A printable worksheet for news-based English conversation classes.
Date: 2025/02/11
Difficulty: Intermediate B1
PDF: Man searches for lost bitcoin fortune in landfill
| fortune • | • government |
| accidentally • | • mistakenly |
| rubbish • | • money |
| council • | • trash |
| considering • | • thinking |
| landfill • | • dump |
| fortune | money |
| accidentally | mistakenly |
| rubbish | trash |
| council | government |
| considering | thinking |
| landfill | dump |
James Howells, a computer expert from Wales, has been trying for over ten years to recover a lost fortune. In 2013, he accidentally threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins. Today, they are worth about £600 million.
The hard drive ended up in a rubbish tip in Newport. Since then, Howells has asked the city council many times to let him search for it, even offering to share the money. However, the council refused, saying it became their property.
After losing a recent court case, Howells is now considering buying the landfill himself. The council plans to close the site and build a solar farm, making a search impossible.
| A: | Hey James, did you really throw away that hard drive? |
| B: | Yeah, I did. I can't believe it! |
| A: | What are you going to do now? |
| B: | I might buy the whole landfill. Crazy, right? |
| A: | That's one way to get your bitcoins back! |
| B: | Or maybe start a new business in rubbish digging! |