He 20th Century technology time line

Gavin shoveled furiously along the bank while DeMello sifted and sorted 
through the dirt.
Often the past continuous verb form is used with while to emphasize that one 
or more of the actions is ongoing.
Marc Montelius was panning and sifting while three friends dug and 
offered advice from the riverbank.
While can also be used as a conjunction to indicate a contrast.
While there isn’t a lot of gold left in California, there are still many small 
pieces.
While most prospectors don’t find much of value, sometimes one of them 
gets lucky.
While can also be a noun in the expression for a while, meaning “a period of 
time.”
They waited for a while.
I haven’t seen you for a while.
B.
Use the grammar
Choose the meaning of while as it is used in each sentence. Write the 
appropriate letters after the sentence.
ST = at the same time
C = contrast
PT = period of time
1. They looked for a while before they found anything. ______
2. He found a garnet while he was looking for gold. ______
3. While inding gold is dificult, searching for it can be entertaining. ______
4. The interviewer spoke to them while they were sifting the sand. ______
5. While there were once thousands of people looking for gold in California, 
now there are only a few. ______
6. Many 49ers stayed in San Francisco for a while before they went to the 
mountains. ______

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San Francisco | 59
VI. READ IT AGAIN
Read the article again. Answer the questions.
1. What are the usual occupations of Mike Gavin and Marc Montelius?
2. How does a sluicer work?
CAUGHT UP IN THE 1906 EARTHQUAKE
I. PRE-READING
A.
Background information
This reading is from the book Dragonwings by Laurence Yep. Dragonwings is 
the story of a young Chinese boy and his father living in San Francisco in the 
early 1900s. In this part of the story, the boy is experiencing the 1906 
earthquake. This terrible earthquake and the ire that followed it destroyed 
much of the city. It is believed that more than 3,000 people died in the disaster, 
making it one of the worst in U.S. history.
B.
Words to know before you read
____ 1. tremor 
a. a tall narrow tower, often the bell tower 
of a church
____ 2. steeple 
b. a house divided into apartments for 
rent; low-rent housing
____ 3. tenement 
c. a movement, sometimes of the earth
____ 4. surge 
d. thankfully
____ 5. topple over 
e. move quickly
____ 6. mercifully 
f. knock over
C.
Reading strategy
Skim the following article quickly, and write the answer to the question.
What happened to the tenement house and Miss Whitlaw’s fence?
__________________________________________________________________________

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60 | Better Reading English
II. READ
Read the text. Mark the words you don’t know, but don’t stop reading to look 
them up.
He started to get to his feet when the second tremor shook and he fell forward 
lat on his face. I heard the city bells ringing. They were rung by no human 
hand—the earthquake had just shaken them in their steeples. The second 
tremor was worse than the irst. From all over came an immense wall of noise: of 
metal tearing, of bricks crashing, of wood breaking free from wood nails, and 
all. Everywhere, what man had built came undone. I was looking at a tenement 
house to our right and it just seemed to shudder and then collapse. One 
moment there were solid wooden walls and the next moment it had fallen with 
the cracking of wood and the tinkling of glass and the screams of people inside.
Mercifully, for a moment, it was lost to view in the cloud of dust that rose 
up. The debris surged against Miss Whitlaw’s fence and toppled it over with a 
creak and a groan and a crash. I saw an arm sticking up from the mound of 
rubble and the hand was twisted at an impossible angle from the wrist. 
Coughing, Father pulled at my arm. “Stay here now,” he ordered and started 
for Miss Whitlaw’s.
Source: Dragonwings, by Laurence Yep, New York: HarperCollins, 1977.
III. COMPREHENSION CHECK