EXERCISE II.

1. Read the story

Operation Magician: The Robbery of the Century.

It 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. "There's going to be a robbery near
the River Thames," the man said 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 Magician'. For the next few weeks, they watched many different places near the
River Thames, including banks and also, of course, the Millennium Dome. A few weeks later, Carr knew
that the Dome was connected with the robbery. He also knew the names of the suspects. But what were
the thieves planning to do? The police put cameras inside the Dome and started filming all the visitors.
On 1st September, three of the suspects were seen in the Dome. They were looking at the diamond
exhibition in the Money Zone and they were especially interested in the Millennium diamonds - a
collection worth over £200 million. 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 didn't know the time of the
robbery. On 6 th November, Carr decided to change the real diamonds for fake* ones. At 3.00 am on 7th
November, Carr arrived at the Dome and spoke to the 200 police officers who were waiting inside. Six
hours later, the Dome was open. It was unusually busy for that time in the morning - Carr and his
officers weren't wearing uniforms. They were dressed as tourists, cleaners and other workers.

*investigation = when the police try to discover the facts about a crime
*JCB digger = a large machine used to move earth
*fake = not real

2.Read the story again. Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)?

1._F__Detective Inspector Carr knew the man on the phone.

2._F__ The man told Carr what the thieves planned to steal.

3._F_ The police immediately knew who the robbers were.

4._T__ The thieves were planning to steal some diamonds and £200 million.

5._T__ There were three people involved in the robbery.

6.__T_ The real diamonds were not in the Dome at the time of the robbery.

3.Verb forms in narratives

a Match these verb forms to sentences a-c from the story .

1 Past Simple ( c )

2 Past Continuous ( a )

3 Past Simple passive ( b )

a But what were the thieves planning to do?

b On 181 September, three of the suspects were seen in the Dome .

c The police immediately started an investigation.

b Read the story again. Which are the two most common verb forms in the story? ___Past Simple
__and_Past Continuous _.

c Underline three examples of the most common verb forms in the story .

Past Continuous :

 But what were the thieves planning to do?.

 The man on the phone was speaking quietly.
 They were looking at the diamond exhibition in the Money Zone

Past Simple :

 Carr knew that the Dome was connected with the robbery
 They called it 'Operation Magician'
 They watched many different places near the River Thames.

4. Read the end of the story. Fill in the gaps with the correct form of the verbs in brackets.

A few minutes after 9.30 am, while Carr and his officers 1
they walked (walk) around the Money Zone, a JCB digger 2___
crashed_(crash) into the side of the Dome. Three men jumped out* of the
digger and 3 ____Breaked into __(break into) the glass case* with the
fake diamonds. Carr and his officers moved quickly. They took their guns
out of the bags that they 4 ____Carried ___(carry) and then they 5
___Arrested (arrest) the men in the Money Zone. Outside, another man
6______Waited ___ (wait) in the boat. The police quickly arrested him.
Operation Magician was a complete success. No one 7____Shooted _
(shoot) or seriously hurt. Carr and his officers 8 __Were _____(be) amazed
and very pleased. After the robbery, police 9_______Sought _________
(find) the receipt for the boat. What 10 ___Was __ (be) the name on the
receipt?
'Mr Diamond', of course.
*jump out = get out of a car, lorry, etc. suddenly and quickly
*(glass) case = furniture used for displaying something, for example, in a museum

5 a Read the first sentence of the story. Can you • remember the answers to questions 1-3?

It was a warm day in the middle of summer, when Detective Inspector Sam Carr's phone rang .

1 Who was on the phone? __The Detective Inspector Sam Carr's.

2 What did he tell Carr? . "There's going to be a robbery near the River Thames," the man said
quietly. "The thieves are going to use a boat to escape."

3 What did Carr do next? ____." Carr rang his boss and told him about the strange phone call ____

b Read the beginning of the story in 1 to check your answers .

c You can get ideas about writing a story by thinking of questions about the first line.
Look at this first line and notice the questions we can ask to get ideas .
First line of the story: As soon as Ashley walked into the room, she knew something was wrong.
Some questions: What was wrong? What could she see? What did Ashley do next?
TlP • The first sentence of a story is important because it should interest the reader .

6 Match the first lines of stories 1-3 to questions a-c.

1 __b____ Ian first met Nicole at a police station in central London.

2 __a____ Suzie recognised the writing on the letter immediately and suddenly felt very nervous.

3 ____c___ Laurie had a problem, but he knew who to speak to.

a Who wrote the letter? Why did she feel that way? What did she do next?

b Why was he there? Why was she there? What happened?

c What was his problem? Who was he going to talk to? What did he do next?