听写

Even in the days when America was known as the New World, it was a country with a (1) for its spirit of enterprise and the ability of its people to make a good deal. When the settlers started negotiating, the (2) hardly knew what had hit them - and in the summer of 1626, probably the most spectacular real estate coup in history took place. Governor Peter Minuit of the Dutch West India Company had the job of buying Manhattan Island from the Indians. After some haggling with Chief Manhasset, the price was agreed at 24 dollars’ worth of (3).

Today, 24 dollars would not buy one square foot of office space in New York City, and an office (4) in central Manhattan changes hands for around 80 million dollars. Even allowing for inflation, Minuit got himself a real (5).

You would think that the Manhattan deal would remain a one-off forever. But less than two centuries later the loser was Napoleon, (6) of France and, in his early years at least, a brilliant military tactician. In 1803, Napoleon had his mind on European affairs, in particular an (7), so he decided to dispense with France’s American (8). He sold the entire Mississippi Valley, an area of 828,000 square (9) extending from Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico and westwards to the Rockies, for just over 27 million dollars. Through this deal, known as the Louisiana Purchase, President Thomas Jefferson (10) the size of the United States for only around 5 cents per acre.