Reading

Reading

1   Read the article about Mickey Mouse, and for questions 1–5 circle the correct answers A–D.

MICKEY MOUSE

Mickey Mouse was born in Walt Disney’s imagination early in 1928 on a train from New York to Los Angeles.

Walt was returning with his wife from a business meeting at which he had lost the rights to his earlier cartoon character, Oswald the Rabbit. Being only twenty-six and with an active cartoon studio in Hollywood, Walt had gone east to arrange for a new contract and more money to improve the quality of his Oswald pictures. The bosses from Universal Pictures said ‘no’, and since the character was copyrighted under their name, they could control it.

‘So, I had lost Oswald and had nothing,’ Walt said later. He knew he had to invent a new cartoon character. Then he remembered the mice running around the studio. As a result, he created a character similar to Oswald only with round ears instead of long rabbit ears. ‘I had this mouse in the back of my head because a mouse is sort of a friendly character, in spite of the fact that everybody’s frightened of mice, including myself.’ Walt spent the return train ride making up a little mouse in red trousers and named him Mortimer, but his wife, Lillian, thought the name was too serious and suggested Mickey.

When he returned to his studio, Walt and his head animator, Ub Iwerks, immediately began work on the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane Crazy. The enthusiasm with which the small staff completed the project disappeared when nobody wanted to buy the film. Refusing to give up, Walt went on to produce another Mickey Mouse cartoon, Gallopin’ Gaucho.

However, late in 1927, Warner Brothers made The Jazz Singer – the first ‘talking film’. Walt soon realised that this was the end of silent films, so he stopped everything to begin a third Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steamboat Willie; this one with sound. To record the sound, Walt had to take his film to New York, since no one on the West Coast was able to do it. Walt offered to do the voice himself. He invested everything he had into the film. When finally completed, Walt showed it in New York.

      1   In 1928, Walt Disney …

      2   Mickey Mouse …

      3   Disney’s wife suggested changing the character he made because …

 4   The first Mickey Mouse cartoon …

 5   The purpose of the text is to …