Secondary Plus

Secrets & Clues

Student B

Make your partner guess the word in the table without saying the word itself by completing
the sentence about it using a relative pronoun

that which where when who whom whose why

No. Secret Clue

1
2 Victor Lustig This was the man…
3
4 a newspaper article This was the place…
5
6 André Poisson This was the businessman…
7
8 Austria This was the country…
9
10 he was too embarrassed This was the reason…
11
12 The USA This was the country…

Example

B: Number 2. This was the man who carried out the scam.

A: Victor Lustig?

B: Correct. Your turn.

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© British Council | XX.X XX
 Secondary Plus

The Eiffel Tower Scam

In 1925, Victor Lustig was staying in Paris when he came across a newspaper article
about the problems of maintaining the Eiffel Tower. The iron landmark was incredibly
expensive to keep clean and there was a strong possibility that the government would
have to take it apart and sell the metal. This gave Lustig an idea. He pretended to be a
government official and set up a meeting with six wealthy businessmen who ran
companies selling second-hand metal. He explained that the Eiffel Tower was for sale and
told them that he had been asked to find a buyer. He also insisted that they kept the deal a
secret because it was controversial and not all Parisians agreed with the decision. The
man who Lustig chose to sell the tower to was André Poisson, who seemed the least
intelligent of the metal dealers. Poisson handed over the money for the tower and Lustig
left the country. He hid in Austria, where he regularly checked the French newspapers in
case his victim told the police, but Poisson was too embarrassed to tell anyone he had
been tricked. A few months later, Lustig returned to Paris, where he decided to try and pull
off the scam once again. This time, however, things didn’t go according to plan and the
police were informed. The deal didn’t go ahead, and Lustig escaped to the USA as fast as
he could.

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© British Council | XX.X XX