Vocabulary:

to rob a robber a getaway a trial a diamond a gang

to steal to escape the jury violence daring

to commit a robbery

to go down in history

a prison sentence

to plan a crime

to find guilty of

The Millennium Dome robbers wanted to go down in history as the gang who committed the biggest and most ambitious robbery of the Millennium – and they nearly did.

They never thought the police would catch them because they planned the crime and the speedboat getaway very carefully. At their trial, one of the robbers said, ‘It seemed possible at the time. Now it seems like an absolutely crazy James Bond kind of thing to do.’

The attempted diamond robbery at the Millennium Dome in London was an amazing crime. The British government built the Millennium Dome to celebrate the year 2000. One of the most popular exhibitions in the Dome was a fabulous diamond collection worth £350 million which included the magnificent Millennium Star diamond. The gang of five men tried to steal the diamonds. But unfortunately for the robbers, hundreds of police officers dressed as tourists and cleaners were waiting for them in the Dome when they attacked.

The huge police operation organized by Scotland Yard was as amazing as the robbery itself. It was called Operation Magician and over 200 police officers took part in it. The police knew the gang were planning a big crime but they didn’t know exactly what. So they followed the men for many months before the robbery.

One day, they saw one of the gang visiting the Dome with his friends. He filmed the diamond exhibition with a camcorder. The police now knew what the robbers planned to do. Another time, they saw the men sailing a speedboat up and down the Thames. They guessed how the robbers planned to escape and continued to watch them very carefully.

At their trial, the jury found the arrested men guilty of robbery with violence. The two gang leaders, Ray Betson and Bill Cockram, received 18-year prison sentences, and the other members of the gang received 15-year prison sentences.

British people like daring crime stories and the Dome robbers are already famous. A television channel even made a film of the robbery. It seems likely these men will go down in history as the robbers who attempted one of the most daring crimes ever.

Text Three

«An Appointment in Samarra»

(Death Speaks)

T

Vocabulary:

a merchant a servant to tremble to jostle a gesture to lend (lent)

to avoid one’s fate to mount the horse to dig (dug) to spur a flank a start of surprise

here was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions. In a little while the servant came back, white and trembling. He said «Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at meand made a threatening gesture. Now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.

The merchant lent him his horse. And the servant mounted it and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said ‘Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?’ ‘That was not a threatening gesture’, I said, ‘it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.’