Winner

and expensive in his tastes, seemed as if he never would be able to do anything worth doing. And the mother, who had a great belief in herself, did not succeed any better, and her tastes were just as expensive.

And so the house came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: There must be more money! There must be more money! The children could hear it all the time though nobody said it aloud. They heard it at Christmas, when the expensive and splendid toys filled the nursery. Behind the shining modern rocking horse, behind the smart doll’s house, a voice would start whispering: ‘There must be more money! There must be more money!’ And the children would stop playing, to listen for a moment. They would look into each other’s eyes, to see if they had all heard. And each one saw in the eyes of the other two that they too had heard. ‘There must be more money! There must be more money!’

It came whispering from the springs of the still-swaying rocking horse, and even the horse, bending his wooden, champing head, heard it. The big doll, sitting so pink and smirking in her new baby carriage, could hear it quite plainly, and seemed to be smirking all the more selfconsciously because of it. The foolish puppy, too, that took the place of the teddy bear, he was looking so extraordinarily foolish for no other reason but that he heard the secret whisper all over the house: ‘There must be more money!’ Yet nobody ever said it aloud. The whisper was everywhere, and therefore no one spoke it. Just as no one ever says: ‘We are breathing!’ in spite of the fact that breath is coming and going all the time.

4 In his career, the father

A had lived up to people’s expectations of him.

B hadn’t done as well as expected.

C hadn’t ever had any hope of achieving much.

D would have done better if he hadn’t been so concerned with keeping up appearances.

5 Compared to the father, the mother

A wasn’t at all extravagant.

B had less expensive tastes.

C found it equally as difficult to live frugally.

D was much better at budgeting.

6 For the children, the shortage of money in the household

A was not something that they were aware of at all.

B caused them anxiety, too.

C made them upset because they didn’t get the presents they wanted.

D meant that they didn’t feel like playing very much.

3 Read the extract again and answer the questions.

1 Why do you think the title of the short story is The Rocking-Horse Winner?

2 What is the genre of the short story?

3 How does Lawrence create atmosphere?

4 Are the real or the toy characters described more fully?

5 What do you think will happen next?

6 Do you think the family would have been happier if it had been richer?

Listening

4 33 You will hear an interview with a financial expert about the economic winners and losers of the COVID-19 pandemic. Listen and answer the questions.

1 Which industries have been the biggest losers of the global pandemic?

2 How have companies in these sectors survived?

3 What has seen a massive increase?

4 What percentage have webshops and e-commerce grown by?

5 What kind of company does the expert wish he had started in 2019?

6 What new hobbies have people had since the pandemic?

7 Where have people not been able to work or visit?

8 What does the expert think will happen in the future?

Writing

5 CERT Your teacher has asked you to write an essay with the following title: ‘Is it more important to earn a high salary or to have job satisfaction?‘ Write about:

• Does money = happiness?

How much time is spent at work?

• (your own idea)

Speaking

6 CERT Pairwork Your class is going to raise some money for charity. Discuss what you think it should be spent on and why. Use these ideas in your discussion.

A food bank for local families

A mobile library for the community

A community garden on the school premises

A clothes repair and exchange market

A project to befriend and help older people in the community

I think we should organize a food bank, it would help a lot of families in need.

1 CERT Read the text and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap.