Mystery and Detective Stories

LA WEB DE LISTENING COMPREHENSION PREFERIDA POR LOS HISPANOPARLANTES

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The Case of the
Cave Paintings

2m 05s - 1.03 MB wma
American English

Click on PLAY to listen / Haz clic en REPRODUCIR

TILFORD:

Oh God, DeLator. This time I'm going to make us both rich!

DELATOR:

Oh? What is it this time?

TILFORD:

Well, you've heard of the caveman paintings in the Cave of Font de Gaume in France? Well, my associate, Sebastian Delsolo, has found the greatest ever example of prehistoric art in a cave on a farm in Spain.

DELATOR:

Oh... What part of Spain is it in?

TILFORD:

I can't divulge the exact location yet. But we can buy the farm for next to nothing, my friend. The farmer doesn't suspect anything. Think of the fortune we can make from tourists!

Then Barney passed three photos to me and said...

TILFORD:

Look! Sebastian had to push through subterranean water channels as far down as four thousand feet to photograph those drawings!

The first photo Barney showed me was of a drawing of a woolly rhinoceros; the second was of hunters attacking a dinosaur; and the third was of a drawing of a charging mammoth. Then he continued...

TILFORD:

The cave artist worked by light from a stone lamp that was filled with fat and fitted with a wick of moss. He used pieces of red and yellow ochre for drawing, and he ground them and mixed them with animal fat for painting.

DELATOR:

How much would it cost to buy the farm?

TILFORD:

Fifty thousand dollars. But you can have a third share of everything for a mere ten thousand dollars, my friend.

DELATOR:

A third of nothing, you mean. I won't give you a dime!

Source: English Teaching Forum

TRY TO SOLVE THIS MYSTERY

Why didn't Dr. Delator want to buy a share
of his friend's money-making scheme?

came up with: proposed; suggested (venía con)
get-rich-quick schemes: plans to get rich quickly (ideas para hacerse rico rápidamente)
the greatest ever: the greatest one that has ever existed (las más grande que haya existido)
caveman paintings: artistic compositions made by prehistoric men (pinturas rupestres)
hunters: people who hunt game (cazadores)
charging: excited, agitated (enfurecido)
for next to nothing: for very little money (por poco dinero)

fat: grease (grasa animal)
wick of moss: a cord of moss (una mecha de musgo)
ground them: powderized them (las pulverizó)
a third share: one-third of the whole (30%; un tercio)
a dime: a ten-cent piece; the meaning is "I won't give you anything!" (un céntimo)