Some found veins of mountain rock thick with gold . These men got rich .

　　Others “panned” for gold in the mountain streams , They were looking for the leftovers . They searched for chunks of gold that the rains had washed down from above .

　　Panning was the only way to find gold . One put dirt in a pan and added water . Then the pan was swished around so that the water could wash the dirt . Slowly , the water was poured out of the pan . Each one hoped that the place he claimed “panned out well” 棗nthat is , turned up gold .

　　The word California gold rush the miners turned to farming and ranching （牧业）. Some left for the state of Colorado where gold also had been discovered . For many , gold mining did not “pan out” . For a few , it panned out well . But in time , huge machines were built that could wash many tons of dirt at a time , “Panning” died out .

　　The word , however , remained in the language . Today , Americans still say , “It panned out well ,” when something they have done pleases them .

　　In recent years , “pan” has taken on another meaning . Today , it also means to criticize . How it got this meaning is hard to discover . But critics （批评家）are always “panning” some writer , artist or singer .

　　Sometimes , critics may pan a movie or play so severly that no one will go to see it . This can also happen to a book , if critics pan it strongly enough , There have been times , however , when a play became highly successful , even though most of the critics panned

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