Progress Portfolio

3. | Read the text and express your opinions looking at the photo of a pair of jeans. Say how old they are.

$25,000 may sound excessive for a tatty pair of jeans, but the ones in this picture are not an ordinary pair of jeans. They are said to be one of the two oldest pairs left. They are certainly the most

expensive!

Discovered last year in an old coal mine in Colorado, they were initially sold for $10,000. Another investor paid $15,000, and Seth Weisser, owner of one of the vintage stores in New York City, paid even more for them. He then decided to contact Levi Strauss in San Francisco, “I sent them pictures of the jeans and they were delighted. They would have paid $40,000!”

Levi Strauss has its own museum and Lynn Downey, the company historian, said, “I knew this would be a treasure that everyone in the company would want us to have, so we agreed to pay one of the hightest sums ever for a pair of old jeans.”

Apart from a hole in the left pocket and frayed edges at the bottom, the jeans are in remarkably good condition for their age. Ms Downey was able to date them by their leather patch, which was added in 1886, and the single back pocket. A second pocket was added in 1902. She said, “Perhaps the most important reason why Levi Strauss bought these jeans is that the company lost everything in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the first 50 years of our history was destroyed.”

4. | Now read these statements from the text and say whether they are true or false.

1. There are no other jeans as old as these.
2. Seth Weisser paid $10,000 for the jeans.
3. The jeans are made completely of one material.
4. The jeans have fewer pockets than ones made after 1902.
5. Match the 1-5 with a-e.
a) remarkably
b) frayed
c) delighted
d) excessive
e) ordinary
1. too much
2. common
3. pleased
4. worn out
5. surprisingly