Vocabulary

Complete the sentences with one of the following words: autograph, century, glamorous, industry, nearly, powerful, scenery

1. Directors, actors, and writers all work in the movie business or ________.

2. One hundred years is a ________.

3. The mountains, ocean, and trees all make California's ________ beautiful.

4. ________ all the people came to the party. Thirty-six were invited and thirty-two came.

5. The United States is a very ________ country. It has a lot of influence over other countries.

6. The actress looked very ________ in her beautiful dress and diamond jewelry.

7. When a famous person signs his or her name, it is called an ________.

Comprehension

A. Looking for Main Ideas

Circle the letter of the best answer.

1. Hollywood today means two things: ________.

1. the movie industry and farmland

2. farmland and perfect scenery

3. an area in Los Angeles and the movie industry

2. The great years of Hollywood were ________.

1. 1917 and the next year

2. from 1918 to 1948

3. after 1948

3. Today, most movies are made ________.

1. Beverly Hills

2. in Hollywood

3. outside Hollywood

B. Looking for Details

Circle Т if the sentence is true. Circle F if the sentence is false.

1. Some early American movies were made in Chicago and New York. T F

2. In 1917 a director went to California because he had a cold. T F

3. The first movie studio was built in Hollywood in 1918. T F

4. A thousand movies were made in thirty years. T F

5. Some movies are considered great art. T F

6. Today many studios have moved to Beverly Hills and Malibu. T F

The gold rush

It was January 1848. A man was digging near the small village of San Francisco, California. Suddenly, he saw something shiny – gold!

By the next year the California gold rush had begun. Thousands of men came to California. They were called "forty-niners," after the year 1849. The forty-niners came from all around the United States. They even came from other countries, including Mexico, Australia, China, France, and England. They left their families and jobs, and made the difficult trip to California. They all shared a dream. They all wanted to make a fortune in gold.

Towns and camps grew quickly wherever gold was found. These towns were rough places. There was almost always a saloon, where the men drank whiskey and gambled at cards. In mining towns, men stole and sometimes killed for gold.

Did the miners make their fortune? Some did, especially those who came early and were lucky. In 1848, miners usually made about twenty dollars a day. In 1852 miners made about six dollars a day. Many other people came to California to make money from the miners. Prices were very high. A loaf of bread, which cost five cents in New York, cost almost a dollar in San Fran­cisco.

In 1848 San Francisco had been a village. Six years later it was a city with a population of 50,000. In 1850 California had enough people to become a state.