Pre-intermediate Audio script Unit 14

UNIT 14 RECORDING 1

1 Over 30 countries use the dollar as their currency, including the USA, Canada, New

Zealand, Australia, Ecuador and Singapore.

2 The Euro was first used on the 1st of January 2002. Over 332 million people in over 20

countries now use the Euro as their currency.

3 At the beginning of 2002, the euro-dollar exchange rate was €1 = $0.88. At the beginning of

2012, it was €1 = $1.33.

4 The first cashpoint machine was used in 1967 in the UK. By 2019, it is expected that we will

get approximately 90 percent of our money from cashpoints.

5 In 2010 in the UK, women carried an average of £28 cash in their purse or wallet.

6 In 2010, 8 million credit cards were owned by people in the USA. 14 percent of Americans

own more than 10 credit cards.

7 On average, coins stay in use for approximately 30 years, whereas bank notes last about

one year.

8 The smallest bank note in the world was made in Romania in 1917. It was a ten ‘bani’ note

and measured 2.75 x 3.8 cm.

9 In 2011, there were over 1,200 dollar billionaires in the world. Four of the top ten richest

people in 2011 were from the USA. The rest were from Mexico, Brazil, France, Spain, the UK

and India.

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 Pre-intermediate Audio script Unit 14

UNIT 14 RECORDING 2

$6,000, 290, 6.32, £50 million, 620, 98.5, 5 billion, 8.2, 49.8

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 Pre-intermediate Audio script Unit 14
UNIT 14 RECORDING 3

1 The boss of a company called one of his employees into his office. The young man had

started work at the company a few weeks before and he sat down nervously. ‘When you

started working here a month ago, your salary was $50,000,’ said the boss. ‘Two weeks later,

I doubled your salary to $100,000. Now I’m going to pay you $250,000 a year. What do you

say to that?’ ‘Thanks, Dad,’ said the young man.

2 The American comedian Jack Benny was famous for being mean. One day, he had been to

the bank and he was on his way home, when a robber appeared and pointed a gun at him.

‘Your money or your life!’ hissed the robber. There was a long silence. ‘What’s the matter with

you?’ said the robber. ‘I said: ‘Your money or your life!’’ ‘I’m thinking about it,’ said the old

man.

3 A man asked a millionaire friend of his how he had become so rich. ‘As a young man, I was

very poor,’ he said. ‘I spent my last $100 on a second-hand car. I spent the next week

repairing it. Then I sold it for $200. With the $200, I bought two second-hand cars. I spent the

next two weeks repairing them. Then I sold them for $400. It wasn’t much but I had made a

profit of $200.’ ‘What happened next?’ asked the friend? My wife’s father died and left me $10

million,’ said the millionaire.

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 Pre-intermediate Audio script Unit 14

UNIT 14 RECORDING 4

When, in 1926, a US court sent a man called Arthur Ferguson to prison for five years, it was

the end of an amazing criminal career. The police had arrested him several months earlier as

he tried to sell the Statue of Liberty to an Australian tourist. After the arrest, the police soon

discovered that Ferguson had made money by selling famous buildings several times before.

Ferguson had arrived in the United States from Scotland the previous year. Soon after his

arrival, he sold a luxurious house in Washington to a rich Texas farmer. But for the farmer, this

wasn’t an ordinary house: he quickly realised that he had bought the White House – the home

of the US president for 150 years. Before coming to America, Ferguson had sold Buckingham

Palace, home of the English royal family, for £2,000, Big Ben for £1,000 and Nelson’s Column

for £6,000 – all to rich Americans who perhaps had more money than intelligence.

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 Pre-intermediate Audio script Unit 14

UNIT 14 RECORDING 5

A man in Germany had a horrible surprise when he was checking his email one morning.

Thomas Vogel, aged 22, found he had bought items worth nearly €1 million from an internet

auction company. Thomas said he hadn’t heard of the company before and didn’t know

anything about the €800,000 house, the €100,000 car or the €25,000 small plane he had

bought. The internet company insisted he paid for the items, however, as it seemed that he

had bought the items in his name.

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 Pre-intermediate Audio script Unit 14

UNIT 14 RECORDING 6

My name is Henry Adams, from San Francisco in the United States of America. A few years

ago, through bad luck, I found myself in London without money, food or accommodation. I was

in total despair. Suddenly, a voice said: ‘Come in here, please’. A servant showed me into a

luxurious house, where a man I had never seen before was finishing his breakfast. I hadn’t

eaten for days and the sight of all that food was almost too much for me. Without a word, the

man handed me an envelope. When I got outside I saw that the envelope contained a letter …

and something amazing. A bank note for £1 million! ‘I can see you are an honest man,’ the

letter read. ‘The money in the envelope is yours for 30 days. At the end of the month, come

back to the house. I have a bet on you.’ The letter had no signature, no address and no date.

Immediately, I ran into the nearest restaurant and ate hungrily. When I had finished my meal, I

handed the million-pound note to the waiter. ‘Can you change this for me please? I don’t have

anything smaller.’ Of course, the restaurant couldn’t change the note – but because I was

clearly a rich man, they said I could pay the next time. Over the next few days, I bought a new

suit and found a room in an expensive private hotel. Noone could change the note, but they

gave me what I wanted as they believed I was a millionaire. Soon I became famous. People

invited me to all the best parties … and I met Portia Langham … the most beautiful woman I

had ever seen. I fell in love with her within two minutes and told her my story. ‘When I go back

to see the man at the end of the month … will you come with me?’ She said yes. A month

later, I returned to the house. The servant showed me in, and the man asked me the question.

‘Do you have the million-pound note?’ ‘Here it is,’ I replied. ‘So I win the bet!’ the man shouted.

Father! I knew it.’ ‘My darling daughter!’

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 Pre-intermediate Audio script Unit 14

I couldn’t believe my eyes or ears. The man was Portia’s father … and he had made the bet to

prove that an honest man could live for a month without money. Portia and I are now married.

I never bought anything with the million pounds, which is now on the wall of our home in

London. But the note got me something far more important than money.

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