purpose clause)
- •12. A) Complete the sentences with the derivatives of the words given in the right-hand column:
- •Tourism Across Cultures
- •13. Paraphrase, translate or explain.
- •14. Answer the teacher’s questions. Home activities (3)
- •15. Get ready to retell Text 1.
- •Classroom activities (4)
- •17. Paraphrase using the active vocabulary of the unit.
- •18. Translate from English into Russian.
- •Subjunctive Mood or Should
- •In Nominal Clauses
- •20. Translate into Russian.
- •24. Translate into English.
- •Home activities (4)
- •25. A) Translate into English.
- •Classroom activities (5)
- •In Subordinate Clauses
- •26. Paraphrase as in the model.
- •27. Complete the sentences using the words and phrases in the right-hand column. Add a sentence logically connected.
- •28. A) Complete the sentences with the words and phrases from the box.
- •29. A) Scan the text and say whether you agree with the conclusion the writers arrive at. Explain your viewpoint.
- •31. Complete the sentences with the proper forms of the Verb.
- •32. Answer the teacher’s questions. Home activities (5)
- •33. Complete the sentences with the proper forms of the Verb.
- •34. A) Translate into English.
- •Classroom activities (6)
- •35. Complete sentences with the right words.
- •36. Complete the sentences with the proper forms of the Verb.
- •37. Complete the sentences with the words from the box.
- •38. Comment on the following statements:
- •39. Express your opinion and support it using the vocabulary of the unit.
- •Home activities (6)
- •40. Read the text Digging to America and get ready to answer the questions (see exercise 45).
- •41. Translate into English. Use the hints from the box.
- •Classroom activities (7)
- •42. Fill in the blanks with prepositions where necessary.
- •Digging to America
- •43. Give the English for:
- •44. Find the Russian for:
- •45. Answer the questions.
- •46. Complete the sentences with the proper forms of the Verb.
- •Home activities (7)
- •47. Translate into English. Use the hints from the box.
- •48 . Retell the text as if you were
- •Classroom activities (8)
- •49. Complete the sentences:
- •50. Open the brackets and write the verbs in the appropriate forms.
- •51. Translate from Russian into English:
- •Home activities (8)
- •52. Write a paragraph to answer the question:
- •Classroom activities (9)
- •53. Read the following text and
- •What Kids Should Know Being tech-savvy is one thing. Being cultured means exploring the unknown.
- •54. Read the following text and
- •The ecology of Hollywood
- •55. Read the following text and
- •Are you a tourist or a traveller?
The Hotel After Arthur Hailey
Christine Francis glanced at her wrist watch. It showed a few minutes before 11 p.m. “Fifteen things break loose at once,” Peter McDermott said looking at her. Christine had left her office in the St. Gregory Hotel executive suite a few minutes earlier. She had been working late and was on the point of going home when the light under assistant general manager’s door had drawn her in.
As personal assistant to Warren Trent, the owner of New Orleans’ largest hotel, Christine was privy to the hotel’s inner secrets as well as its day-to-day affairs. She asked, “What is breaking loose?”
McDermott gave a cheerful grin. “We’ve a complaint from the eleventh floor about some sort of sex orgy, on the ninth the Duchess of Croydon claims her Duke has been insulted by a room service waiter; there’s a report of somebody moaning horribly in 1439; and I’ve the night manager off sick, with the other two house officers otherwise engaged.”
“Do you have a name for the room where the moaning is?” she asked.
“Albert Wells, Montreal.”
“I know him,” Christine said. “A nice little man who stays here every year. If you like, I’ll check that one out.”
* * *
“It’s 1439, Jimmy,” Christine said to the bellboy, Jimmy Duckworth, a balding stubby man whose married son worked in the St. Gregory accounting department. “Room 1439 – that’s the old gent, Mr. Wells. We moved him from a corner room a couple of days ago. Somebody else had 1439 and raised a fuss. So what they did was switch around.”
Christine remembered 1439 now; there had been complaints before. It was next to the service elevator and appeared to be the meeting place of all the hotel’s pipes. The effect was to make the place noisy and unbearably hot.
“If Mr. Wells had a better room why was he asked to move?” The bellboy shrugged. “Well, I guess it’s because he never complains. I did hear in the dining-room they give him that table beside the kitchen door, the one no one else will have. He doesn’t seem to mind, they say.”
Christine thought grimly: Someone would mind tomorrow morning; she would guarantee it. They stopped at the door of 1439. The bellboy knocked. They waited, listening. Jimmy Duckworth repeated the knock, this time more loudly. At once there was a response: a moaning. “Use your pass key,” Christine instructed. “Open the door – quickly!”
The room, as Christine entered, was stiflingly hot, though the air-conditioning regulator showed ‘cool’. But that was all she had time to see before observing the struggling figure, half upright, half recumbent in the bed. It was the birdlike little man she knew as Albert Wells. His face ashen, eyes bulging and with trembling lips, he was attempting desperately to breathe and barely succeeding. The bellboy said nervously, “The window is sealed. They did it for the air conditioning.” The little man’s eyes were closed. No longer struggling, he appeared not to be breathing at all.
Christine had already picked up the telephone beside the bed: “This is Miss Francis. It’s an emergency. Tell Dr. Aarons room 1439, and to hurry, please.” “Dr. Aarons is in Paradis,” the operator announced. “He may be at the hotel in twenty minutes.” Christine hesitated. “I’m not sure we can wait that long. Would you check our own guest list to see if we have any doctors registered?” “There’s a Dr. Uxbridge in 1203.”
Dr. Uxbridge answered the telephone at once in a no-nonsense tone of voice. He listened without comment and said, “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
There was a light tap at the opened door and Dr. Uxbridge stepped in from the corridor. Without wasting time he examined the patient, took out a syringe, assembled it, drew some medicine from the vial and began to inject it slowly.
Christine whispered, “What is it that’s wrong?”
“Severe bronchitis, with asthma as a complication. I suspect he’s had these attacks before.”
Suddenly the little man’s chest heaved. Then he was breathing with fuller, deeper breath. His eyes opened. Then with an effort he said, “Thank you.” The doctor said, “If there’s anyone to thank, it should be this young lady.”
The tension in the room had lessened. Christine remembered that she had first met Albert Wells two years earlier. He had come to the hotel’s executive suite, concerned about a discrepancy in his bill which he had been unable to settle with the front office. The amount involved, she recalled, was seventy-five cents and while the chief cashier had offered to cancel the charge, Albert Wells wanted to prove that he had not incurred it at all. After patient inquiry, Christine proved that the little man was right. She also deduced – from his bill, which showed modest spending, and his clothes which were obviously ready-to-wear – that he was a man of small means, perhaps a pensioner, whose yearly visits to New Orleans were high points of his life.
* * *
Three days later they were in the St. Gregory’s dining-room. Christine mused aloud, “There! – you’re doing it again. Both times, when the coffee was poured, you’ve held your hands around the cup. As if it gave you a kind of comfort.”
“Prospecting, in the North, you never waste anything if you want to stay alive, not even the heat from a cup you’re holding. It’s a habit you get into.”
“You told me you were a miner, Mr. Wells,” Christine said. “I didn’t know about your being a prospector too. When you were prospecting, what was it for?”
“Uranium, cobalt. Mostly gold.”
“Did you find any? Gold, I mean?”
He nodded affirmatively. Albert Wells looked up and there seemed to be amusement in his eyes. “I was prospecting near the shore of Great Slave Lake. Had a partner then, Hymie Eckstein. He’d been in the garment trade, a used-car salesman, lots of other things, I guess. He was pushy and a fast talker. But he had a way of making people like him. Hymie had a little money. I was broke. From the beginning, though, we got along well.
“We’d been out a month, maybe two. Then one day, near the mouth of the Yellowknife River, the two of us sat down to roll our cigarettes. Sitting there, I chipped away at some oxidized rock and slipped a piece or two in my pocket. Later, by the lakeshore, I panned the rock. It showed good coarse gold.
“Well, the next three months were the longest any two men lived. Maybe the hardest. We existed. On fish, some bits of plants. Near the end I was thinner than a twig, had this bronchitis and phlebitis too. Hymie wasn’t a whole lot better, but he never complained and I got to like him more.”
His hands went around the coffee cup as they had before.
“That’s about all I do remember because the next clear thing I know was being in a hospital. I never figured how Hymie did it. Plenty of times they gave me up for dead. I didn’t die.
“Now I should take the story back a bit. We had signed two bills of sale. Each of us – on paper – turned over his half of the claim to the other. It was Hymie’s idea, in case one of us didn’t come through. At the time, it seemed to make sense as it would save a lot of legal mess. If we both made it through, the arrangement was we’d scrap both papers.”
Christine prompted, “So while you were in hospital…”
“Hymie’d taken both papers and registered his. By the time I was in shape to take an interest, Hymie had full title and was already mining with proper machinery and help. I went North and found him in Yellowknife. I called him every foul name I could lay my tongue to. All the while he had a great wide grin, which made me madder, till I was ready to kill him. When I’d quieted down, Hymie took me to a lawyer. There were papers, ready drawn, handing me back my half share. Hymie’d taken nothing for himself for all the work he’d done those months I’d been away. He knew from the beginning there’d be a lot of legal things. There were bank loans – for the machinery, wages, all the rest. With me in hospital, and most of the time not knowing up from down, he couldn’t have done any of it – not with my name on the property. So Hymie used my bill of sale and went ahead. He always intended to hand my share back. Right from the beginning he’d fixed things up legally. If he’d died, I’d have got his share as well as mine. I did the same with my half. Hymie died five years ago. I reckon he taught me something: When you believe in somebody, don’t be in a rush to change your mind.”
Peter McDermott and Christine were staring across the table. “And the mine?” Peter asked. “It still goes on – one of the best producers in the North. Now and then I go back to take a look, for old times’ sake.”
Speechless, her mouth agape, Christine stared at the little man. “You… you… own a gold mine.”
Albert Well nodded cheerfully. “That’s right. There’s a few other things now, besides.”
“If you’ll pardon my curiosity,” Peter McDermott said, “other things such as what?”
“I’m not sure of all of it. There’s a couple of newspapers, some ships, an insurance company, buildings, other bits and pieces. I bought a food chain last year. I like new things. It keeps me interested.”
“Yes,” Peter said, “I should imagine it would.”
Albert Wells smiled mischievously. “Matter of fact, there’s something I was going to tell you tomorrow, but I may as well do it now. I just bought this hotel.”
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COMPREHENSION EXERCISES