A 91-year-old widow in New York had a funny way of saving her money.
She stashed it in a zipper pocket in the arms of her old sofa. She felt it would be safe there.
And so it was, until one day when she was having some health problems and her family gave away the couch to a Salvation Army thrift shop without realizing how valuable it was.
That couch gave three young New Yorkers the thrill of their lives. When they bought a used couch and chair for $55, they thought they were just furnishing their living room.
They thought the arms seemed a bit lumpy. After they’d had the couch for awhile, one of the roommates decided to investigate the problem.
She opened a zipper on the arm of the couch and found some bills wrapped in “bubble wrap.” Her three other roommates opened the other one and found more money.
They counted it: $44,800 altogether.
There was a lot of screaming coming from the apartment after that, the roommates’ next-door neighbour told news service The Associated Press. Excited screaming.
One of the packages also contained a piece of paper with a woman’s name on it.
They called her and she told them that she’d hidden a lot of money in the sofa and she needed it back.
She cried when the three good Samaritans visited her to give the money back to her.
The three said they thought about keeping the cash, but wouldn’t have been able to live with themselves if they had.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Returning the money to the elderly woman was a good deed, but what would you have done in their shoes? Share a moment when your morality has been tested.
Reading Prompt: Reading Familiar Words
High frequency words like: of, it, the, she, or, and, that, etc. are words that we read all the time. I like to think of them as the glue of a text because they hold everything together and in the exact right spots. Reread today’s article and underline all of the high frequency words. Why might reading high frequency words fluently be a big part of understanding a text (comprehension)?
Primary
utomatically read and understand most high-frequency words, many regu- larly used words, and words of personal interest or significance, in a variety of reading contexts (OME, Reading: 3.1).
Junior
Automatically read and understand most words in common use (OME, Reading: 3.1).
Intermediate
Automatically read and understand most words in a wide range of reading contexts (OME, Reading: 3.1).
Language Feature: Synonyms
A synonym is a word with a similar meaning to another. For example, today’s article contains the synonyms: couch and sofa.
How many synonyms for “money” do you know? Make a list and compare it with a friend’s. Give yourself a point for all of your unique synonyms and see who wins.
