Some stupid thieves

1) _________ the town of Vang, Norway, a group of professional thieves were carrying out a carefully planned robbery. Everything was going 2) _________ clockwork. They broke into a company 3) _________ night, located the safe and set up some explosives that would blow the door of the safe off, allowing them to get to the money inside. After setting the fuse, they ran 4) _________ the next room, crouched 5) _________ the wall and waited for the explosion. It came a few seconds later. The safe door was blown off. So was the roof. In fact, the entire building collapsed, trapping the robbers, still crouching in the next office, 6) _________ the rubble of the destroyed building. There had been just one problem they had not foreseen: 7) _________ money, the safe had been filled 8) _________ dynamite.

B Complete this newspaper report. Write the verbs in the correct form, present simple or present continuous.

It’s summer. A man is out for a quiet walk. He’s walking along a country road and he 1) _________ (mind) his own business when he 2_________ (be knocked down) and seriously injured by a minivan. The man, a writer of thrillers and horror fiction, 3) _________ (survive) but he 4) _________ (become) obsessed with the vehicle that maimed him. He doesn’t bear a grudge against the driver. Instead, he 5) _________ (buy) the minivan and 6) _________ (hide) it. This sounds like the plot of a Stephen King thriller, but it is in fact the latest chapter in the writer’s real life. King has bought the van and he 7) _________ (intend) to take a sledgehammer to it. At present King 8) _________ (recover) from his injuries at home, where he 9) _________ (suffer from) a broken hip, a fractured leg and a collapsed lung. The story is uncannily like the plot of his novel Thinner (written several years previously), in which the victim’s family 10) _________ (put) a curse on the driver. King, however, 11) _________ (demand) only the withdrawal of the driver’s licence. As for the minivan, we 12) _________ (not know) if King will actually carry out his revenge or if he is simply hatching the plot for a new novel!

Vocabulary tasks

A Match the legal terms with their definitions.

1	deterrence	a	a lack of something that you need or want
2	restitution	b	the punishment given by a court
3	rehabilitation	c	severe punishment for something seriously wrong that somebody has done
4	sentence	d	the prevention of criminal behaviour by fear of punishment
5	retribution	e	a sum of money that must be paid as punishment for breaking a law or rule
6	deprivation	f	to help somebody to have a normal life in society after being in prison
7	punishment	g	compensation for some harm or wrong
8	fine	h	a sanction against a person who has violated the law

B The word PUNITIVE has the following meanings in Russian.