Latest / Spotlight English: Advanced / The Lottery: Big Money or Big Problem (Advanced Program)

Transcript

The Lottery: Big Money or Big Problem (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Andrew Davis.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: And I'm Gillian Woodward. Spotlight uses a special English method
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: William Post did not have an easy life. His mother
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: died when he was young. After that, his father sent
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: him away. When he grew up, he worked any job
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: he could find. One day, William had only forty dollars.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: He decided to spend all forty dollars on a chance
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: to win a lot of money in the lottery.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: William Post's life changed that day he won sixteen million dollars.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: He thought his life would now be perfect, but later
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: he described his win this way.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Every person dreams of winning money, but no one understands
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: the problems. They come from places you cannot even see.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: William's life did change after winning, but in a bad way.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: He spent a lot of money on things he did
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: not need. He bought houses, cars, and televisions. Everyone began
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: to ask him for money. People even took him to
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: court to get it. William lost all his money. He
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: was one million dollars in debt by the time he died.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: He told reporters that the money did not make his
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: life better or easier. I was much happier when I
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: did not have any money.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Today's spotlight is on the lottery. Lotteries are a popular
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: kind of gaming. There are different ways to decide the
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: winner of a lottery, but the basic rules are the
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: people buy a ticket or piece of paper with numbers
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: on it. Then the winning numbers are chosen by chance.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: If your numbers are the same as the winning numbers,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: you receive the prize money.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: There are lotteries all around the world. Many lotteries are
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: managed by the government. Most of these lotteries give some
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of the money raised by ticket sales for education, roads,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: or other government programs. In large lotteries, this can be
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: millions of dollars.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: However, some people argue that these lotteries do not help
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: countries as much as they seem to. These people admit
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: that lotteries provide money for social programs, but a government
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: may not give as much tax money to social programs
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: because of the lottery money. Then if the lottery stops
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: or if people play less, the programs will not survive.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Valerie Strauss is a reporter. She spoke to the Washington
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Post about lottery funding in the United States.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Instead of using the money as extra funding, the government
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: has used lottery money to pay for the education budget.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: They spend the money that would have been used had
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: there been no lottery cash on other things.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: But government lotteries are not the only kind of lottery.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: There are also illegal lotteries. People print pieces of paper
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: that look like real lottery tickets, but they never declare
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: a winner. They keep the money. Other illegal lotteries may
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: declare a winner, but only award a small amount of
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the money collected. Because illegal lotteries are not managed by
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the government, the people running them can do whatever they want.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: More and more illegal lotteries are using the Internet. A
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: person may get an email or text message inviting them
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: into a worldwide lottery. Sometimes the email says that the
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: person has already won. They only need to go to
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: a website and buy a chance to win, but light
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: the lottery with false tickets. This illegal lottery will not
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: give anyone prize money.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Imagine you had an extra ten dollars each week you
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: are thinking about playing a lottery. The idea of winning
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: millions of dollars is tempting. You could do a lot
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: of things. If you won, you could help a lot
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: of people, and it would be nice not to have
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: to worry about earning money. So is it a good
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: idea for you to play that lottery?
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: It is important to understand the chances of winning. The
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: reason that most lotteries can offer so much money is
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: because the chance of winning is so small. One of
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: the largest lotteries in the world is called Mega Millions.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: It only costs one dollar to play and it offer
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: very large prizes. However, the chance of winning the highest
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: prize is one in two hundred and ninety million. To
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: win a smaller prize like two hundred dollars, the chances
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: are a little better, one in fourteen thousand.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Here is a comparison. A person is more likely to
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: be hit by lightning or to be killed by a
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: dog than to win the lottery. For every kilometer a
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: person drives in the car, they are six times more
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: likely to be killed than to win a lottery like
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Mega Millions.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: If there is so little chance of winning, why do
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: people continue to play. One reason is that many lottery
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: games have additional prizes of one or two dollars. When
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: people play the lottery, these small wins make them feel good.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: They remember the wins and forget the losses.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Also, studies show that poor people buy more lottery tickets
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: than rich people. Many poor people do not understand how
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: unlikely it is they will win. Even if they do,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: they may play the lottery anyway. It may be that
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: poor people do not have the resources to help themselves.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: They may play the lottery for an emotional reason. They
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: may see the lottery as their only hope for a
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: better future. David just is a teacher of economics at
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Cornell University. He told CNN it.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: Is an investment. It may not be a good investment,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: but to people with limited resources, this may be the
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: only way that they have to sort of dream big,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: to think that something, something great is going to happen,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: something that will just change everything.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: But the lottery is not the only thing people can
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: do with money. Over a long time, saving money can
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: add up. If a person took the ten dollars they
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: spend on lottery tickets and saved it, after twenty years,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: they would have over ten thousand dollars. If that ten
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars was invested wisely, it could increase to thirty
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars. This is not millions of dollars, but it
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: is real money and it could help pay for a
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: home or an education.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Everyone wonders what will happen in the future. We think
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: that by winning the lottery, we will know that our
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: future will be great. But money cannot prevent accidents from happening.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: It cannot stop people from getting sick. The story of
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: William Post shows that money can solve some problems, but
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: it causes other problems.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: What do you do when you worry about the future.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Do you think about money? What else helps assure you
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: about your future? You can leave a comment on our
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: website at www dot spots dot com. You can also
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and x You can
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: The writer of this program was from the Spotlight team.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: The producer was Michyo Azarki. The voices you heard were
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: program is called the Lottery, Big Money or Big Problem.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again for the next
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Spotlight program, Goodbye,