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1. Work in pairs. Look at the photo of Aaron Levie. What type of company do you think Aaron Levie runs?
2. Read the first two paragraphs of the text and check your answer from exercise 1. Do you think "Box" is a good name for Aaron's company? Why? / Why not?
Reading StrategyWhen you do a task with gapped sentence, study the sentence after each gap and look for any connections with the missing sentence. For example, if it begins with but, there is a contrast. Other words suggest other types of connection: + similarity: so + cause/ result: so + a different option: or |
3. Read the Reading Strategy. Then look at the underlined words in the sentences after the gaps in the text. What kind of connection do they imply: contrast, similarity, cause / result, or a different option?
4. Read the text. Match sentences A–D with gaps 1–4 in the text. Use your answers from exercise 3 to help you.
A. Back in 2005, cloud storage was quite a new idea.
B. If you met him, you probably wouldn't realise that he is a multi-millionaire.
C. Most people of his age would lead an extravagant lifestyle if they had so much money.
D. He only goes to expensive restaurants if an important customer wants to eat there.
5. ☊2.32 Listen and check your answers to exercise 4.
6. Are these sentences true or false? Write T or F.
1. Aaron Levie lives in a luxury apartment.
2. Levie doesn't mind working long hours because he is really enthusiastic about the work.
3. Levie was a student when he co-founded the company Box.
4. Mark Cuban was the first businessman to invest in Box.
5. Since he became rich and successful, Levie's lifestyle has not changed very much.
7. VOCABULARY Match the highlighted words in the text with the definitions below.
Business
1. money received by a business or person _____
2. a business person who takes risks _____
3. money that a business or person needs for a particular purpose _____
4. the money a business makes after paying its expenses _____
5. the person in charge of a large company ____
6. formal agreements to do business _____
7. people who support a business by lending it money ____
8. SPEAKING Work in pairs. Ask and answer these questions. Give reasons for your answers and ask follow-up questions.
If you were a multi-millionaire,...
• would you live in a big house?
• would you work very long hours?
• would you go on expensive holidays?
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☊2.32
Aaron Levie loves tinned spaghetti. He lives in a small apartment. At the age of 27, his biggest luxury is his smartphone. (1) _____. However, as co-founder and CEO of Box, a successful IT company, he is worth about $100 million. He loves his job and works hard. Most days, he does not leave the office until after midnight.
Levie and his friend Dylan Smith started Box in 2005 while still at university. It offered a better way of storing data, cloud storage.
Like most new businesses, Box did not bring in much income at the start. When it began, Levie and Smith looked for funding, but couldn't find any investors. (2) _____. For that reason, nobody wanted to risk lending them money. Eventually, a well-down entrepreneur called Mark Cuban agree to put money into Box. Soon, Box grew quickly and had contracts with many of the biggest companies in the USA.
Now, Box has grown a lot and so have its profits, making Levie a multi-millionaire. (3) _____. But Levie says that it doesn't interest him. "I'm certainly not into money." (4) _____. Otherwise, he has lunch meetings in burger bars. "And l still like tinned spaghetti. I'd be happy if I had it every day.”
