Reading and Writing Portfolio 11

Reading a story
Writing verb forms in narratives;
Telling a story getting ideas; a narrative
Review Past Simple; Past Continuous;
1 Read the first part of the story and put pictures A–F in order. crime

2 Read the story again. Are these

sentences true (T) or false (F)?
A 6 B 54 TF
1 Detective Inspector Carr knew
the man on the phone.
2 F The man told Carr what the
thieves planned to steal.
C 3 D 2
3 F The police immediately knew
who the robbers were.
4 F The thieves were planning to
steal some diamonds and £200
E 1 F 54 million.
5 F
T There were three people
Operation Magician: The Robbery of the Century involved in the robbery.
T
I t was a warm day in the middle of summer, when Detective Inspector
Sam Carr’s phone rang. The man on the phone was speaking quietly,
but Carr recognised his voice.
6 The real diamonds were not
in the Dome at the time of the

“There’s going to be a robbery near the River Thames,” the man said robbery.
quietly. “The thieves are going to use a boat to escape.”
Carr rang his boss and told him about the strange phone call. The
police immediately started an investigation*. They called it ‘Operation HELP WITH WRITING
Magician’. For the next few weeks, they watched many different Verb forms in narratives
places near the River Thames, including banks and also, of course, the
3 a Match these verb forms to
Millennium Dome.
sentences a–c from the story.
A few weeks later, Carr knew that the Dome was connected with the
bc
robbery. He also knew the names of the suspects. But what were the 1 Past Simple
thieves planning to do? The police put cameras inside the Dome and a
started fi lming all the visitors. 2 Past Continuous
On 1st September, three of the suspects were seen in the Dome. They 3 Past Simple passive bc
were looking at the diamond exhibition in the Money Zone and they
were especially interested in the Millennium diamonds – a collection a But what were the thieves planning
worth over £200 million.
to do?
For the next month, Carr and his officers watched six suspects
carefully. The men were testing a JCB digger* and a boat. But Carr still b On 1st September, three of the
didn’t know the time of the robbery. On 6th November, Carr decided to suspects were seen in the Dome.
change the real diamonds for fake* ones.
At 3.00 am on 7th November, Carr arrived at the Dome and spoke to the c The police immediately started an
200 police officers who were waiting inside. investigation.
Six hours later, the Dome was open. It was unusually busy for that time b Read the story again. Which are
in the morning – Carr and his officers weren’t wearing uniforms. They the two most common verb forms
were dressed as tourists, cleaners and other workers.
in the story? Past simple and
*investigation = when the police try to discover the facts about a crime Past Continuous
*JCB digger = a large machine used to move earth
*fake = not real c Underline three examples of the
most common verb forms in the story.

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4 Read the end of the story. Fill in the gaps with the correct 6 Match the first lines of stories 1–3 to
form of the verbs in brackets. questions a–c.

1 b Ian first met Nicole at a police station

A few minutes after 9.30 am, while Carr and his officers
1were
in central London.
walking (walk) around the Money Zone, a JCB digger
crashed a
2 (crash) into the side of the Dome. Three men 2 Suzie recognised the writing on the
broke into
jumped out* of the digger and 3 (break into) the letter immediately and suddenly felt
glass case* with the fake diamonds. very nervous.
Carr and his officers moved quickly. They took their guns out of 3 c Laurie had a problem, but he knew who
were carrying
the bags that they 4 (carry) and then they
arrested to speak to.
5 (arrest) the men in the Money Zone. Outside,
another man 6was waiting (wait) in the boat. The police a Who wrote the letter? Why did she feel that way?
quickly arrested him. Operation Magician was a complete What did she do next?
success. No one 7 was shot (shoot) or seriously hurt. Carr b Why was he there? Why was she there?
were
and his officers 8 (be) amazed and very pleased. What happened?
After the robbery, police 9 found (find) the receipt for the
was c What was his problem? Who was he going to
boat. What 10 (be) the name on the receipt?
talk to? What did he do next?
‘Mr Diamond’, of course.
7 a Choose one of the stories in 6. Then
*jump out = get out of a car, lorry, etc. suddenly and quickly answer the three questions in 6 to get ideas
*(glass) case = furniture used for displaying something, for example, in a museum for the story.
Who wrote the letter?
Wrote the letter Nicole.
HELP WITH WRITING
Getting ideas
Why did she feel that way?
5 a Read the first sentence of the story. Can you He would commit suicide.
remember the answers to questions 1–3?

It was a warm day in the middle of summer, when Detective What did she do next?
Inspector Sam Carr’s phone rang. I called his relatives .
a man.
1 Who was on the phone?

2 What did he tell Carr? about a robbery near the River Thames.
he rang his boss.
3 What did Carr do next?

b Read the beginning of the story in 1 to check

your answers.
b Write a story beginning with one of the first
c You can get ideas about writing a story by thinking of lines in 6.
questions about the first line. Look at this first line and
● Use your notes from 7a.
notice the questions we can ask to get ideas.
● Use the Past Simple and Past Continuous in the
First line of the story: As soon as Ashley walked into the room, story.
she knew something was wrong. ● Write about 100–150 words.
Some questions: What was wrong? What could she see? ● Read and check for mistakes.
What did Ashley do next? ● Give your story to your teacher in your next
class.
TIP • The first sentence of a story is important because it should
interest the reader.
Tick the things you can do in English in the
Reading and Writing Progress Portfolio, p88.

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