W05 - Int2

Week 05 – Intermediate 2 – News in brief

I)            Reading & Vocabulary

1)   Match the news stories (1-6) with headlines (a-f)

1.   A television set was stolen from a Liverpool police station, while police officers were out fighting crime.

2.   Fugitive lames Sanders, who escaped from jail in 1975, was arrested in Texas after ringing the FBI to ask if he was still on its 'wanted' list.

3.   An 85-year-old man was stopped and escorted off the M4 motorway by the traffic police because he was riding in a wheelchair. The wheelchair was being pushed along the slow lane by his 65-year-old son.

4.   Burglar Frank Gort broke down in court and cried when he was sentenced to seven years in jail, claiming it was his unlucky number. An understanding judge in San Antonio Texas took pity and gave him eight years instead.

5.   Police cars were involved in a dramatic chase after a notice was spotted in the back window of a car saying, 'Help us, we have been kidnapped'. It had been put there by four unhappy children who didn't want to go on holiday with their parents.

6.   Prison authorities in New Zealand have been embarrassed by the escape of convicted thief Cass Mei, who managed to run faster than guards at the prison hospital. He was being treated for asthma and a dislocated knee.

a.   Don’t ask                b. police theft           c. kidnapped          d. slow lane

e. unfit to guard                     f. kind judge

2)   Which stories do you like best?

3)   Complete the sentences using underlined words from the stories.

a) ________________ are people who fight crime and try to catch criminals.

b) ________________ are people who patrol roads and motorways.

c) People on a ______________ have committed crimes but haven't been arrested yet.

d) A ___________________ is someone who sentences criminals in court.

e) A ___________________ is someone who has stolen something and has been sentenced in court.

f) A ____________________ is someone who has escaped from jail and is hiding from the police.

4)   Use the following words to complete three more stories:

arrested             burglar               chase               court             escorted            stolen                thief                    traffic police

ONE DRINK TOO MANY

A __________________ who stole a bottle of whisky from a supermarket was ___________ for shoplifting when he went back for a bottle of Coke.

BOY RACER

Police cars were involved in a dramatic _________________ when an 18-year-old, driving his parents' new car, reached 160 kilometres per hour before he was stopped

by ____________ and ______________ off the motorway.

SHOE REVENGE

During divorce proceedings, a woman told the ____________ that one shoe of every pair she owned had been ____________________ from her house, She suspected that the ________________ was her husband, who was angry after she had sold the personalised registration number of his Ferrari.

II) Pronunciation

1)   Listen and repeat the past participle endings for regular verbs commonly used

in the passive.

ed= /t/	ed=/d/	ed=/id/
Asked Based	Believed Called	Arrested Decided

2)   Practise saying the past participle for the following verbs:

check            describe           escape                 expect                 force          involve               name            need                report                  stop                  treat             use

 Add them to the correct column in the table above.

III)               Grammar: passives

1)   Rewrite the following in the passive to recreate sentences from the news stories. Make the underlined words or phrases the subject of the passive verb.

a) Someone stole a television set. _________________________________________

b) Someone was treating him for asthma. He ________________________________

c) Someone has kidnapped us. We ________________________________________

d) Four unhappy children had put it there. It ________________________________

2)   Look at your sentences (a-d) above. Tick the following explanations if you think they are correct.

a) In sentences a, b, c and d the object of the active verb has become the subject of the passive verb.

b) In sentences a, band c the 'doer' of the action (= the agent) is either unknown,

unimportant or obvious.

c) In sentence d the 'doer' of the action (= the agent) is mentioned after the verb using by.

IV)                Homework:

Rewrite these newspaper extracts in the passive to make them sound more natural.

Don't mention the agent.

a) The Oscar committee has announced the Oscar nominations.

__________________________________________________________________

b) Doctors are treating the troubled film star for 'exhaustion' at Meadows Rehabilitation Centre in Arizona.

___________________________________________________________________

c) The record company has released the singer's long-awaited album to rave reviews.

____________________________________________________________________

d) Kidnappers released the hostages last night and they are on their way home to their relieved families.

____________________________________________________________________

e) The central bank will reduce interest rates by 1% before the end of the year according to most financial observers.

____________________________________________________________________

f) People have accused the fashion industry of encouraging young girls to go on

starvation diets.

____________________________________________________________________