UNIT 7 - the future tense using will

Howard Hughes was one of the most interesting figures of the 20th century. He was born on Christmas Eve, 1905 in Houston, Texas, to very wealthy parents - his father owned a large oil-drilling company. He was a brilliant child and was always top of the class at school. After leaving school he studied engineering at the California Institute of Technology and at the Rice Institute of Technology in Houston

When he was just 17 his father died and the young Hughes inherited $750,000 and became the Managing Director of the family firm, the Hughes Tool Company. Hughes wanted more from life than being a businessman and in 1926, at the age of 20, he moved to Hollywood and used his great wealth to become a film producer.

He was just 20 when he married Elli Rice, but their marriage lasted less than three years, and they divorced in 1928. His career as a film producer was very successful. The most well-known of his films were "Hell’s Angels", in 1930, and "The Front Page", one year later. In 1941 he made a film called "The Outlaw", which created a scandal. The film starred the actress Jane Russell.

The great love in Howard Hughes’ life was aviation. He was fascinated by aeroplanes. He loved flying them and he also used his engineering skills to design them. In 1933, while he was living in Hollywood, he worked as an airline pilot - he changed his name for this job because he wanted it to be a secret. Hughes was the founder of the Hughes Aircraft Company and he started to design planes. As a pilot he broke many speed records - and in 1935 he became the fastest pilot in the world when he flew at 563 km/h. He also set a record for flying round the world - he did it in 91 hours and 14 minutes in 1938 and President Roosevelt gave him a special aviation award. During the Second World War he designed and manufactured war planes. Perhaps the most famous plane he designed was the eight-engined flying boat, The Spruce Goose, designed to carry 750 passengers - it flew just once.

Hughes had a wide range of business interests - he controlled Trans World Airlines from 1959 until 1966 and he owned many hotels and casinos in Las Vegas.

In 1958 he disappeared from public life and lived in complete seclusion. He did all his business through a close circle of associates. He became paranoid about germs and lived in complete privacy and security in luxury hotels. He ate very little and used a lot of drugs.

On April 5th, 1976, while in an aeroplane travelling from Mexico to Texas, his heart finally stopped beating - the drugs he used had killed him. He left over 2 billion dollars.

7. Exercises for sending to your instructor

Vocabulary

First, southern England. It’ll be cool and sunny in the morning and it’ll become warmer in the afternoon. In the evening there will be some cloud and you can expect scattered showers. Temperatures will be around 8 degrees Centigrade in the morning, rising to 17 degrees in the afternoon. Central England and Wales. There’ll be frost in some areas this evening, so the morning will be quite cold in most places. It’ll become slightly warmer by mid-day but heavy clouds will move in from the west and it will be rainy for most of the afternoon. It’ll be quite windy and the skies will clear by late afternoon or early evening and there will be some sunshine. Temperatures will be around 4 degrees in the morning, rising to about 12 degrees in the afternoon.
	Northern England. The heavy rain of the last few days will continue all day tomorrow. But there is some good news, towards the evening the clouds will start to clear and the rain will lessen, and by late evening the skies will clear and you should have a sunny day on Wednesday. Temperatures will be around 4 degrees in the morning, rising to 10 in the afternoon. Scotland. The weather in Scotland tomorrow will be about the same as today. The morning will start off sunny but quite cold, but in the afternoon there will be rain in most areas. There will be more snow in the Highlands, so at least the skiers can be happy. Temperatures will be between 3 and 5 degrees in the Lowlands and southern Scotland, and in northern Scotland and the Highlands the temperatures will be around zero or minus 1.