Experience: I found a fortune in a charity shop

Level 2 l Upper intermediate

1 Warmer
Test your general knowledge in this quiz.

1. Match the books with their authors – either JRR Tolkien or Lewis Carroll.
The Lord of the Rings _________________________________
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland _________________________________
Through the Looking-Glass _________________________________
The Hobbit _________________________________

2. Which of the two authors was really called Charles Lutwidge Dodgson?

3. Which university city did both authors have links with?

a. Cambridge
b. Edinburgh
c. Oxford
d. Princeton

2 Key words
Match the key words with the definitions. Then find them in the article to read them in context. The
paragraph numbers are given to help you.

valuable first edition deposit dust jacket stuff in debt

mouth bidding persuade reference charity lot

1. an organization to which you give money so that it can give money and help to people or animals that need it
____________________________ (para 1)
2. a variety of objects or things ____________________________ (para 1)
3. a loose paper cover for a book that protects the hard cover ____________________________ (para 3)
4. the original printed copies of a book ____________________________ (para 4)
5. a comment that mentions someone ____________________________ (para 4)
6. worth a lot of money ____________________________ (para 5)
7. a thing or group of things that is to be sold, especially at an auction ____________________________ (para 7)
8. the process of offering to pay money for things that are being sold at an auction
____________________________ (para 8)
9. form words without making any sound ____________________________ (para 9)
10. a situation in which you owe money to other people ____________________________ (para 10)
11. make someone agree to do something by giving them reasons why they should
____________________________ (para 11)
12. a first payment that you make when you agree to buy something expensive such as a car or house
____________________________ (para 11)
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NEWS LESSONS / Experience: I found a fortune in a charity shop / Upper intermediate

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Experience: I found a fortune in a charity shop
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
Experience: I found a fortune in a 6 I wrapped it in a pair of pants, put it inside a
charity shop sandwich bag and took it in to show him. He
asked me what I thought it was worth. I’d done
Andy Hewson
my research and said that I was hoping for about
10 July, 2020 £7,000. He agreed that was a good estimate.
1 I work for a charity in central London, and in 7 I had to wait four months for an auction. It took
2012, there was an animal-welfare charity shop place a few weeks before The Hobbit film came
near my office called Paws. I used to go in there out, so there was a lot of interest. The auction
in my lunch break, mostly to chat to Michelle, the was held in one of the rooms at Christie’s, and
friendly lady who ran the shop. There was always about 40 buyers were there. Most of the lots
loads of stuff in there. I guess to Michelle it was before mine were going for about £2,000. I was
organized chaos. thinking, even if I make £500, it would still be
2 I was there one day when a hippy couple started amazing. I only paid 50p for it.
unloading hundreds of books from a camper 8 So when it came to my book and the auctioneer
van. I noticed a copy of The Hobbit. I’d bought a said, “We’ll start the bidding at £3,000,” I was
new copy a few weeks before because I wanted already thrilled. The bids started going up in
to read it again before the film came out, but I’d jumps of £500: “£4,000, £4,500, £5,000.” My
lost it. I thought: “Oh, that’s lucky. I can carry heart was racing. “£6,000, £6,500, £7,000 …”
on reading it now.” Underneath it was a cartoon
magazine from the 70s, Michelle said I could 9 I started to feel a bit sick but was trying to hold
have the two for a pound. it together. The bidding had reached £10,000
before I knew it. It was very quiet in the room.
3 It was a nice book. The dust jacket had an My girlfriend had come to watch with a couple of
illustration of trees and mountains in blue, green her colleagues. As it got to £13,000, they were
and black with Tolkien’s name underneath. I mouthing, “Oh my God!” to me. It finally sold
started reading it on the train back and forth to for £16,000.
work. I’m not a fast reader, so I was still getting
through it a month or so later when, as I was 10 I was 28 at the time; I didn’t have any serious life
leaving work, a colleague came up to me. She pressures, but I’d been in debt in the past. All I
had seen the book in my hand. She said it looked knew was that I couldn’t waste that money. I
old and that I should look into whether it was don’t have any rich relatives who might leave
worth anything. me money.

4 I went on the internet to look at first editions 11 My girlfriend persuaded me to put on a

of The Hobbit. I learned that there were 1,500 photography exhibition – something I’d always
copies printed in the first run in 1937. You can wanted to do. Then I spent the rest on a deposit
check if you have one of these by looking for the for a flat. I would never have been able to get the
reference to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson – better money together to buy my own place without it.
known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll – printed We’re still living here now.
in notes about the novel on the dust jacket. On 12 I carried on going back to Paws until it closed a
the first edition, the name was misspelled as couple of years ago. I made a small anonymous
“Dodgeson” and had to be hand-corrected by donation but never told them what happened.
the publishers. I checked the back and found the I know it sounds strange, but I didn’t want to
crossed-out e. change the relationship. I just went in the next
5 I was thinking, “This can’t be.” As luck would lunchtime as if nothing had happened.
have it, my girlfriend, Jenna, was working as an © Guardian News and Media 2020
event coordinator at the famous London auction First published in The Guardian, 10/07/20
house Christie’s at the time, so she put me in
contact with a specialist in the books department.
I remember him saying, “I think you might have a
very valuable book.”
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NEWS LESSONS / Experience: I found a fortune in a charity shop / Upper intermediate

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Experience: I found a fortune in a charity shop
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
3 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the article? Correct any that are false.

1. Andy Hewson worked in a charity shop in London.

2. He was in the charity shop when a hippy couple brought in a lot of books.
3. He bought The Hobbit because he had lost the copy that he’d been reading.
4. He wanted to read the book again as he had just seen the film.
5. He read the book at work in his lunch break.
6. A woman on the train told him it might be worth a lot of money.
7. The book contained a mistake that was only in valuable first editions of the book.
8. Luckily, his girlfriend was a books specialist at Christie’s in London.
9. The book was sold at auction for more money than anyone had expected.
10. Andy Hewson never went back to the Paws charity shop again.

4 Expressions
a. Find the following expressions in the article.

1. a term used to describe a place or situation that looks messy but which nevertheless works well (two words,
para 1)
2. moving first in one direction and then in the opposite direction many times (three words, para 3)
3. try to discover the facts about something (two words, para 3)
4. used for saying that you were or were not fortunate in some way (five words, para 5)
5. stay calm (three words, para 9)

b. Use the expressions to complete these sentences.

1. I wrote a letter of complaint, and the airline has promised to ____________________________________

the matter.
2. I thought the tickets had sold out, but ____________________________________, there were two left.
3. My mother’s kitchen is ____________________________________. I can never find anything, but she knows
exactly where everything is.
4. I thought I was going to cry, but I managed to ____________________________________.
5. We ran ____________________________________ with buckets of water, trying to put out the fire.
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Published by Macmillan Education Ltd. © Macmillan Education Limited, 2020.

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NEWS LESSONS / Experience: I found a fortune in a charity shop / Upper intermediate

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 Experience: I found a fortune in a charity shop
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
5 Discussion
• What would you have done in Andy Hewson’s position?
• Have you ever sold or bought anything at auction?
o Did you get (or pay) the amount that you had hoped to?

• Have you ever given something away and then regretted it later?

6 An experience
Tell a story about something that happened to you. Your story should include the phrase as luck would
have it.

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Published by Macmillan Education Ltd. © Macmillan Education Limited, 2020.

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NEWS LESSONS / Experience: I found a fortune in a charity shop / Upper intermediate

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