Fiction · Level 1 · 117 words

The Umbrella Box

Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.

The rain started at three. Ren stood at the school door with no umbrella and ten blocks to walk.

Mr. Otis, the janitor, was mopping the hall. He looked at the rain, then at Ren. He took his own umbrella from a hook. "Take it," he said. "Bring it back tomorrow."

Ren brought it back dry the next morning. "Thank you," he said. "Pass the favor on," said Mr. Otis. "That is all the rent I charge."

On Saturday, Ren found two old umbrellas at home. On Monday he set a box by the school door with a sign: TAKE ONE. BRING IT BACK. By spring, the box held nine umbrellas, and no one walked home wet.

Comprehension questions

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4 questions
1. What is this story mainly about?

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A. A small kindness from a janitor grows into a box of umbrellas that helps the whole school.
The story moves from one lent umbrella to a box of nine. The turn is Mr. Otis's condition ("Pass the favor on") which Ren turns into something that keeps working without him. The rent line is a joke, not a price.

2. What does Mr. Otis mean by "That is all the rent I charge"?

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C. He wants no payment; passing the favor on is enough.
Rent is normally money paid for borrowing something. But Mr. Otis names his "rent" in the line just before: "Pass the favor on." He is saying the only cost of the loan is a kindness to someone else.

3. In "Pass the favor on," a "favor" is:

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B. a kind act done to help someone
The favor in the story is Mr. Otis lending his own umbrella to a stuck student, help given freely. The last choice is close but wrong: the umbrella is the thing; the favor is the act of lending it.

4. What did the sign on the box say?

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D. TAKE ONE. BRING IT BACK.
The text gives the sign in capital letters: "TAKE ONE. BRING IT BACK." The first choice mixes in Mr. Otis's spoken words, which never appear on the box.

Source: Written for Fluency. Original passage © Studio AM, written for Fluency.