7. Borden, Lizzie Andrew, 1860 - 1927

Lizzie Borden is known worldwide through a poem which was written about her. It goes:

Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her father forty wacks.

When she saw what she had done,

She gave her mother forty-one.

This cruel verse refers to the fact that Lizzie Borden was accused of having killed her father and stepmother by chopping them to pieces with an axe at their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892. She was tried for the two murders and acquitted, but the trial has become a legend, and many books have been written about it.

Find in the text the words which correspond to the following definitions.

- to give a legal decision that a person is not guilty;

- the unlawful killing of a person on purpose;

- to examine a person in a law court.

8. Brown, Father

One of the great figures of detective fiction is Father Brown, created by G.K.Chesterton (1874-1936) and largely based on his friend Father John O'Connor. Father Brown is a plump, moon-faced Roman Catholic priest from Essex, apparently vague (a) and harmless, never separated from his large black umbrella and several brown paper parcels tied up with a string. In fact Father Brown is a master of detection (b) as Chesterton showed in forty-nine stories

published between 1911 and 1935. He finds himself involved (c). more or less by chance, in a crime (d)_T which he solves by using common sense and his vast

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knowledge of human nature. Father Brown appeared on film in 1954, with Alec Guinness in the title role, and later in a television series, starring Kenneth More.

Complete the following sentences with the underlined words from the text

1. He tried to escape____by disguising himself as an old man.

2. It's the business of the police to prevent_____.

3. He was a little____when I asked what had happened.

4. Don't____me in your quarrels.

9. Guess the names of the two characters.

These two Roman generals were the leaders of conspiracy to murder Julius Caesar, the man who invaded Britain and was one of the greatest Roman generals. Both had distinguished careers, having been promised governorships by Caesar. One was even a personal friend of Caesar's but was convinced by the other that Caesar, who by then was dictator of Rome, was tyrant who must be got rid of. On the Ides (15th) of March 44 B.C. Caesar was stabbed to death on the steps of the Capitol, the senate house of Rome, both men talking part in the murder. Unfortunately, the conspiracy then began to crumble and the two generals fled to Macedonia to raise an army. They were defeated at the battle of Philip by Caesar's nephew Octavian and Mark Anthony. After the battle one committed suicide, while the other ordered his servant to kill him.

10. Butch Cassidy, 1866 - 1910 and the Sundance Kid, d.1910

Butch Cassidy, whose real name was Robert Leroy Parker, was the leader of a gang of American outlaws called the Wild Bunch who operated mainly from a secure hideout in Wyoming Territory called Hole in the Wall. Other members of the gang were the Sundance Kid (real name Harry Longbaugh), Bill "News" Carver, Ben Kilpatrick and Harvey Logan. The Wild Bunch rustled cattle, held up banks and robbed trains, all with varied success. On one occasion they stole $40,000 in notes that were so new that they had not been signed, and their clumsy attempts to forge the signatures failed miserably. Having made things too hot for themselves by robbing the Union Pacific railway rather too frequently, in 1902 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid moved to South America accompanied by pretty schoolteacher Etta Place. This combination carried out a number of robberies, before the two outlaws were ambushed and killed in a gunfight with the Bolivian army in 1910. However, rumours persist that either one or both men returned to the USA and lived on peacefully to die of old age. The film of their life and death, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, managed to catch the flavour of criminal exploits almost perfectly.

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Match each word or expression ton the left with the correct definition on the right.

a) to make it hot for sb.

b) to forge a signature

c) an exploit

l.a bold or adventurous act

2.to take property from a person unlawfully

3.a person punished by being placed outside the

protection of the law

d) outlaw 4.a secret place where one cannot be found

e) a hideout 5.to attack sb. suddenly from a hidden place

f) to hold up 6.to make a copy of a signature in order to deceive

g) to rob 7.to steal cattle h) to ambush 8.to stop and rob

i) to rustle cattle 9 to cause a situation to become dangerous