2016年职称英语考试卫生类阅读理解练习题3

2026-02-11

From Ponzi to Madoff

The year was 1920. The country was the United States of America. The man's name was Charles Ponzi. Ponzi told people to stop depositing money in a savings account. Instead, they should give it to him to save for them. Ponzi promised to pay them more than the bank. For example, a savings account might pay you $5 a year for every $100 you deposit. Ponzi, however, would pay you $40 a year for every $100 you gave him to hold. Many people thought this was a good plan. They began to give their money to Ponzi.

How could Ponzi make so much money for people? This is what he did with the money people gave him: He used some of that money to pay other people who gave him money. However, he also kept a lot of the money for himself. Soon he had $250 million. This was a kind of theft, and it was against the law. The people who gave him their money didn't think anything was wrong. Ponzi paid them every month, just like a bank. Ponzi continued this way of working for two years. Then one day, he didn't have enough money to pay all the people. They discovered his crime, and he went to prison for fraud.

Ninety years later, people began to hear about a businessman in New York named Bernard Madoff. People said he gave good advice about money. They said when they gave him their money, he paid them a lot more than the bank. Madoff helped hospitals, schools, and individuals earn money. Over a period of 40 years, people gave him $170 billion. However, no one investigated what he did with the money. The people who gave Madoff their money also didn't think anything was wrong because he paid them every month.

One day, Madoff didn't have enough money to pay all the people he needed to pay. That's when people discovered how Madoff worked: He was taking money from some people to pay other people, just the way Charles Ponzi did. However, this time, instead of losing millions of dollars, people lost billions.

Madoff was accused of fraud, and United States government officials arrested him. He didn't have to go on trial because he said he was guilty. In 2009, a judge sentenced him t0 150 years in prison. Bernard Madoff's crime was even bigger than Ponzi's. It was the biggest fraud in history. The lesson of this story is clear: When something seems too good to be true, it probably is!

31. For every $100, Ponzi promised to pay people

A. $5 a year.

B. $20 a year.

C. $40 a year.

D. $100 a year.

32. What did Ponzi do with the money people gave him?

A. He spent it all on things for himself.

B. He deposited it all in a bank.

C. He kept it all to save for a good plan.

D. He used some of it to pay other people.

33. What was Ponzi's crime?

A. He kept a lot of other people's money for himself.