Текст книги "Английский язык"

4 There are numerous illegal ways to gain entry … a computer and Tracy was an expert.

5 The salesman’s eye was caught … a teenager playing a computer game.

4.3.5 Answer the questions

1 What was Tracy?

2 What shop was she going to visit?

3 Why did Tracy visit a computer shop?

4 What was Clarence Desmond?

5 How many dollars did the Philadelphia Trust and Fidelity Bank owe Tracy?

4.3.5 Retell the given extract

4.4 Text 4

THE BANKER

After Leslie Waller

Woods Palmer Jr – He came to New York to wage a gigantic multi-million dollar war – and stayed to win.

Virginia Clary – During bankers’ hours she controlled his public affairs. After hours, she took care of his private ones.

Edith Palmer – She had charge of his home, his children, his social life – but she had a permanent I.O.U. on his love.

Mac Burns – He was hired to influence the right people. When he couldn’t do it with money he tried blackmail – and women.

“The inside scoop on banking, the power drive of the two-fisted but alluring hero, all add up to a sure bestseller.”

LIFE MAGAZINE

Palmer trailed the older man along the corridor past the receptionist, wondering as he did so why none of the other top officers had been brought in to meet him. This was not, officially, his first day at work. He wasn’t to start the new job until after Labor Day, but this was his first visit to Ubco and protocol usually called for introductions all around.

“You’ll forgive me,” Burckhardt said after a moment as the elevator descended, “for not introducing you to a few of the boys.”

“I gather this savings-bank thing is urgent.”

“It’s silly and unnecessary as hell,” the older man exploded suddenly. “It’s the kind of irrational thing you don’t expect from another banker. But for all that, you’re right: it’s urgent.”

“I’m not very well briefed on it yet,” Palmer said as the doors opened on the main floor. He was, as a matter of fact, fairly well briefed. Although he’d never had to cope with savings banks in Illinois, he kept abreast of the trouble they’d been giving commercial banks in the seventeen states where they operated. Because most of the money was in New York, the conflict was sharpest here.

“Just what do you know?” Burckhardt asked. “Just that they – “

“In the car,” Burckhardt cut in swiftly.

The car pulled swiftly away from the curb and headed into the heart of Broad Street’s traffic.

“All right, shoot,” Burckhardt ordered.

Palmer frowned, although it cost him no effort at all to summon up the details.

“It’s a matter of new money,” he said then. “The savings banks are paying a better dividend and they’re attracting a lot of new money. The problem is to channel the new money back to us.”

“In the nutshell. There isn’t a great deal more I can tell you.”

“You flatter me,” Palmer said. “I don’t even know what you’ve done about the problem so far. I’d have to know that.”

It was a lie, Palmer reflected as he said it, but it was a lie in a worthy cause. The old bird was so obviously dying to unburden himself that any excuse would be enough to start him going.

“Done?” Burckhardt snapped. “We’ve sat around diddling ourselves, that’s what we’ve done. For fifteen years we’ve sat on our butts and let the mutuals snatch every savings dollar out from under our noses because we didn’t want that kind of chickenfeed. Now, when we need those dollars, we can’t get at them.”

“That’s the part I don’t understand,” Palmer lied again. “I mean, what is so mysterious about these mutual banks? What are there… a hundred and thirty of them? All over the state?”

“About. With their branches, say, two-fifty.”

“Why, Ubco has almost as many branches by itself as their whole system.”

When Burckhardt failed to answer, Palmer pressed on, trying to give him another opening to unburden himself. “That’s what makes it hard to understand,” he said. “Here’s a wage earner. He’s in debt for about two thirds of his salary. But he puts away, say, ten dollars a week. Say five. It doesn’t matter how much. He looks around him for a place to save it. On every corner he finds an Ubco branch, or a branch of Manufacturer’s or Chase or First National or Chemical. What I mean is, he has to search long and hard to find a savings-bank branch as convenient to him as a commercial bank. Isn’t that so?”

Burckhardt shrugged. “It doesn’t explain what’s happened,” he said, more to himself than Palmer. “It doesn’t explain why the mutual savings banks have two thirds of all the savings money in the state. Money we sorely need.”

“You make it sound like witchcraft.”

“It’s plain old American stupidity,” Burckhardt retorted. “The mutuals advertise a dividend rate about a half of one per cent higher than we do. One half a miserable per cent per annum. Do you have to have that spelled out for the average saver? It means he gets an extra five bucks on his account each year. If you put it to him that way, he’d see how stupid he was being. But nobody’s explained it to him and nobody will.” He stopped and turned to Palmer. “Can you guess why?”

Palmer pretended to frown again.

“I suppose,” he said slowly, feigning deep thought, “everyone’s afraid to mention it because it shows just how little your savings earn, whatever bank you put them in.”

“Exactly. When people have it spelled out that way, they’ll withdraw their money and throw it into mutual funds or directly on the market. Or this other idiocy, real estate syndication.

4.4.1 Vocabulary notes

to blackmail – шантажировать, вымогать деньги

savings-bank – сберегательный банк

mutual savings banks – взаимно-сберегательный банк

dividend rate – коэффициент выплаты дивиденда

to withdraw money – снимать (изымать) деньги

4.4.2 Comments

I’m not very well briefed on it yet – я еще недостаточно осведомлен об этом

we’ve sat on our butts – мы просиживали штаны

we didn’t want that kind of chickenfeed – мы не пожелали возиться с такой мелочью

the mutual banks – зд. Сберегательные банки

Ubco – Юнайтед Бэнк

Labor Day – День труда

4.4.3 Fill in the gaps with the following prepositions: with, to, into, of, in

1 The car pulled swiftly away from the curb and headed … the heart of Broad Street’s traffic.

2 Palmer had never had to cope … savings banks in Illinois.

3 The savings banks are paying a better dividend and they are attracting a lot… new money.

4 The problem is to channel the new money back … us.

5 He is… debt for about two thirds of his salary.

4.4.4 Fill in the blanks with the following words: соре with, pressed on, call for, dividend, finds

1 Palmer wasn’t to start the new job until after Labor Day, but this was his first visit to Ubco and protocol usually… …introductions all around.

2 Palmer had never had to … … savings banks in Illinois.

3 The savings banks are paying a better … and they are attracting a lot of new money.

4 When Burckhardt failed to answer, Palmer… … trying to give him another opening to unburden himself.

5 On every corner a wage earner… an Ubco branch, or a branch Manufacturer’s or Chase or First National or Chemical.

4.4.5 Write ten sentences using the following word combinations: his first day at work, to start the new job, as a matter of fact, to со with savings banks, commercial banks, it costs me no effort at all, it’s a matter new money, to attract a lot of new money, to fail to do smth, a wage earner

4.4.6 Make up a dialogue between Palmer and Burckhardt

4.4.7 Retell the text expressing your attitude to the main characters of the extract

4.4.8 Translate into English

1 Разве в этом банке не новый президент?

2 В этом году ожидается значительная прибыль.

3 За последнее время прибыль медленно повышается.

4 Их резервы становятся довольно низкими.

5Нам повезло (посчастливилось) иметь большие резервы.

6 Какова сумма основного капитала?

7 У них были трудности в отношении увеличения основного капитала.

8 Главный экономист как раз сейчас находится в отпуске.

9 Я не думаю, что они смогут получить лицензию.

10 Я решила положить деньги на сберегательный счет.

11 Разве наш новый отчет еще не напечатан?

12У нас есть все основания (причины) гордиться отчетом.

13 Сообщают, что отчет будет разослан всем акционерам.

14Говорят, что Бэркхардт является одним из крупнейших акционеров «Юнайтед Бэнк».

15 Известно, что остаток банка столь же велик, как и основной капитал.

16 Сообщают, что «Юнайтед Бэнк» имеет значительный остаток.

17 Сколько вы получили по дивиденду?

18 Я хотела бы сделать капиталовложение в эту фирму.

19 Сколько у вас денег для инвестиций?

20 Я хочу поговорить с вами о моих инвестициях.

21 Президент банка опасается, что правление выделило рискованный кредит.

22 Какова сумма совместного кредита (займа)?

4.5 Text 5

THE BANKER

After Leslie Waller (to be continued)

Palmer was about to ask Burckhardt if he were having some kind of attack, then decided to remain silent. The urge to speak, simply to fill a soundless void had been one of the hardest of his youthful habits to break. The realization that more trouble was caused by talking than by not talking – a view of life his father had lectured him about since Palmer had been twelve years old – had come very slowly to him in his mid-thirties.

Now, in his mid-forties, he often wondered how sound the idea had been. It was true, he reflected as the Rolls sped northward, that you did avoid trouble by avoiding speech. There was very little question of that. But as he grew older, he had begun to wonder what “trouble” really was and whether, regardless of its identity, it was something to be avoided at all costs.

Sitting beside Burckhardt now, he saw that, in this case, “trouble” was simply a further involvement with the man who was to be his superior for many years to come. Although the nature of the involvement was unknown, was it necessarily to be avoided?

Palmer moistened his lips very slightly. He was about to break training, revert to a habit of his youth, and the anticipation made him feel suddenly uneasy. He turned to the older man and —

“Damned old fool!” Burckhardt burst out.

Palmer blinked and checked back quickly the lines along which Burckhardt might have been thinking. “Joe Loomis?” he asked finally.

“He’s a stubborn, senile, fuzzy-headed old coot and I wish to God he hadn’t called me this morning.”

“What did he want?” Palmer asked.

“Why, the earth itself on a silver platter.”

“Something to do with this savings-banks business?”

“That’s what hurts most, I think,” Burckhardt said.

“He’s a widower now, you know. We may have him out for the weekend once a year. He and I may lunch every few months, if that often. We may see each other at the club for a drink now and then. He may or may not attend an Ubco board meeting. The bulk of our contact is purely social. I don’t believe I’ve ever asked a favor of him that wasn’t in his own interest, too, and I’m quite sure that the same applies to those he’s asked of me. But, God damn it, today he called me up direct from a trustees’ meeting of the Murray Hill Savings Bank and wanted my pledge that we wouldn’t oppose one of their bills up at the state legislature this year.”

“That’s hardly what I call a confidential request.”

“Even that doesn’t irk me.” Burckhardt snapped. “I don’t relish the idea of the rest of the trustees sitting around listening to him ask me for such a favor, of course not. But the thing that absolutely violates my … my …”. He paused, struggling for words, and glared angrily at Palmer for help.

Ethics, Palmer suggested silently, conscience, morality, way of life. He said none of these, but waited and endured the glare.

“The thing that angers me most,” Burckhardt finished lamely, “is the irrational gall of the man, squeezing me in this impossible position between what I know is right for Ubco and my friendship for him. It’s intolerable!”

“What did you tell him?” Palmer wanted to know. “Tell him? What could I tell him? I stalled.”

“You’ll have to give him an answer eventually.”

“Oh,” he said then, “and don’t think I’m Joe’s only friend to be asked for a commitment. Nor is he the only savings-bank trustee with commercial-bank friends. All over town they’ll be asking this particular favor. It’s a completely untenable position and I won’t be forced into it.”

“What particular bill does he want you not to oppose?”

“I don’t even remember,” the older man said.

The realization seemed to release him from the peculiar trance into which he had fallen, reading, in the entrails of his relationship with a friend, the death of friendship.

“One of their perennial branch bills?”

Burckhardt snorted, then turned slowly to Palmer.

“Just how well are you briefed, Woody?” he asked in an irritated tone. “You seem to know as much about this as I do.”

“Never. Just moderately up on things.”

“You’re crapping the old man, aren’t you?” Burckhardt’s voice had grown very cold. “Let’s put it this way, Woody: you’re entitled to be ignorant when you really want information. But don’t let me catch you faking it just to make me feel good. Understand?”

“I don’t-“

“And don’t let me catch you lying about it,” Burckhardt interrupted. “If I don’t have a clear picture of the full extent of your knowledge at all times, I’m working at a handicap. Is that clear?”

“Perfectly. Sorry.”

Burckhardt’s mouth turned up slightly at the corners.

“As a matter of fact,” the older man said after a long silence, “it did have something to do with branches for savings banks. I’m not sure what.”

“More of them, no doubt.”

Burckhardt shrugged. “In the suburbs, something like that. They can’t go out in the suburbs now and it’s driving them crazy.”

“Their depositors are moving out of the city, I suppose.”

“By and large,” Burckhardt agreed. “The savings banks have no one to blame but themselves. They’ve been investing heavily in mortgages since the war. It’s the only kind of loan they can make and, of course, they’ve really plunged into it feet first. They’ve made it possible for people to move out into the suburbs, but the savings banks can’t follow them.”

“Then why all the excitement?” Palmer asked. “If they’re hoist by their own petard, let them dangle. Why worry about them?”

“Because they don’t intend to dangle. They want more rope and they’ll move heaven and earth to get it.”

Palmer nodded. “Vicious circle”. He glanced out the window at the traffic jam.

“These savings banks have the money. They have it right in their hands. Their assets are cash or the next thing to it – governments – and mortgages. It’s … it’s like …” Burckhardt sputtered out.

“Like money in the bank,” Palmer suggested with a small laugh. Burckhardt favored him with a stony glance.

“Now, look,” he began, “I’m all for a sense of humor, Woody. A man has to have it in the world or he can crack up. But some things are simply no laughing matter. This is one of them.”

Palmer turned slightly toward him, not eagerly but slowly. “What’s more “upsetting?” he asked then, “the savings bank mess or Joe Loomis putting the squeeze on you?”

“You can’t separate one from the other. I’ve lived with this thing for years now. The mutuals are getting desperate and the heat’s on. If I do one thing, I lose volume. If I do another, I lose a friend. It’s just that brutally simple.”

Palmer watched the Rolls swing smoothly west again on Fifty-fifth and head across Madison toward Fifth.

Burckhardt shrugged. “Naturally, if anybody has to shaft Joe Loomis, I’d rather it weren’t me. But that’s only part of the reason.” He sighed heavily. “You’re about to meet the other part, Mac Burns.”

“He’s a pretty high-powered guy,” Palmer mused.

“He … I heard him at a convention once in Chicago. Good speaker.”

“One of the best. Started on the Coast as one of these show-business press agents.”

“Now he’s a public-relations consultant or something? I think he has some Chicago clients.”

Burckhardt sighed. “So the fame of Mac Burns has traveled out to Chicago, has it?”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Nothing. He’s just what we need, unfortunately.”

“But he’s partly the reason you’ve dumped it all on me.”

“That’s right,” Burckhardt said.

“I’ve got nothing against Greeks or Syrians or whatever Burns is”, Burckhardt said, getting out of the car. “It’s just that I can’t get along with this particular one. So you can have the dubious pleasure of working with Mac Burns or whatever his name used to be.” He stood on the sidewalk and waited for Palmer to follow him.

“And one thing more,” Burckhardt said sotto voce, detaining Palmer from entering the huge plate glass doors of the intensely modern bank.

Palmer tuned toward him. “Yes?”

“Burns knows how I feel about him. I can’t hide it. That’s why you’re going to have to get very chummy with him, to counteract me. Can you do it?”

“Why not?”

“It’d better be a damned sight more certain than that,” Burckhardt snapped.

Then, deeping his voice down again: “You’re going to live with this man for quite a while. Can you do it?”

“I can do it.”

“Because without Mac Burns, we’re dead.”

The two men stared at each other without speaking.

4.5.1 Vocabulary notes

depositor – вкладчик, депозитор

mortgage – залог, ипотека, закладная

Loan – заем, ссуда, кредит asset – активы; средства; капитал; фонды; имущество; собственность

4.5.2 Fill in the gaps with the prepositions: from, at, of, for

1 We may see each other … the club … a drink now and then.

2 But, God damn it, today he called me up direct… a trustees’ meeting of the Murray Hill Savings Bank and wanted my pledge that we wouldn’t oppose one … their bills up … the state legislature this year

3 I am all… a sense of humor.

4 I’m working … a handicap.

5 Burckhardt’s mouth turned up slightly … the corners.

4.5.3 Fill in the gaps with the following words: wondered, habits, superior, mortgages, board meeting, loan

1 The urge to speak, simply to fill a soundless void, had been one of the hardest of his youthful… to break.

2 In his mid-forties, Palmer often … how sound the idea had been.

3 Sitting beside Burckhardt now, Palmer saw that, in this case, “trouble” was simply a further involvement with the man who was to be his … for many years to come.

4 Joe Loomis may or may not attend an Ubco

5 The savings banks have no one to blame but themselves. They’ve been investing heavily in … since the war. It’s the only kind of… they can make and, of course, they’ve really plunged into it feet first.

4.5.4 Answer the questions

1 What was Palmer?

2 What was Burckhardt?

3 What was Joe Loomis?

4 What was Mac Burns?

4.5.5 Retell the text expressing your attitude to the main characters of the extract

4.5.6 Make up a dialogue between Palmer and Burckhardt

4.6 Text 6

THE BANKER

After Leslie Waller (to be continued)

After the first dinner he had ever eaten at Schrafft’s, Palmer sat back and sighed, not so much in appreciation of the meal, but in silent recognition of the fact that millions of people regularly ate such meals and, apparently, came back for more. He had agreed to Schrafft’s, on Virginia Clary’s suggestion, in simple accord with the unspoken fact that it would be impossible for him to run into anyone he knew there. At the time, her choice had seemed an admirable compromise between the need to be fed and the need to minimize, without any outright intrigue, the fact that they were eating together.

“That look on your face,” she said after the waitress had cleared away their dishes. “After all, I warned you you’d be better off with the Tom turkey.”

“With pineapple-and-chestnut dressing?” Palmer asked in a semi-stricken voice. “My father warned me never to eat turkey before Thanksgiving or after Christmas. Unfortunately, he had nothing to say on the subject of chicken loaf.”

She smiled and sipped her water. Palmer noticed that in the somewhat subdued lighting of Schrafft’s, with its faintly rosy tint, the deep shadows in which her eyes were set seemed less stark, more becoming. Although she couldn’t be considered beautiful, he told himself now, she was certainly attractive enough, in a small, intense way.

“That’s the third time,” she said then, “that you’ve quoted your father.”

“He turned out a tremendous number of quotations in his time. Should I apologize?”

“I think it’s old-fashioned and charming,” she said. “People who haven’t yet learned to hate their parents are quite rare in New York.”

“You even have your mother’s picture on your desk.”

“She lives with me. Or vice versa. I’m never sure. Not,” she went on hurriedly, “that we’re devoted to each other. We keep a kind of armed truce. She’s never really forgiven me for going to work at a bank.”

“Bad as all that?” he asked.

“A bank foreclosed our house in Hollisin 19-oh-31.”

“Your mother can’t forgive that?”

“Neither would you if the house meant to you what it did to my folks.

We’d lived most of our lives in the upper Yorkville section, the part they call Spanish Harlem now. When my father managed to make the downpayment on that bungalow in Hollis … I tell you, it was Hallelujah Day. And then, after only three years, to …” Her voice died away. “But then,” she went on more strongly, “we had a lot of company in 1931. All our neighbors were foreclosed, too.”

“It was quite a year.”

“What happened to you in 1931?” she asked.

Palmer shrugged. “Nothing much. I think it was my freshman year at college. Well insulated from the outside world, to say the least.”

“Class of ‘34?”

“Yes. Another great year.”

“I was class of ‘34 at Barnard,” she said.

Palmer’s eyebrows went up slightly, then came slowly down. He wondered whether she had seen the movement, decided that she undoubtedly had and then, suddenly, wondered why he had bothered to try concealing it.

“I’d never believe it,” he said then. “You don’t look old enough.”

“I’m a few years younger than you, at any rate,” she said. “I was ahead of my class at Holy Name. Graduated when I was fourteen with a scholarship to Marymount, but we couldn’t afford me living out of town. My mother wouldn’t hear of me at a co-ed school like C.C.N.Y. I was just about to matriculate at Hunter when this Barnard thing came through, thanks to Paddy Culhane.”

Palmer sat forward slightly. “Why is that name familiar?”

“He was our old district captain in East Harlem”. “Any relation to Big Vic Culhane?”

She looked at him in vague amazement. “His father.”

“Did you know Big Vic?”

“Of course,” she said. “He went to the boys’ part of Holy Name”. “Ever seen him since?”

She frowned. “Many times. I used to be a newspaper gal, you know. Is something wrong?”

Palmer shook his head. “Not at all. Quite the contrary, if anything.”

She watched him for a moment, then sat back and folded her hands in her lap. “Anyway,” she said then, “that’s all there is to the history of Virginia Clary. Except that I’m working on my mother every spare moment I get, trying to wean her from this unreasoning hatred of banks.”

“You could have lied to her, told her you were working in a house of ill fame.”

“I thought of that,” she said. “But then she’d insist on me going to Mass every morning. It’s easier this way.”

Without warning, the waitress plopped menus in front of them with the question, “Dessert?”

“Just coffee,” Virginia Clary said. “The same.”

“You get dessert on the dinner,” the waitress reminded Palmer. “I know.”

“Loganberry shrub, luxuro peach smash, kumquat supreme huckleberries in wine.”

“Just coffee,” Palmer said, trying not to wince. “I may have some peanut-butter snowball left.”

“Just coffee, please.”

“Yes, sir.”

4.6.1 Comments

Schrafft – Шраффт

with pineapple-and-chestnut dressing – в соусе из ананасов и орехов

in semi-stricken voice – с полушутливом испугом

chicken loaf – куриная отбивная

vice versa – наоборот

Hollis – Холлис

armed truce – вооруженное перемирие

I was class of '34 at Barnard – Я кончала в 1934 году колледж Барнарда

4.6.2 Fill in the gaps with the prepositions: in, of to, on, at

1 Palmer had agreed to Schrafft’s… Virginia Clary’s suggestion.

2 … the time, her choice had seemed an admirable compromise between the need to be fed and the need to minimize, without any outright intrigue, the fact that they were eating together.

3 Although Virginia Clary could not be considered beautiful, she was certainly attractive enough, … a small, intense way.

4 We keep a kind … armed truce.

5 What happened … you in 1931?

4.6.3 Fill in the blanks with the following words: ahead, forgive, rate, attractive, hate

1 I’m a few years younger than you, at any…

2 I was … of my class at Holy Name.

3 Your mother can’t… that.

4 Virginia Clary could not be considered beautiful, Woods Palmer told himself now, she was certainly … enough, in a small, intense way.

5 People who haven’t yet learned to … their parents are quite rare in New York.

4.6.4 Write ten sentences using the following words: appreciation, recognition, suggestion, to admire, to warm, to quote, beautiful, attractive, charming, oldfashioned

4.6.5 Describe Virginia Clary’s appearance

4.6.6 Make up the dialogue between Clary and Palmer at the dinner

4.6.7 Answer the questions

1 Where did Virginia and Woods dine?

2 What did they eat for dinner?

3 What did the waitress offer for dessert?

4 Where did Virginia study?

5 Where did Virginia work?

4.6.8 Make up a dinner menu

4.6.9 Retell the text

4.7 Text 7

THE BANKER

After Leslie Waller (to be continued)

Virginia Clary and Woods Palmer sat in silence until the waitress had moved away.

“You’re a second-generation banker,” she said. “Third. My grandfather founded the bank.”

“None of us were quite sure why you were chosen over the heads of some of the old-timers around the shop, or a man from another New York bank who knew the local set-up. But I begin to see the logic of the choice.”

“The usual move,” Palmer explained, “is to pick a man who’s a senior partner in the law firm that represents the bank. The future of the world belongs to lawyers, anyway.”

“They picked you against a trend?” She thought for a moment. “I doubt it. I think they wanted somebody with banking in his blood.”

“I imagine I’ll have to take that as a compliment.” He sighed. “There’re a lot of things about being chosen by Ubco that still haven’t been answered to my satisfaction.”

“Such as?”

Palmer shrugged slowly. “Technical things,” he parried, unwilling to let the matter go any further. It was easy enough, he told himself, to let pleasant conversation with an agreeable dinner partner spill over into the exchange of confidences that weren’t meant for exchange. He glanced up at Virginia Clary. Not, he decided, that she’d divulge many confidences about herself. She looked too intelligent for that.

“If you’d – “

“Which reminds me,” Palmer cut in, determined to get away from his previous words, “we haven’t even begun making a dent in your colossal mound of banking ignorance.”

Her eyes widened in mock chagrin. “I’m beginning to feel like a terrible liability to the firm.”

“Take comfort from the fact that you probably know more than most of the people in the shop.”

“I know about interest rates and personal loans and amortization and the Federal

Reserve and like that,” she rattled off. “What am I missing?”

“As we say in public relations, the Big Picture.”

Palmer looked up as the waitress brought their coffee. He watched Virginia Clary add cream and sugar and stir it with slow, full sweeps of the spoon. “Something I said before,” he began then. “About money being as important to modern man as air and food. That’s the frame of reference you have to understand.”

“Believe me, no one has to explain the importance of money to me.”

“Let’s call it the necessity of money,” he amended.

“There are still places on earth where you can trade a dozen spearheads for a side of dried beef. But they’re not the places where history and progress are being made.”

“These miserable bartering folks have no A-bombs or moon rockets.”

He looked up at her. “You are baiting me again.”

“Sorry. Mother’s influence. I really do want to know.”

“Fine.” Palmer sipped his coffee and found it good. “As we get a more highly organized society, money begins to become more important than anything else. Eventually, we reach the stage we’re in now. Money buys a man the food he eats, the clothes on his back, care when sick, the roof over him, his education, his recreation, everything. Without money, he can’t even die properly, unless he wants to lie in Potter’s Field. It’s become that sharp a definition: without money, man cannot live or die with decency.”

“Is that good?”

“Probably not,” Palmer said. “But we are not philosophers, we’re bankers. We supply, safeguard, control and define the most precious commodity of life – money.”

“More precious than anything?”

“Suggest some other commodities.”

“Health?” she asked.

“Preserved and recovered through money.”

“I see. And things like, oh, love or hate. Money buys them.”

Palmer hunched himself forward until both his elbows rested on the small walnut table. “Try to understand that we’re not conducting a philosophical analysis. A man can live without love or hate. Without friends. Without the gratification of desires. But he cannot live, on the material Plane, without money.”

“That’s only one plane of living,” she demurred. “It’s the life – or – death plane.”

“Yes, but 1 want to get that on the record. It’s only in the material scheme of things that money is the most important.”

“All right. Granted.”

She eyed him closely. “You’re patronizing me,” she said then. “You don’t for a moment grant that life has any other plane than the material one.”

“Not for the purposes of this discussion, at any rate.”

She shook her head almost sadly. “You’re a very hard man to trap,” she admitted. “I’d hate to interview you for a newspaper.” She watched him for another moment and then gave up. “All right,” she said. “We’re bankers. We aren’t interested in anything but the material world.”

4.7.1 Vocabulary notes

interest rates – ставка процента

personal loans – ссуда частному лицу

amortization – амортизация, снашивание; погашение долга в рассрочку

commodity – предмет потребления, товар; продукт

4.7.2 Comments

Ubco – «Юнайтед Бэнк»

Potter's Field – Поттерс Филд – кладбище нищих

4.7.3 Fill in the gaps with the prepositions: on, over, without, up, for

1 Palmer looked … as the waitress brought their coffee.

2 Money buys a man the food he eats, the clothes … his back, care when sick, the roof … him, his education, his recreation, everything.