Page 59 - E-module IC Reading

In the following section you will read another factual recount.

Individual Note Making and Rewriting
Following is a factual recount of Steve Morgan–a multimillionaire who used to live in a
caravan. Read it and guess the meaning of the unfamiliar words from the context.

Steve Morgan, a multimillionaire founder of
a massive house building company from
Garston, Liverpool, lived in a caravan with
no electricity or water for three years and
didn't have an indoor toilet until the age of
seven. [1]
He regularly arrived late to school after
delivering 120 papers on the 15-mile rounds,
and ultimately leading to him being kicked
out of school for fight with the prefect. With
too low a threshold for boredom to become
an accountant, and not good enough eyesight
to be a fighter pilot, Steve got a job on a
building site. He fell in love with everything
about construction, and worked his way up
to become a site manager by 19. [2]
When the civil engineering company he worked for in Liverpool took on a
council contract to build a sewage system, which they weren't able to
complete, 21-year-old Steve set up Redrow to do it for them. With £5,000
investment from his dad’s business, Steve finished the job ahead of schedule
and made a profit of £5,000, which would be worth more than £38,000 in
2021. [3]
Redrow eventually expanded from roads, sewers, factories and offices to
building council and housing association homes. By the time he stepped down
as chair of Redrow in 2019, after 45 years with the company, it had a revenue
of £2.1bn. [4]
Steve more recently earned the title of "disruptive philanthropist". His first
foray into charity was in 1996 when he stopped taking a salary from Redrow,
instead donating what he would have earned to Alder Hey Children's Hospital
for a new oncology unit there. He also used his money to set up the Steve
Morgan Foundation in 2001 to make a difference to the lives of those suffering
from disability or disadvantage. Since then, he's donated to hundreds of
charities. [5]
298 words, adapted from “Multi-millionaire once lived in caravan with no electricity or water”, by
Danny Rigg & Sam Ormiston, https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/multi-millionaire-once-lived-caravan-
27446385

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