E n g L i s h jenni Currie Santamaria

particle 
f. moving earth with a shovel
C.
Reading strategy
These two words are defined in the following text. Scan the story for these 
words, and write their definitions.
1.
sluicer ________________________________________________________
2.
garnet ________________________________________________________
II. READ
Read the text. Mark the words you don’t know, but don’t stop reading to look 
them up.
New Gold Rush Hits California
DeMello, 60, and his prospecting partner, Mike Gavin, 53, a Los Alamitos roofer 
idled by the business slowdown, drove 20 miles into the forest north of Azusa, 
Calif., then hiked up a trail into East Fork Canyon and hopped rocks jutting out 
of the side of the fast-rushing river, passing trout ishermen, until they found a 
spot that looked promising. Gavin shoveled furiously along the bank while 
DeMello sifted and sorted through the dirt.
Reducing his shovel contents to mostly sand, he deposited it slowly into a 
metal sluicer, a piece of equipment reined but little changed in a century and a 
half. Placed for river water to run through it, the sluicer catches the heaviest 
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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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 r
einery 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
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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