I MADE IT MYSELF

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 1128.

It took months of planning, of trying to find the perfect paper, of mixing and remixing ink to get the right color, of printing and reprinting to get the right feel, but I did it. I made a perfect copy of a $ 100 bill.

During the days, I did regular print jobs at the shop. Then every evening at five o'clock, I sent my workers home, hoping no one would ask why I stayed late. I pulled out the paper, ink, and other equipment I hid away the night before and slowly, carefully worked until the sun came up. I didn't have time to sleep. I was too nervous to sleep anyway. As I worked, I worried about the Secret Service men coming to get me. In the beginning, as I prepared the paper, I said to myself, ‘I'm just printing little blue and red hair lines on paper. They can't arrest me for that.' Then as I printed the numbers, I said. ‘I'm just printing small numbers in four corners of a page. They can't arrest me for this.' Finally, as I got closer to printing something I could be arrested for, I began to wonder. ‘Is this really that bad? Who am I hurting? I'm making myself a few thousand dollars so I can take my boy and move to Puerto Rico. I'm just trying to do my best for my family. Is that so wrong?'

After about three weeks of slow work. I finally printed out a whole sheet of $100 bills. I took out a magnifying glass and studied my work. ‘No. Oh, Ben, no. Ben, you don't look right,' I said aloud to the empty shop. The portrait of Ben Franklin on the front of the bill just didn't look right. To most people, he probably looked like the one on the real bill. But I could see that it wasn't a perfect copy. I needed it to be perfect. So, slowly, painfully I started over.

A week later, I was printing the last of the bills. I didn't hear them come in because of the noise of the press. I just looked up from studying the now-perfect portraits of Ben Franklin to see a gun at my head and hear the Secret Service man say, ‘Just like getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar, huh, Mike?'

1) The title of the story is ‘I made it myself.' What does ‘it' refer to?

2) In the third paragraph, Landress says, ‘No. Oh, Ben, no.' Who is Ben? What was wrong?

3) In the fourth paragraph, Landress says, ‘I didn't hear them come in because of the noise of the press.' Who does ‘them' refer to?

4) The story ends with ‘Just like getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar, huh, Mike?' What do you think ‘getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar' means?

8.Linking the readings.

There are two kinds of counterfeiters: casual counterfeiters, like the fourteen-year-old boy in Scottsdale, Arizona, and professional counterfeiters like Mike Landress. Based on the readings, compare the two kinds of counterfeiters. Put checks. Explain your answers.