A New Group Project
1
Lorena, Ana, and Sergio were discussing a group history project during their walk home from school. They couldn’t come to a consensus about who would handle each part of the assignment, and they were starting to get frustrated with one another. The friends got a brief reprieve from their debate when Lorena noticed a nice-looking cellphone lying on the sidewalk. Ana scooped it up and thumbed the screen to see if they could find out who it belonged to, but the phone was locked.
2
“There's a crumpled pizza receipt right next to where it was, so it must belong to someone who was leaving the pizzeria,” Sergio said. “Whoever it was must not have been paying attention and dropped both things at the same time.”
3
Ana looked around and, spotting the bus stop several feet away, said, “No, I bet it belongs to someone who was running to catch the bus. This is the only bus I know that’s always ahead of schedule, so I'm guessing it’s someone who isn’t from around here and thought they had more time. Whoever it is, they’re probably freaking out by now.”
4
As Ana presented her theory, Lorena eyed their apartment building, which was right next to the pizzeria and also very close to where the phone was dropped. “I think you’re both overthinking it. It's so close to the steps, it’s gotta belong to someone from our building. Let’s just put up a note on the door and it'll be no big deal.”
5
Ana and Sergio clearly disagreed, and soon they were all talking over one another and raising their voices, just like they'd been doing before they found the phone. Sergio wanted to turn the phone in at the pizzeria, while Ana wanted to call the bus line to report the phone found. Lorena insisted they were both overreacting and said they would only make the problem worse if they took the phone away when its owner would probably show up again looking for it.
6
After about five minutes of nonstop argument, Lorena took a deep breath and said, “Okay, okay—we’re all friends, practically family, so let’s not act like this.” Ana and Sergio paused. They looked at one another and then slowly nodded in agreement and gave each other a fist bump of peace. Lorena smiled and said, “We all agree that the most important thing to do is to return the phone to its owner, right? Then let’s treat this like a group project. We’ll keep the phone safe and try to find out who lost it. Now, who’s going to do what?”
7
Ana took a notebook out of her backpack and volunteered to make flyers to hang around the spot where they found the phone. Sergio volunteered to talk to Mr. Martinez, the owner of the pizzeria, about keeping the phone safe until the owner came to claim it. Lorena thought about all of their theories and volunteered to call the bus line to report the phone just in case.
Three children sitting next to each other on the floor. From left to right, a girl is holding a mobile phone and a pen, another girl is removing paper from her bag, and a boy is holding a flyer that says 'found phone'.
8
Mr. Martinez agreed to keep the phone and allowed the friends to hang flyers in and around his store. They also put flyers all around the apartment building and by the bus stop and then celebrated a job well done. It was already dinnertime, so they decided to wait until the next day to work on their history project.
9
The next day, Lorena, Ana, and Sergio stopped at the pizzeria after school to check on the phone. Its owner was just picking it up when they walked in. Her name was Rocio, and she told them she saw a "Found Phone" flyer on the bus stop. It turned out that she had lost her phone while walking home from the corner bodega with her groceries the day before. The friends’ theories had all been wrong—but they'd still found the owner of the phone. Rocio was so grateful to have her phone back, she bought Lorena, Ana, and Sergio a pizza to share.
10
Happy with the outcome of the phone adventure, the friends finally returned to the topic of their history project as they ate. This time, they decided to skip the bickering and make a plan that would work for everyone.
Multiple Select Question
Which TWO sentences from the passage show that the friends value shared goals?
A.
They couldn’t come to a consensus about who would handle each part of the assignment, and they were starting to get frustrated with one another.
B.
“Okay, okay—we’re all friends, practically family, so let’s not act like this.”
C.
“We all agree that the most important thing to do is to return the phone to its owner, right?"
D.
It was already dinnertime so they decided to wait until the next day to work on their history project.
E.
This time, they decided to skip the bickering and make a plan that would work for everyone.
B. “Okay, okay—we’re all friends, practically family, so let’s not act like this.”
C. “We all agree that the most important thing to do is to return the phone to its owner, right?"