Ann’s husband Ken decided to sell his stereo speakers and put an advertisement in their local newspaper. Ann told him that she didn’t like the idea because she had heard horror stories of strangers calling and coming to your home and doing harm to your family. So Ken told her that he would deal (あ) it all and there would be nothing to worry about.

The phone started ringing right (い). A very polite young man named Jason showed up on their doorstep to look at the speakers. The two men agreed on $450 for the speakers, but Jason said that he would not have the full amount till payday on Friday. He paid twenty dollars and promised to pay the rest on Saturday, when he would come again to pick up the speakers.

On Wednesday, however, Jason called while Ken was (う) work. He explained that he had gotten the money early and wanted to pick up the speakers that evening. Ann wasn’t sure what to do. “I did not want to do this, and (A)knowing he would arrive after dark made me more anxious.　I thought about telling our neighborhood police patrol that this stranger was coming over, but I told myself that I was just being too worried.”

At 8:30, Jason appeared and handed her some bills and coins. “I’m two dollars short. Can I give it to you in quarters*?”

She held out her hand, not counting (B)the money in her other hand. She just moved the corners enough and saw that it looked like four hundred-dollar bills, two tens, a five, and some ones. Within minutes the speakers were loaded in his car and Jason drove away.

Ann counted the money more carefully and, (え) her horror, discovered that while the three bills on the top looked normal, the other hundred beneath them was strange. The face of Ben Franklin was huge, not centered on the bill. “It isn’t even a good copy,” she realized. “It’s unmistakably a fake!”

She called the police and described the car and the criminal that had just left her house. They soon started searching the main roads leading out of their area.

Ann was really scared, and feared that the criminal would return to rob them any minute. She called her husband repeatedly. No reply. Twenty minutes later a police officer arrived at her door. Still frightened, she explained the whole story.

“This is a terrible fake!” she told the officer. “See (お) yourself.”

He looked at it carefully, and in a very serious voice said, “Ma’am, did you know they changed the hundred-dollar bill?”

(C)Her jaw dropped. “What?”

“About two years ago, the government changed the hundred-dollar bill.”

(D)Her face got hot and turned red. The change must have occurred while they were living abroad. “Look,” she said, “I’m a stay-at-home mom. When would I ever have my hands on a hundred-dollar bill?”

They called (か) the search for Jason at once, and Ann didn’t bother to call her husband again.

* quarter: a coin worth 25 cents

① at　② away　③ down　④ for　⑤ off　⑥ to　⑦ with

① angry　② disappointed　③ embarrassed　④ shocked　⑤ shy

(a) Ann was against advertising the speakers in the newspaper as she did not want strangers to come to their home.

(b) Ann was so scared that she told the police patrol about Jason before he turned up to get the speakers.

(c) Ann mistakenly thought that one of the four bills was a fake, but all of the four turned out to be real.

(d) Ann was afraid that Jason would come back to rob their house and called the police again and again.

(e) Ann was not living in the U.S. when the design of the hundred-dollar bill was changed two years earlier.