THE SPY IN RED

 

You decide to call them and by the end of the phone call you landed yourself an interview. To pass the interview you will need to listen to a podcast and/or read the passage and then you will be asked comprehension questions.

Here is the link to the podcast: https://content.libsyn.com/p/b/8/6/b8613fab2c2b9806/The_History_of_the_United_States_Secret_Service.mp3?c_id=70498175&cs_id=70498175&response-content-type=audio%2Fmpeg&Expires=1669484250&Signature=g1nH6guFSLwQZT4--ZN9JmhodPQVtt5QjWtPMyz4eRePESyP8oN2jVSopa17zX8QolKT43xc2co~LCMKeIrsbqLG0O20KO1EqTCYKy1tqZBtXkNvHvkiY~h5S64LmaEPIghFlnSL8PCQBnRwmq6pzopFZoQ3SrGiohPwlOhNs1axT4Y7l09kwJfmPHirQO7qn8qKdmlac54~~u60jrxzfjBrE9HviUgqGT237E7aQT4z3vO2XKxFFJ1LBoOnrar8XNLeA05-w4gxhUC-OXnpoUrJbRFk4-YRyRjuhZ3~dzbUbRd7E-5JDDEMR3vhGVuuHBEzNHCwAAfVKH~D-mmeSA__&Key-Pair-Id=K1YS7LZGUP96OI

Here is the passage:

The Secret Service Part 1

Currently sitting under the Department of Homeland Security, the United States Secret Service now performs duties that are far removed from its original purpose.

During the latter half of the 19th century, approximately 35% of all currency in circulation in the United States was counterfeit. The government wanted to do something about the problem and so legislation was prepared for President Abraham Lincoln to sign that would enable the federal government to form a department to address the issue. This legislation was on the president’s desk on 15 April 1865, the night Lincoln was assassinated.

Even so, the Secret Service Division of the United States Treasury Department was formed in Washington D.C. on 5 July 1865 with the Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch swearing-in William P. Wood as its first chief and presenting him with a clear objective of suppressing counterfeit currency operations within the United States.

At its inception, the Secret Service became only the fifth federal law enforcement agency in existence at the time, with the others being the United States Marshals Service, the Office of Instructions and Mail Depredations within the U.S. Post Office Department, which became the United States Postal Inspection Service, the United States Park Police and the United States Customs Service.

Although its initial mission was the suppression of counterfeit currency operations, it wouldn’t be long before the Secret Service started to investigate other crimes, including bank robberies and even murder, mainly as a result of a lack of manpower in other services, particularly within the Marshals Service.

After the Secret Service had been operating for about 35 years, it added another string to its bow, which became the main mission that the service is known for today, when, after President William McKinley was assassinated by a gunman at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in September 1901, the Secret Service was asked by Congress to take on the role of presidential protection. The Secret Service took on the full-time role of presidential protection in 1902 and has provided the service to U.S. Presidents ever since.

In its presidential protection role, the Secret Service has had some notable successes, some near misses and at least one spectacular failure. The first of several near misses came soon after it took on the presidential protection role when a man was captured and disarmed very close to President William H. Taft in El Paso, Texas in 1909.

The second near-miss also saw the first and to date only, death of a secret service agent during an assassination attempt when Private Leslie Coffelt was shot three times in the chest with a Luger pistol during an attempt on the life of President Harry S. Truman in Washington D.C. in 1950. Although mortally wounded, Coffelt managed to return fire, killing one of the would-be assassins.