He 20th Century technology time line

particles in its carpetlike bottom—and the heaviest material is gold. They didn’t 
ind enough to buy dinner, but they did get small pieces for their collections.
Downstream, Marc Montelius, 50, of Whittier, was panning and sifting while 
three friends dug and offered advice from the riverbank. He is a self-employed 

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56 | Better Reading English
III. COMPREHENSION CHECK
Mark the sentences T (True) or F (False).
____ 1. The men in the article are students.
____ 2. Mike Gavin and Marc Montelius are unemployed.
____ 3. The men found a lot of gold.
____ 4. Gold is heavier than sand.
____ 5. People used sluicers to look for gold 100 years ago.
____ 6. All three men found small pieces of gold.
IV. VOCABULARY BUILDING
A.
Understanding from context
Read the phrases. Before you look up words in the dictionary, use the context 
of the article to help you circle the letter of the word or phrase with the same 
meaning as the boldface word.
1. they 
hiked up a trail
a. 
walked
b. 
ran
2. they hopped rocks
a. 
fell under rocks
b. 
jumped from rock to rock
3. the rocks were jutting out of the side of the river
a. 
sticking out
b. 
near
4. it was a fast-rushing river
a. 
moving slowly
b. 
moving quickly
5. they found a spot that looked promising
a. 
bad
b. 
good
handyman waiting for an oil reinery job. “I have no illusions of grandeur that 
I’m going to strike it rich,” he said. “It’s a good excuse to get out of the house.”
He found small pieces of gold and some small garnets, a deep red 
gemstone. Nothing worth selling, he says.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2009-04-02-goldpanning_ 
N.htm

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San Francisco | 57
6. a piece of equipment refined but little changed in a century
a. 
improved
b. 
changed
7. he has illusions of grandeur
a. 
false ideas of greatness
b. 
true ideas of greatness
8. he’s going to strike it rich
a. 
hit a rich person
b. 
get rich suddenly
B.
Use the new words
Complete the sentences with the boldface words and idioms from Exercise A.
1. People buy lottery tickets because they want to ___________________.
2. This looks like a ___________________ place for our next vacation.
3. In the mornings everyone is ___________________ to work.
4. He’s a realistic person; he doesn’t have any ___________________.
5. The runner ___________________ over the low fence.
6. Last summer we ___________________ up a mountain.
7. He had a sharp nose ___________________ of his face.
8. They have ___________________ that computer program so it works 
perfectly now.
C.
Focus on verbs
This article contains many active verbs that make the story more interesting. 
Without looking at the article, put these verbs into the summary below. When 
you finish, use the article to check your work.
sorted sifted hiked deposited hopped shoveled looked
First, the men _______________ up the mountain. Then they _______________ 
rocks along the river while they _______________ for a good spot. One man 
_______________ dirt by the side of the river. The other man _______________ 
the dirt to separate the small particles from the big rocks. After he sifted it, he 
_______________ it into different piles. Once the dirt was mostly small particles 
of sand, he _______________ it into the sluicer.

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58 | Better Reading English
V. UNDERSTANDING GRAMMAR
A.
Read about while
We usually use while as a conjunction to indicate that two things are happening 
at the same time.