San Jose City College

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As you read this article, focus on adjective clauses

Elderly Couple Found after Four-Day Search Following Accident 

(Adapted from the Tuesday, October 16, 2001 edition of the San Jose Mercury News)

   In their 61 years together, Mark and Dvora Cogan survived Siberian work camps, near-starvation and the loss of two of their children during World War II.  On Monday, nearly four days after their car plunged into a deep ravine in a remote and wild area off Skyline Boulevard near Portola Valley, they emerged together from their latest ordeal.

   The San Jose couple - sweethearts since they were teenagers in Romania - were found alive and have  recovered. They were reported missing after leaving a doctor's appointment in Mountain View.  For days they had no food or water.  Dvora Cogan, 79, had only a thin silk dress to keep her warm on nights when the temperature dipped into the low 50s.  Mark Cogan, 81, and blind in one eye, tried unsuccessfully to lead his wife out of the wooded terrain.  They abandoned their car and spent nights on the bare ground.

   "They hugged each other and just kept each other warm," said their granddaughter, Rufina Shteynberg of San Jose, who joined in the search.

   After days of fruitless searches by various police agencies and dozens of volunteers, it was two rangers, a rancher, and a dog named Max who finally found the couple Monday.  The couple were suffering from hypothermia, dehydration and some scrapes but were alert and in good spirits, police said.

“We have no idea how they survived,” San Jose police Sgt. Louis Quezada said.  “It’s an absolute miracle.”  Dvora Cogan suffered a broken wrist and was taken to Stanford University Hospital by helicopter, and her husband was taken by ambulance.  Both were in good condition but spent the night in the hospital.

   The couple had last been seen in Mountain View about 3:25 p.m. October 11th.  The trip home from the doctor’s office usually took Mr. Cogan about an hour.  It could have taken less time, but Mark Cogan drove slowly, stayed off fast-moving freeways and kept to surface streets.

   Family members and police were especially worried because the two have significant medical challenges.  Besides being blind in one eye, Mark Cogan is a lung cancer patient.  His wife is legally blind.  Both have pacemakers.

   Cogan told his family that he lost control of the car while taking a large gentle turn in the road.  The couple’s 1992 Chevy Corsica apparently plunged under a wire fence and rolled about a quarter of a mile down a progressively steep embankment before coming to a rest.

   Shortly before 7 p.m. that day, the couple used their cellular phone to call their daughter, with whom they live in San Jose.  Mark Cogan calmly told her that he believed they had crashed into bushes somewhere near San Tomas Expressway in West San Jose.

   “It’s like a forest out here,” police say Cogan told his daughter.  “I don’t know if you’ll be able to find us.

   The cell phone disconnected before any more information could be obtained.

   In truth, they were miles away from San Tomas Expressway.  But police only had the information that the Cogans had provided.  For the next three days, foot patrols, helicopters and volunteers scoured a 25-square mile area near San Tomas Expressway.  They found nothing and on Sunday, frustrated investigators announced they were scaling back their efforts. 

   About 11 a.m. October 15th a dog walking with his owner along Skyline Boulevard broke away and headed down a gully and found a dazed Dvora Cogan tangled in brush.  She had apparently been trying to walk out of the remote area where the car was trapped but was still about a half-mile from Skyline.

   She was bruised and seemed incoherent, but she did have the presence of mind to ask for help to call her daughter by cell phone,” said George Stern, whose son Gary and his Brittany spaniel, Max, discovered Dvora Cogan.  George Stern owns about 350 rural, hilly acres in the area where the Cogans’ car landed.

   The younger Stern phoned his father, who drove to another part of the property and found Mark Cogan, who had struck out on his own in the opposite direction from his wife.

   About the same time, two park rangers were searching the area on a tip from a hang glider who had spotted a white car in brush near Skyline Boulevard.  Rangers ran into Gary Stern, Max, and Dvora Cogan.  Ranger Thomas Lausten administered first aid until paramedics arrived.

   George Stern said Mark Cogan was nestled near a creek deep in the woods about a quarter of a mile from his car when he spotted him. “I heard this soft voice say, ‘Will you help me?’” Stern said.

   The Cogans’ granddaughter said she held onto a belief that they would survive.  This is the couple whom she had heard talk about fleeing Romania to the Soviet Union.  They endured work camps in Siberia.  They began a new life in the United States in their 60s.

   Last year, they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows.  She wore a veil.  He wore a tux.  They danced their favorite dance, the tango.

   Next week is Mark Cogan’s birthday.  He is supposed to get his driver’s license renewed, his granddaughter said.  But maybe the longstanding family battle over his continuing to drive might be settled unilaterally.

   “We’re going to rip up his license,” she said.  “no more driving.  We’ll take them wherever they need to go.”

Challenge Yourself:  Print off the above article and find 12 adjective clauses. Highlight them. Note that a few will start with the relative adverb when or where and the possessive adjective whose

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