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1. lesson20

Roast Beef on Rye A little digging will unearth the roots of our language and habits. For instance, our word "sandwich" is derived from the Earl of Sandwich, who lived in the time of George Ill. This gentleman would not depart from the gambling table for hours on end. If his play happened to coincide with dinner, he would cancel his regular meal and order a slice of meat to be served to him between two pieces of bread. The biography of the Earl claims that we are his debtors for his discovery of the sandwich. Charles Dickens later used the phrase "sandwich man" to describe someone who walks about with a clearly legible message on placards hung on his chest and back. An example of a superstition is the fear of walking under a ladder. This must have been a contagious fear for it seems to have started with the ancient belief that spirits lived in trees or wood. "Knocking on wood" was a way of calling up the friendly spirit to protect one from harm. Today a member of the clergy might sneer at this custom, expecting that by this time such superstitions would have receded into the past with witches and ghosts. Another expression, "giving someone the cold shoulder," has been traced to the Middle Ages, when a host would serve his guests a cold shoulder of mutton or beef instead of the customary hot food. This was a transparent attempt to show the guest he was no longer welcome. The host had thus found a more charitable yet effective way of expressing his feelings without using a scalding remark.
Terror in the Cemetery I like to bet on anything that is exciting, so when my friends tried to tempt me with an offer, I took it. The idea was for me to spend a frigid December night in a cemetery, all alone. in order to win twenty dollars. Little did I realize that they would use dirty tricks to try to frighten me to abandon the cemetery and, therefore, lose my wager . My plan was to recline in front of a large grave, covered by a warm blanket, with a flashlight to help me cut through the dismal darkness. After midnight, I heard a wild shriek. I thought I saw the grave open and a corpse rise out of it. Although I was somewhat numb with fear. I tried to keep my senses. Using good judgment, I knew that no peril could come to me from that sinister figure. When I did not run in terror, my friends, who had decided to conceal themselves behind the nearby tombstones, came out and we all had a good laugh Those spirits that may inhabit a cemetery must have had a good laugh, too.
A Home Where the Buffalo Roam Even today in South Dakota a cowboy emerges from behind a jagged rock where he has lingered in ambush waiting for the crafty buffalo to appear. Although not wild-they are raised on vast* ranches-the gallant,* defiant bison need to be hunted with the same vigor cowboys showed a century* ago. For a while, Americans thought the buffalo would perish from the earth; fortunately* the buffalo is far from being such a fragile animal. Now more or less captive, the buffalo, an estimated* 10,000, are raised for profit by ranchers who prosper from the sale of buffalo meat. When did you devour your last morsel* of tasty buffalo burger?
The Challenge* of the Small Car The auto makers in Detroit barely survived* the tragedy of 1956. That was the year the consumer became aware* of the Volkswagen, and the auto market was forever altered.* Once Americans got a glance at this low-priced, nimble, small car that one could manipulate so easily, they frequently* refused those horrid Detroit monsters with eight cylinders and ten miles to each gallon of gasoline. Many pedestrians, previously uninterested in owning a car, began to purchase small foreign cars.Conservative as well as reckless drivers found the price within their budget and became customers. Volkswagen owners would rave about their economical cars, telling everyone how little gas they used and how infrequently* they needed to be lubricated. Volkswagen, once one of the most popular* small cars sold in America, has now fallen behind the autos of the ingenious Japanese manufacturers.

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