A – Each paragraph has ONE mistake. Please detect and correct it.
1 - Even by the
dizzying standards of New York City philanthropy, a recent $6.24 million donation
was a whopper — the largest single gift from an individual to social service
group Henry Street Settlement in his 125-year history.
2 - It was not
donated by some billionaire benefactor, but by a legal secretary from Brooklyn
who worked for the same law firm since 67 years until she retired at age 96 and
died not long afterward in 2016.
3 - Her name was
Sylvia Bloom and even her closest friends and relatives had any idea she had
amassed a fortune over the decades.
4- She was a
secretary in an era when they ran their boss’s lives. So when the boss bought a stock, she made the
purchase for him, and then bought the same stock for herself, but in a smallest
amount because she was on a secretary’s salary.
5 - Due to Ms.
Bloom never talked about this, the fact that she had carefully cultivated more
than $9 million among three brokerage houses and 11 banks, emerged only at the
end of her life.
6 - Ms. Bloom, which
never had children of her own, was born to eastern European immigrants and grew
up in Brooklyn during the Great Depression.
7 - On 1947 she
joined a Wall Street law firm as one of its first employees. Over her 67 years
with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, the firm grew to its current size,
with more than 1,200 lawyers, as well as hundreds of staff members, of which
Ms. Bloom was the longest tenured.
8 - Established in 1946, Cleary Gottlieb Steen
& Hamilton has grown to become an international powerhouse and a go-to-firm for
nations that are having trouble pay their debts.
9 - Ms. Bloom’s
husband, Raymond Margolies, who died in 2002, was a city firefighter who
retired and become a city schoolteacher.
10 -Nearly all the
money was in Ms. Bloom’s name alone and it is very possible that Mr. Margolies
did not know the size of her wife’s fortune.
B – Please fill
in the blanks with suitable words
The couple
lived modestly a rent-controlled apartment, though she could have lived on Park Avenue if she had wanted
to.
Ms. Bloom was
known always taking the subway to work, even the morning of the Sept. 11, 2001
terror attacks on the World Trade Center, not far from the firm’s offices.
That day, Ms.
Bloom, 84, fled north and took refuge in
a building before walking over the Brooklyn Bridge and taking a city bus — not
a cab — home.
Paul Hyams,
the human resources executive for Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, who
became good friends Ms. Bloom over his 35 years working the same law firm said that just before she
retired, he saw the 96-year-old Ms. Bloom walking out of the subway and heading
work the
middle of a fierce snowstorm. “I said, ‘What are you doing here?’ and she said,
‘Why, where should I be?’” he recalled.
Still, he
said, he was “completely astounded” to learn
her wealth after her death.
“She never
talked money and she didn’t live the high life,” he said. “She wasn’t showy and
didn’t want call attention to herself.”
A lover of
chocolate but not lavish presents, she only accepted his gifts of special
chocolate small quantities.
“She was a
child of the Depression and she knew what it was like not to have money. She
had great empathy other people who were needy and wanted everybody have a fair shake.”
C – How about
asking questions to get the underlined answers?
1 - Sylvia Bloom worked for the same law firm for 67 years.
2 - No, her
closest friends and relatives had no idea she had amassed a fortune over the
decades.
3 - She did this by observing the investments made by the lawyers she served.
4 - Ms. Bloom, who never had children of her own,
was born to eastern European immigrants and grew up in Brooklyn during the Great Depression.
5 - She attended public schools, including Hunter
College, where she completed her degree at night while working days to make ends meet.
6 -The Henry Street Settlement was founded in 1893 by the public health pioneer Lillian Wald.
7 - Henry Street Settlement serves more than 60,000 people and
provides an array of services in addition to its education support, including
health care programs and transitional housing.
8 - In 1947 she joined a fledgling Wall Street
law firm as one of its first employees.
9 - Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has grown
to become an international powerhouse with more than 1,200 lawyers, as well as hundreds of staff members.
10 - On September 11, 2001, the day of the terror
attacks on the World Trade Center, Ms. Bloom, at 84, fled north and took refuge in a building before walking over the
Brooklyn Bridge and taking a city bus — not a cab — home.
D – Write Sylvia’s
letter thanking the firm for the reception
From The New York Times (edited)
