专题22 Big Wins and Losses-高中英语【外刊·新闻·热点】素养提升拓展阅读课

1 BIG WINS AND LOSSES Jan 17th, 2023 WARM-UP QUESTIONS: Discuss the following questions with your partner(s). 1. In your culture, are there actions or objects that bring good luck? How about bad luck? 2. Read the headline above. Have you heard this news story? If so, say what you know. If not, can you guess what it is about? VOCABULARY: Match the following vocabulary words with a description. Use a dictionary if you need to. 1. Win big a) a game of chance that rewards winners and often raises money for charity or government 2. Lottery b) a large cash prize, a prize that grows until it is won 3. Tier c) one after another 4. Draw d) an all-at-once payment 5. Consecutively e) to win a lot 6. Jackpot f) yearly 7. Annual g) to select the names or numbers in a lottery 8. Lump sum h) a level LISTEN: Listen to the audio track on eslnewsstories.com or to a reader of the text. Try to fill in the missing words. Then check your answers with the full text (below). One lucky person has won big in the American ___________ of Maine. The winner’s identity is not yet known, but we do know they bought a Mega Millions lottery ticket at Hometown Gas & Grill in the town of Lebanon, on ___________ the 13th. The Mega Millions lottery had been drawn twenty-five times consecutively without producing a top- tier winner. As a result, the jackpot ___________ had grown to $1.35 billion. It is the third largest amount ever won by a single person in a lottery jackpot. The highest amount ever won was in the Powerball lottery in ___________ of last year. That person won $2.04 billion. 2 The winner is now faced with a choice. They can receive the full amount in annual payments for 29 years, or they can get a reduced ___________, of about $725 million, in a lump sum. They will also have to pay the biggest tax bill they have ever seen. Meanwhile, over the last year, Elon Musk lost more money than any person in ___________. Due mainly to the drop in