Who wants to be a millionaire?

The National Lottery creates a millionaire every week in Britain. Maybe this turns you green with envy, but what is it actually like to wake up one day with more money than you can imagine?

Nearly all of us have fantasized about winning the big prize in The National Lottery. We dream about what we would do with the money, but we rarely stop to think about 1)____________.

For most of us, our way of life is closely linked to our economic circumstances. The different parts of our lives fit together like a jigsaw: work, home, friends, hobbies, and the local pub make our world. This is where we belong and where 2)___________. A sudden huge windfall would dramatically change it all and smash the jigsaw.

For example, most people like the idea of not having to work, but winners have found that without work there is no purpose to their day, and no reason to get up in the morning. 3)____________ in a wealthy neighbourhood but, in so doing, you leave old friends and routines behind.

Winners are usually advised not to publicize their address and phone number, but charity requests and begging letters still arrive. If they are not careful, 4)____________ on lawyers' fees to protect them from demanding relatives, guards to protect their homes and swimming pools, and psychotherapists to protect their sanity!

People who get it wrong

There are many stories about people who can't learn how to be rich. In 1989, Val Johnson won £850,000 on the pools. Immediately, she went on a spending spree that lasted for four years and five marriages. She is now penniless and alone. ‘I'm not a happy person’, she says. ‘Winning money was the most awful thing that happened to me’.

Then there is the story of Alice Hopper, who says that her £950,000 win four years ago brought her 5)_____________. She walked out of the factory where she worked, and left a goodbye note for her husband on the kitchen table. She bought herself a villa in Spain, and two bars (one a birthday present for her eighteen-year-old son). After three months, her son was killed while driving home from the bar on the motorbike which his mother had also bought for him. She found the bars more and more difficult to run. She now sings in a local Karaoke bar to earn money for groceries. ‘I wish I was still working in the factory’, she says.

‘It won't change us!’

That's what all winners say when they talk to reporters and television cameras as they accept the cheque and the kisses from a famous film star. And some winners, like Malcolm Price, really mean it. He refused to change his way of life when he won £2.5 million. The next Saturday night, he went to his local pub as usual, and as usual he didn't buy his friends a drink. 6)______________. He, too, is a lonely man now.

Imagine you are an average family and you have just won £1 million. At first 7)______________. Just by picking up the phone you can get the toilet seat fixed, and the leak in the roof repaired - all the problems that have been making your life miserable. ‘But, it won't change us, darling’, you say to your wife. ‘Yes, it will!’ she insists. ‘I want it to change us. It will make life better! It'll be different!’

Already the children are changing. Just this morning they were ordinary, contented kids. Now they are demanding computer games, CD players, motorbikes… ‘Hold on!’ you shout. ‘Let me answer the door’.

It is your neighbour, with a bunch of flowers and a loving smile on her face. ‘Congratulations!’ she shouts. ‘I was wondering if you could lend me…’ You shut the door.

In the first week you receive two thousand letters advising you how to spend your money, either by investing it or giving it to good causes. Your son comes home with a music system that is bigger than the living-room, your sixteen-year-old daughter books a holiday to Barbados with her boyfriend, and your wife buys a Rolls-Royce. ‘But darling’, you say, ‘we haven't received one penny of this money yet! What about the broken toilet seat? What about the leaking roof? What about me?’ – ‘I haven't forgotten you’, says your wife. ‘I've bought you a racehorse!’

The next day you get a begging letter from a man who won the lottery a year ago. He tells you how he spent £2,000,000 in three weeks. He says 8)____________, he could start his life all over again. You begin to think that winning a fortune brings more problems than it solves! You realize that you are quite fond of the broken toilet seat and the leaking roof after all.

A final thought

When you next buy your lottery ticket, or do the football pools, just stop for a minute and ask yourself why you are doing it. Do you actually want to win? Or are you doing it for the excitement of thinking about winning?

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:

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

money, or the negative side?

2. How can a large amount of money affect…

…our work? …our home? …our friends?

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

4. 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'.

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

Price.

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

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

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

8. 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 very big break violently area around your house asking (for something) very strongly keep (something) safe, defend

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

Exercise 2

Translate it into English.

1. Мабуть, кожен з нас десь глибоко в душі бажає стати міліонером, мати владу грошей, купатись у багатстві, дозволяти собі жити розкішно, а потім через деякий час задумується, невже цього досить, щоб бути щасливим.

2. То був не сон, а справжнісінька реальність, коли Марк почув своє ім'я, коли оголошували по телебаченню переможців національної лотереї.

3. Як же використати гроші, які так несподівано і щедро з'явились у вашому гаманці? Можна поїхати у навколосвітню подорож, придбати нерухомість або перерахувати кругленьку суму в якийсь благодійний фонд.

4. Надмірна кількість грошей псує людину. Вона витрачає їх на всі боки, не знає, як ними розумно скористатись і, врешті-решт, може навіть збанкрутувати.

5. В багатьох східних країнах азартні ігри заборонені законом, і, можливо в цьому є певний сенс, адже, отримуючи величезні гроші, людина переживає стрес, а що може бути гіршим, ніж розчарування про невиграні гроші!

 Speaking

Discuss the following points with your group-mates.

1. How much money do you need to say: “ I’ve made money! I’m rich!”

2. How do people get rich?

3. Who deserves to be rich?

4. How does money affect and change people?

5. Which ways of making money are honest? Which not?

Do the quiz, write three more questions to ask other members of the class and discuss your answers with them, invent your own scoring system.

The “Will you ever be rich?” test

1. Someone asks you to lend them 5 hryvnyas. Do you …..

1. refuse?

2. lend them the 5 hryv?

3. lend them 50 hryv, as they are more likely to remember to pay you back?

2. After one week, they haven’t returned your 5 hryv. Do you …

1. bring the matter up casually in conversation?

2. demand your money back?

3. forget it?

3. You win $ 1 m in a lottery. Do you ……

1. invest it?

2. give most of it to charity?

3. go on a spending spree?

4. You find a wallet full of dollars. Do you….

1. hand it to the police?

2. if possible, contact the owner?

3. pocket the money?

5. You haven’t had a rise in salary/pocket money etc. for a long time. Do you ……

1. confront your boss/parents?

2. make gentle hints?

3. wait for them to bring the subject up?

Listening

Find out the meaning of the following words and phrases. Explain it to your neighbour.

source of income to attract a lot of publicity

libellous things to reappear miraculously

food for thought life insurance

Listen to a totally over-the-top woman being interviewed on how she became so fantastically rich and answer these questions:

1. Where was she born?

2. What led her to cross the border? At what age did she do this?

3. Does she enjoy swimming in champagne?

4. How many times has she been married? Is she married now?

5. Was her first husband 60 years older than her?

6. Have many newspapers had to give Dolores a lot of money for printing supposedly libellous stories about her?

7. What other methods has Dolores used to get money?

8. What is her dream?

 Speaking

Discuss the following points with your group-mates:

Everyone has their price

What would you do for the right price and assuming that you really needed the money?

1. Disclose confidential company secrets.

2. Testify falsely in court while under oath.

3. Try out a drug being experimented by a pharmaceutical company.

4. Donate unnecessary parts of your body to an unknown patient.

5. Kill someone you’d never met and who you were convinced were dangerous.

Backhanders

Would you try and bribe someone for money in any of the following circumstances?

1. The waiter to get you and your wonderful new partner the best table in the restaurant.

2. Your teacher to let you see an examination paper in advance.

3. The tax inspector so that you don’t have to pay huge amounts of taxes.

4. A personnel manager to give you a job.

5. The police to avoid a speeding fine.

 Writing

What do you think about money and happiness? Do you think that he is happy who has a lot of money? Do you believe that money can make a person happy?

Do the following puzzle and find the words of O. Wilde, a famous English writer, and his idea about money and happiness.