The Man behind Blue Jeans

Levi Strauss was born in 1829 in Bavaria, Germany. He was the fifth of six children. His father sold dry goods from door to door. (Dry goods include many different things: fabric, thread, scissors, combs, buttons, yarn, etc.)

In 1845, his father died. All six children decided to go to the United States. Two of Strauss’ bothers started a dry goods company in New York City. Strauss’ sister Fanny and her husband started a similar business in San Francisco. Strauss decided to go to the southeastern part of the United States. For eight years, he walked along the country roads selling dry goods from door to door –just like his father in Bavaria.

In 1853, Strauss decided to move to San Francisco. (At that time, thousands of people traveled to California to look for gold.) On the way to California, Strauss sold almost all of his dry goods. He had only one thing left—some canvas.

In California, Strauss tried to sell the canvas to the gold miners. He said they could make tents from the canvas. But they weren’t interested in canvas for tents. Strauss didn’t know what to do with the canvas. Then, he had an idea. Strauss could see that the miners needed new pants. There were holes in their pants because the fabric wasn’t strong. He decided to make the canvas into pants. They called them “Levi’s”. Later, Strauss stopped using canvas and used a different fabric. It was a heavy cotton fabric—the same kind people wear today.

Levi Strauss died in 1902. He never married and left his money to his nephews. He left the world much more—the jeans that so many people wear.

________ isn’t a kind of dry goods.

 A. Thread    B. Gold    C. Comb    D. Yarn

What is canvas?

A. Tent.    B. Pants.    C. A very strong fabric.

D. Anything which is used to make all kinds of trousers.

Why did the miners call the pants “Levi’s”?

A. Because the pants belonged to Levi Strauss’ father

B. In memory of Levi Strauss’ father.          C. It’s the name of Levi’ Strauss’ nephew.

D. Because the pants are Levi’s invention.

Which of the following is NOT true about Levi Strauss?

A. He was born in Germany.     B. His parents had six children.

C. He had five children.        D. He died in 1902.

Today there are policemen everywhere, but in 1700, London had no policemen at all. A few old men used to protect the city streets at night and they were not paid.

About 300 years ago, London was starting to get bigger and more and more people began to live there. The city was very dirty and many people were poor. There were so many thieves who stole money in the streets that people stayed in their homes as much as possible.

In 1750, Henry Fielding started to pay a group of people to stop thieves. They were like policemen and were called “Bow Street Runners” because they worked near Bow Street.

Fifty years later, there were 120 “Bow Street Runners”, but London had become very big and needed more policemen. So in 1829 , the first Metropolitan(or London)Police Force was started with 3,000 officers. Most of the men worked on foot, but a few rode horses. Until 1920 all the police in London were men.

Today, London police are quite well paid and for the few police officers who still ride horses, the pay is even better than for the others.

56. In 1700, the men who protected the streets were paid ________ .

A. a few      B. nothing     C. a little     D. a lot

57. About 300 years ago, many people __________.

A. wanted to leave London        B. had big houses in London

C. became policemen             D. came to live in London

58. People didn’t leave their houses because___________  .

A. they had no money            B. they were afraid of losing money

C. the city was not clean          D. they liked homes

59. The “Bow Street Runners”__________

A. stopped people stealing         B. stole money

C. paid people to steal            D. stopped people riding horses

60. Today, police officers who ride horses are paid __________ .

A. the same as their workmates      B. more than their workmates

C. half as much as their workmates   D. less than their workmates