Chapter 5 of 18 · 4'59"
The merger isn't a love story — it's a supply chain. David accuses his brother of trading him away for sugar cane: "I'm supposed to be offered up as a human sacrifice on the altar of industrial progress, is that it?" Linus doesn't argue; he just shows off the plastic, and lets the wedding date do the talking.
David Names the Trade
❝ Monologue · 5 lines Linus Defends the Urge
David pushes past Miss McCardle to see his brother. Linus is in a meeting about the plastics deal and won't be interrupted — not even by a family matter. Unimpressed, David brings up the newspaper item about him and Elizabeth Tyson, and Linus turns the talk to plastic samples: scratch-proof, flame-proof, and strong enough to stand on.
The scene is a business negotiation wearing a family argument's clothes. David thinks he's there to fight about a wedding; Linus keeps answering with product. He shows a plastic that "doesn't burn, doesn't scorch, doesn't melt," stages a weight test with the secretaries, and only then mentions "a summer wedding so we can get in on this year's sugar crop." David finally names the trade — "Mr Tyson owns the sugar cane, you own the formula for the plastics" — and Linus half-admits it with a joke about a hot dog dynasty marrying a mustard king. What stings is the last line, delivered flat: "I think you're going to be very happy, David." Linus isn't asking. He's already signed.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“Mr Tyson owns the sugar cane, you own the formula for the plastics, and I'm supposed to be offered up as a human sacrifice on the altar of industrial progress, is that it?”
He lays out the whole trade and then names himself the sacrifice, all in one breath.
Informal
“You make it sound so vulgar, David. As if the son of the hot dog dynasty were being offered in marriage to the daughter of the mustard king.”
Hot dogs and mustard cut a grand merger down to a joke between two food stands.
literary
“Money is the by-product.”
Four words demote profit to a side effect; the confidence is the whole point.
Formal
“I have no intention of marrying Elizabeth Tyson.”
The formal phrasing makes the refusal colder and more final.
Formal
“If making money were all there was to business, it'd hardly be worthwhile going to the office.”
A hypothetical sentence dismisses profit as a motive and makes room for ambition.
Formal
“What's wrong with the kind of an urge that gives people libraries, hospitals, baseball diamonds and movies on a Saturday night?”
He lists ordinary joys to defend ambition, and the question dares anyone to object.
Formal
“This is my home. No wife would ever understand it.”
He calls the office home and rules out any wife understanding it, half excuse, half confession.
Neutral
A new product has been found, something of use to the world, and so a new industry moves into an undeveloped area. Factories go up, machines are brought in, a harbour is dug, and you're in business. It's purely coincidental, of course, that people who never saw a dime before suddenly have a dollar and barefooted kids wear shoes and have their teeth fixed and their faces washed. What's wrong with the kind of an urge that gives people libraries, hospitals, baseball diamonds and movies on a Saturday night?
Up next · 06could've swornThe scene: David Flirts With a StrangerHe's being pushed into it for business reasons. The Tysons own sugar cane, the Larrabees want the plastics deal, and David sees himself as the payment — hence "human sacrifice."
Effectively. David hasn't proposed and Elizabeth hasn't accepted, but Linus says he already proposed and Mr Tyson accepted, and the wedding is planned around the sugar crop.
It reveals the real deadline. The summer wedding is timed to the harvest so the Larrabees can profit from this year's cane — proof the marriage is part of the business plan.
The scene ends with Linus assuming so — he even toasts David's future happiness. David never gets a real chance to refuse, because the plans are already in motion.
Linus's secretary. She blocks David at the door ("I have my orders"), takes Linus's calls, and later brings in the secretaries for the plastic weight test.
