Phineas Taylor Barnum was, above all, a businessman, a showman, and a promoter. He was born in 1810 in Connecticut, the son of an innkeeper, tailor, and storekeeper. By the age of 12, he was already showing his talent for business by selling lottery tickets. Barnum tried his hand at various business ventures in New York City as an □□. Then in 1841, he opened Barnum’s American Museum. He displayed approximately 500,000 oddities and curiosities, including what he called the “Feejee Mermaid.” He claimed to have bought the embalmed mermaid from a sailor in Boston. The mermaid was obviously fake, but that didn’t seem to matter. Barnum was a success in arousing the public’s curiosity and imagination.

Barnum’s next great find was Charles Stratton. At the age of six months, Charles had stopped growing. He was 25 inches long and weighed 15 pounds. His parents and siblings were of average size, but by age of four, Charles was still the size of a baby. He immediately pastured the attention of P.T. Barnum, who correctly predicted the crowds that Charles would draw. Barnum nicknamed Charles “General Tom Thumb.” He taught the boy how to sing, dance, mime, and do impersonations. Tom Thumb was incredibly popular at the museum, just as his founder had hoped. The two went on tour in Europe and even appeared before the queen of England at one point.

In 1850, Barnum made yet another wise business decision. He had heard of a famous Swedish opera singer named Jenny Lind and decided to bring her to the U.S. Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale,” accepted Barnum’s generous offer of $1,000 per show for 150 shows. The offer was indeed generous for its time—but it didn’t compare to the $500,000 that Barnum earned in profits from Ms. Lind’s tour.

In 1868, Barnum’s museum caught on fire and burned down. Instead of rebuilding he museum, Barnum chose to ground “the greatest show on Earth”: P.T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Circus. It was Barnum’s goal to create a spectacle, something that would capture the attention of crowds. He wanted it to be big, and he wanted it to be one-of-a-kind. Barnum succeeded with his goals. His circus converted five acres and could seat 10,00 spectators. Within a year of the circus’s opening, Barnum had earned $400,000–quite a sum, especially in the 1870s.

Barnum continued to follow his instincts for business when he bought an elephant named Jumbo from the London Zoo in 1882. Jumbo free large crowds at Madison Square Garden. The giant elephant quickly earned back the $10,000 that Barnum had spent to purchase him. The common usage of the word jumbo today has its origins in Barnum’s popular elephant.

As Barnum aged, he saw the wisdom of merging with other showmen in the circus business. In 1881, he joined up with Hames Bailey and James Hutchinson. Barnum and Bailey parted ways in the mid-1880s and then teamed up again in 1888 with Barnum and Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth. Three years later, Barnum died in his sleep at the age of 81. It was fitting for this lifelong businessman to be concerned about his profits right up until the end. No one was surprised that in his last conversation, he asked about the totals form the performance the night before. P.T. Barnum was a showman through and through.

单词：

business venture- n. 企业

oddity- n. 奇怪的东西（oddities-复数）

nightingale- n. 夜莺

问题：

1. What is an early sign that P,T. Barnum would be a talented businessman?

2. Why do you think it didn’t matter that Barnum’s mermaid was fake?

3. What was unusual about Charles Stratton?

4. What does it mean to say that Barnum was a skilled promoter? Why was this important to his job?

5. Do you think Barnum would be able to make a living today by using the unusual physical characteristics of others?