A Simple Act PDF

ANCHOR TEXT | NEWS BLOG A Simple...

ANCHOR TEXT | NEWS BLOG A Simple Act Tyler Jackson BACKGROUND In a big city like New York, thousands of strangers from many different © by Savvas Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. SCAN FOR backgrounds cross paths every day. But they rarely stop on the street to MULTIMEDIA get to know each other. When people from very different places make the effort to connect, unexpected friendships can form. 1 I t was the first day of September in 1986, and the morning rain had given way to bright sunshine. A successful advertising executive made her way across 56th street toward Broadway, on NOTES the west side of Manhattan. A young boy—all of eleven years old and dressed in scruffy clothes—asked for some change for something to eat. Laura Schroff lowered her head and walked on; Manhattan was full of panhandlers, and she hardly even noticed them any more. A Simple Act 33  2 But something drew Laura back to the boy. She still doesn’t NOTES know what it was, but she calls it an “invisible thread.” There’s connects (kuh NEHKTS) v. an old Chinese proverb that says that an invisible thread connects joins together two people who are destined to meet and influence each other. Laura believes she felt that thread. She turned back from the influence (IHN floo uhns) v. middle of the street and took the boy to lunch. affect someone in an 3 The boy lived in a single room in a welfare hotel with his important way mother and numerous other relatives. It was only two blocks away from Laura’s home, but it might as well have been a different planet. As they talked over their lunch, Laura learned about the boy’s life. She herself had not had an easy childhood, but what she heard shocked her, and before she left, she told him to phone her if he was ever hungry. When she didn’t hear from him after several days, she returned to the spot they had met— and there he was, in the same clothes and too-tight sneakers. They arranged to meet again the next Monday. 4 Every Monday, Laura Schroff and Maurice Mazyck had dinner together. Some Mondays they ate at Laura’s home, and Maurice encouraged (ehn KUR ihjd) v. discovered a life he had only seen on television. Gradually, inspired; offered support to Laura became the young boy’s first role model. She encouraged him to have dreams about his future, and got involved in his bond (BAHND) n. uniting education. Maurice’s teacher was perhaps the only other person connection; link who believed in him, and she made Laura take a long hard look at what she was doing. Was she helping Maurice just as a way CLOSE READ of helping herself? Could she commit to being there for Maurice ANNOTATE: Mark the even when she didn’t feel like it? What kind of damage might questions included in it cause Maurice if she were to abandon him after becoming paragraph 4. so important to him? Laura thought it through, and came to a QUESTION: Why might decision. the author have included 5 The two continued sharing dinner every Monday, and a close these questions? bond formed between them. Laura introduced Maurice to new CONCLUDE: What effect places, new ideas, and new possibilities. And Maurice became do these questions have almost like the child Laura had always wanted. One day, she offered to make lunch for Maurice and leave it with her doorman © by Savvas Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. on Laura? for him to pick up on his way to school. He asked her if she could put the lunch in a brown paper bag, because then the other kids would know that someone cared about him. 6 Maurice had never left the city until Laura took him to visit her sister’s family on Long Island. Her memory of their trip is a favorite one. She had expected Maurice to be amazed by the huge 34 UNIT 1 GENERATIONS  front lawn and even larger backyard. But what amazed him the most was the large dining room table where they all sat down NOTES and talked and ate together. He declared that he wanted a table like that when he had a family of his own. Only months earlier, Maurice had seriously doubted that he would live to be an adult. 7 Laura and Maurice’s relationship lasted, and in 1997 a magazine published an article, less than one page long, about it. Laura’s friends suggested that she write a book telling the whole story. It was 10 years before she began writing—and another three years before she found a co-writer and started seriously getting down to business. The result of their work, An Invisible Thread, reached number one on the New York Times best sellers list. 8 Today, Maurice works in construction. He is the first person in his family to earn a paycheck. He has a family of his own, and his children are all very fond of their “Aunt Laurie.” If you were to visit the family’s apartment, you might notice that there is no couch in the living room. But there is a huge dining room table. 9 The writer Ernest Hemingway said, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” Over the years, Laura discovered the truth of that statement. She feels that Maurice has given her one of the greatest gifts she has ever had. He repaid her trust by giving her life more meaning than her success at work ever did. He taught her to be grateful for what she has, and for the chance to share it. ❧ © by Savvas Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Simple Act 35