Practice English Listening B1+ Exercises – Has the criminal been caught?

A

b

B

1   so they could dig a tunnel

2   the whole weekend

3   how one of the robbers got caught

A B

Marcos:   I watched this amazing show on TV last night, Crimes of the Century? Have you seen it?

Leti:   No. I don’t like violence.

Marcos:   Well, neither do I, but they’re not all about violent crimes. Last night’s episode was about a bank robbery. It was pretty amazing!

Leti:   What was so amazing about it?

Marcos:   Well, when the bank employees came to work Monday morning, they didn’t even know there had been a robbery. Everything seemed fine—then they opened the vault, and it was completely empty!

Leti:   What? How is that possible? Didn’t they have alarms?

Marcos:   They did, but the robbers had kidnapped a guard and forced him to turn off the alarm on Friday night.

Leti:   Oh no, did they hurt the guard?

Marcos:   No, no, no. The guard was ok. He said they kept him tied up at the bank all weekend while they robbed it.

Leti:   OK, good.

Marcos:   But wait, it gets better! So this gang of robbers had spent six months pretending to be landscapers on a property near the bank and, during that time, they had dug a tunnel from the property all the way under the street to the bank vault.

Leti:   A tunnel? Really?

Marcos:   Yes, and because of the tunnel, they were able to spend the whole weekend slowly taking everything out of the vault. They got millions.

Leti:   Wow. So did they ever get caught?

Marcos:   One of them did. You’re not going to believe how he finally got caught.

Leti:   I can’t wait to hear! Let me grab my lunch and then you can tell me about it.

C

Marcos:   Well, when the bank employees came to work Monday morning, they didn’t even know there had been a robbery. Everything seemed fine—then they opened the vault, and it was completely empty!

Leti:   What? How is that possible? Didn’t they have alarms?

Marcos:   They did, but the robbers had kidnapped a guard and forced him to turn off the alarm on Friday night.

A

c

B

1   He posted a video about the crime.

2   He accepted stolen money the robbers paid him to keep quiet.

3   He didn’t have a criminal record, he had worked at the bank a long time, and witnesses said he had a good character.

A B

Leti:   OK, so what’s this amazing story about how the bank robber got caught?

Marcos:   Well, one of the robbers was so excited about all his new money that he decided to post a video about it online.

Leti:   No way.

Marcos:   Yep. He showed off piles of cash and the map of the tunnel…

Leti:   Oh boy.

Marcos:   So, surprise, surprise–not long after the video went up, he had two detectives knocking on his door, and they arrested him.

Leti:   You’re kidding. And have the rest of the robbers been caught, too?

Marcos:   Nope. They only caught the one guy. They’re still looking for them. And the rest of the money hasn’t been found yet.

Leti:   Huh.

Marcos:   Oh, and they also arrested the guard.

Leti:   Wait… I thought the guard was a victim!

Marcos:   Well, it turns out that they had paid him to keep quiet about the robbery. Since he’d accepted the stolen money, he went to jail, too.

Leti:   Ah, that makes sense.

Marcos:   Yeah… But he got a shorter sentence. His lawyer said that he’d only helped the robbers because he was afraid they’d hurt him.

Leti:   And the judge believed that?

Marcos:   Well, he didn’t have a criminal record, and he had worked at the bank for a long time, and he had a lot of witnesses who said he had a good character until this happened.

Leti:   Hmm. But even if he was afraid at first, he could’ve returned the money and told them later. Do you think he was really scared? Or did he just want the money?

Marcos:   I’m not sure, but he’s not completely innocent! And he’s in jail now.

Leti:   And what about the video guy?

Marcos:   He’s going to be in jail for a long time. On the bright side, his video has been seen by millions of people, so he’s a very famous prisoner!

C

Marcos:   Not long after the video went up, he had two detectives knocking on his door, and they arrested him.

Leti:   You’re kidding. And have the rest of the robbers been caught, too?

Marcos:   Nope. They only caught the one guy. They’re still looking for them. And the rest of the money hasn’t been found yet.

A

b

B

1 Nevertheless   2 However

C

lasers that can analyze small pieces of glass

photography that can track high-speed bullets

cameras that can show damage beneath the skin of a victim

DNA tests that can tell age, ethnic background, and family members

DNA tests that can provide information about people’s habits

Forensic Technology: TV or Reality?

Now a show of hands, please. Is there anyone who hasn’t seen forensic science on TV? I didn’t think so.

You know what happens: Investigators arrive at a crime scene, see a bloodstain on the wall and instantly know that the killer was left-handed and attacked the victim from behind with a large round object. People love to watch these shows, but how realistic are they? In many ways, they aren’t realistic at all. For example, on TV, DNA tests come back from the lab immediately but, in real life they can take two weeks. And on TV, fingerprints often lead straight to the criminal but, in reality, most fingerprints usually don’t. Nevertheless, thanks to advances in technology, there are new developments in forensics that are just as cool as what you see on TV.

Did you know that there are lasers that can be used to analyze broken glass? Studying the broken glass from a crime scene can show the direction of a bullet or the amount of force that hit the glass. And, imagine this, they can even identify the type of glass and match it to the tiniest piece found on a criminal’s clothing.

Forensic investigators are also doing amazing work with cameras. High-speed photography helps them to see and understand how bulletholes and gunshot wounds are created. Special cameras can show hidden writing or even impressions on a piece of paper. Now these cameras also provide information about the paper itself, even if it has been damaged by water or fire. Other cameras can help crime victims in hospitals. They can see bruises under a person’s skin before they’re visible to the naked eye. This helps doctors treat victims faster, and helps police understand how a victim has been hurt.

Finally, there’s DNA. You already know that scientists can use DNA samples to identify specific people. However, that’s only useful if a suspect’s DNA can be compared to crime scene evidence. It’s likely that, in the near future, we’ll get a lot more information from the DNA itself, even if there’s no suspect. Forensic scientists are already testing DNA to determine the age and ethnic background of suspects, or even to locate their family members. What else? Soon we may learn even more about people from their DNA, for example, whether they smoke, or exercise a lot. And although we once needed a large sample of blood or skin to get a useful DNA result, now we don’t. Scientists can find DNA on a surface that someone has simply touched.

Forensic technology is changing the way crimes are solved. It’s helping police arrest criminals who committed murders decades ago, and it’s also helping innocent people get out of jail. But, although the science is not as advanced as it is on TV, it’s still wise to avoid a life of crime. You will get caught.

A

b

B

1   they were accused by a witness

2   fingerprints

3   characteristics of the body

4   inspired, the importance of preserving a crime scene

A Fictional Detective & REAL FORENSICS

A woman walks into a detective’s office. The detective takes one look at her and says, “I see that you work at the factory in Smithfield.” The woman is amazed as he explains that he has figured it out from the mud on her shoe and the color of her dress. But we in the audience aren’t surprised. The detective is Sherlock Holmes, and his remarkable skills have been entertaining us since 1892, first in the books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and in movies and television shows ever since. Everybody loves Sherlock Holmes. But what you may not realize is that even though he is a fictional character, he played a big role in the real history of forensic science.

Back when Conan Doyle started writing, criminals were usually arrested because they were caught red-handed or because they were accused by a witness. But because cities were getting busier and more crowded, crime was increasing. Conan Doyle studied medicine, and he believed that applying rigorous scientific methods to solving crimes could help authorities identify more criminals. So he wrote stories in which his Sherlock Holmes character used the latest techniques. And in some areas, Conan Doyle was way ahead of his time.

One way that Conan Doyle predicted real forensics was in his character’s use of fingerprints. At that time, some police departments used a method for identifying criminals that involved measuring twelve characteristics of the body, like the length of the arm or the distance between the mouth and nose. Other departments used fingerprinting. Conan Doyle had Sherlock use fingerprint analysis in the story The Sign of the Four in 1890, and he made the right choice. London’s police force began using fingerprint identification in 1901.

Conan Doyle was also ahead of his time when it came to typewriter analysis. In the 1891 story A Case of Identity, Sherlock Holmes solves a case because he is able to identify the specific machine that a typewritten letter came from. The amazing thing is that Conan Doyle wrote this story three years before the first time that typewriter analysis was used in court—and around forty years before the FBI began using it officially.

Sherlock Holmes and his creator didn’t just predict new developments; they actually influenced forensic scientists. The French detective Edmond Locard, who started the first forensics lab in the 1900s, was such a big fan that he asked his police science students to read the stories to understand the importance of preserving a crime scene.

A

mistakes are made by people committing crimes

B

1

      Criminal 1: burglarize a house

      Criminal 2: use the carpool lane illegally

2

      Criminal 1: fell asleep

      Criminal 2: tried to trick the police by using a skeleton

You’re not going to believe these true stories about mistakes that have been made by people committing crimes.

The first one is about a lazy thief. His mistake was getting too comfortable and relaxed in one of the homes he was robbing.

While he was robbing one couple’s home, he found some fried chicken in their refrigerator, so he took a break to eat it. Can you believe that? But wait—it gets better.

After he had eaten, he took a nap in one of the bedrooms. The couple came home, found him asleep, and called the police. He was arrested and taken to jail.

The second story is about a man who broke the law because he wanted to save time on his way to work. To help the environment, a lot of cities have carpool lanes, which are special lanes on the road that drivers are only allowed to use if they’re sharing their car with someone else. The man in this story didn’t have friends or co-workers to ride in his car with him, but he wanted to drive in the carpool lane because it usually moves faster than the lanes for cars with only one person.

Instead of following the rules and driving in the slow lane, he found a plastic skeleton—the kind they use to teach about human bones in biology class—and started driving around with that. It might have saved him some time, but it didn’t save him any money. The police realized the “passenger” was a skeleton and gave the driver a ticket. He had to pay a lot of money. I don’t think he’ll make that mistake again.

Thank you!