Blue Jeans

(Intermediate/Advanced Level)

I. Pre-reading

Do you wear blue jeans? Are they popular in your country?

Which brands of jeans are you familiar with?

II. Vocabulary

rivets durable consistent

permanent recognized synonymous
sturdy creator content

III. Reading

Blue jeans are so widely recognized as typically American that the nation’s
chief storehouse of Americana, the Smithsonian Institution, keeps several
pairs in its permanent collection. Their creator was a young dry-goods
peddler named Levi Strauss, who had followed the Forty-Niners to
California in 1850, intending to sell them tent canvas. When he discovered
that they needed sturdy pants much more than tents, he began turning the
canvas into “waist overalls” and soon set up shop in San Francisco.

His business took off, and a lesser man might have been content, but Levi
had his sights on perfection. In the next decade he introduced three design
changes that were to make the name levis synonymous the world over with
“blue jeans.” One was the addition of the reinforcing rivets that have
remained his company’s trademark. Another was the substitution for canvas
of a durable cotton called serge de Nimes, named for its French town of
origin. The “de Nimes” cloth soon became “denim.” The third was the use
of an indigo dye that he found he could depend on for consistent color, and
thus the “blue” jean was born.
(Adapted from: Curious Customs by Tad Teuleja)

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IV. Post-reading

Fill in the blanks.

1. Blue jeans are recognized as being typically
_________________.
2. Strauss realized the men needed pants more than
________________.
3. A trademark of the Strauss blue jean is
reinforcing ________________.
4. Levi Strauss was originally a dry goods
________________.
5. Strauss went to California in
________________.

V. Activities
1. Look up the Smithsonian Institute in the encyclopedia. What is
it? Where is it? Why would they have blue jeans?

2. Discuss the three design changes that made levis synonymous

with blue jeans.

3. Discuss what life was like among the gold miners in California
in the 1850’s. Find books in the library about this period in
history.

4. In the second paragraph, what do you think the idiom “took

off” means? What about “set up shop” at the end of the first
paragraph? Discuss with your tutor.

5. Who were the Forty-Niners and why were they called that?

6. Write a few sentences about the role blue jeans

play in your family. Who wears jeans in your
family? How often? What brand?

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