Intermediate passages 1 The best recruiting agents

32 Levi Strauss

In 1850, during the Gold Rush, a twenty-year-old immigrant from Bavaria named Levi Strauss stepped off the boat in San Francisco. He had with him a special cloth called Serge de Nimes, which would later be called denim in America. Levi Strauss hoped to sell the denim as material to make tents and covers for wagons, to the men who were going to the goldfields to look for gold. "You should have brought pants to sell. In the goldfields we need strong pants that don't wear out," one young miner advised Strauss. So Levi Strauss took some of his denim to the nearest tailor and had him make the miner a pair of pants. The miner was so pleased with his pants that he told other miners about the wonderful new Levi's pants or Levis, and soon Levi Strauss had to open a shop to manufacture enough trousers for the miners. The miners wanted trousers that were comfortable to ride in, that were low-cut so they could bend over easily to pick up the gold from under their feet, and which had big useful pockets. One miner complained that the gold in his pockets kept tearing them. So Levi put metal corners in the pockets to make them stronger. Very soon, miners and cowboys from all over came to get fitted up with Levi's pants. Today, more than a hundred years later, Levi's pants walk the world as Levi's blue jeans.

1. It's clear that Levi Strauss's original purpose for taking denim to America was

A) to provide jeans for the miners B) forgotten when he got off the boat

C) to make himself equipment for going to the goldfields D) not for making trousers 2. The first pair of Levi Strauss "jeans"

A) were admired by many other people B) didn't fit the needs of the miners

C) were made as a response to a request D) were no different from today's models

3. Levi Strauss's trousers first became popular

A) because they were so fashionable B) due to the customers talking about them
C) as a result of their being affordable D) after they had been sold for a century