Comprehension check

Ex. 1. Translate in writing paragraphs 1, 2.

Ex. 2. Put 8-10 questions on the text so that they will cover the whole content.

Ex. 3. Mark the following statements as true or false:

1. Car thefts and thefts from cars are one of the most frequent forms of crime.

2. Many of stolen cars are never recovered.

3. Very often car thieves are mature middle-aged people.

4. A stolen car is unlikely to be involved in an accident.

5. If a motorist follows several simple rules it will be much harder to steal his car.

6. Cars are stolen because it is easy.

7. 20 per cent drivers do not lock their cars.

8. The primary responsibility for coping with crime rests with the owners of cars.

Ex. 4. Read and choose the correct alternative to complete the following sentences:

1. Car thefts and thefts from cars account for …

1. 20 per cent of all recorded crime;

2. 5 per cent of all recorded crime;

3. half of all recorded crime.

2. Car thefts impose … on everyone.

1. fines;

2. penalty;

3. costs.

3. Many missing cars are …

1. always found;

2. never found;

3. never looked for.

4. A stolen car is often …

1. involved in an accident;

2. is carefully looked after;

3. is never driven by the thief.

5. Cars are stolen because …

1. their owners always secure them;

2. they are very attractive for criminals;

3. their owners follow a few simple rules.

6. Most car thieves are …

1. experienced criminals;

2. the police and the court;

3. young and unskilled.

Text 5. It's interesting to know

1. A doctor and a member of the French Legislative Assembly, Joseph Ignace Guillotine suggested the use of the guillotine for executions in 1789. A physician and humanitarian, Guillotine was disturbed by vulgarity of public executions and petitioned for a single method of capital punishment to be used for all crimes demanding the death sentence. The guillotine consists of a heavy blade¹ with a diagonal edge, which falls between two upright posts² to cut off the victim's head cleanly and quickly. Similar machines had been used in various other countries including Scotland and Italy. The main idea was to make execution as quick and painless as possible. The first person executed by guillotine was the highwayman³ Pelletier in 1792, but the machine came into its own in 1793, during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution, when aristocrats were guillotined by the hundred. The device was nicknamed ⁴'Madame Guillotine' after its sponsor.

2. Captain Charles Lynch, of Virginia, author of the infamous lynch law, will forever be linked with 'vigilante⁵ justice'. Lynch decided that he and his neighbours were too far from lawmakers and sheriffs to punish properly the vandals and robbers terrorizing the rural⁶ area. He encouraged his fellow citizens to sign a declaration he drafted, announcing the intention to 'take matters in their own hands'. "If they (criminals) do not desist from⁷ their evil practices, we will inflict such corporal punishment on them, as to us shall seem adequate to the crime committed or the damage sustained⁸."

3. Although the death penalty was not always exacted, in most cases the punishment turned out to be hanging. In addition to the fact that many innocent victims suffered lynching, a certain amount of guilt among the lynchers can be ascertained⁹ by the very technique for hanging criminals.

4. Lynch and his cohorts practiced a form of passive hanging. A rope was tied around the tree and the condemned man placed on a horse with the other side of the rope stung snugly around his neck. So the criminal was killed not by the captors¹⁰ tightening the noose¹¹, but the whim¹² of the horse. When the horse moved far enough away from the tree, the rope choked the horseman.

Notes: 1) лезвие; 2) столб; 3) разбойник; 4) прозвать; 5) бдительный, неусыпный; 6) сельский; 7) воздержаться от; 8) доказанный, полученный; 9) установленный; 10) захвативший кого-то в плен; 11) петля; 12) прихоть, каприз.