In the Red
The letter came out of the blue! I wasn’t expecting it. But there it was in black and white, signed by the bank manager. I had no money in my checking account. I was in the red.
I couldn’t believe it. So, I went to see the manager. We looked at the problem together. The bank had made a mistake. It had put ten dollars into my account instead of one thousand dollars!
Because it was the bank’s mistake, there was no delay reopening my account. The manager cut through all the red tape. Now I had money in my account. And I had the green light to write checks again.
1.Does in the red mean to have enough money or to not have enough money? When a company is in the red, is it in trouble?
2.When someone is coming out of the blue, is it a surprise?
3.If doing something takes a lot of red tape, is it easy to do? Sometimes getting papers from the government takes a lot of red tape. Can you think of some examples of things that take red tape?
