1.Look at these pictures. What do they have in common?

2.Match the pictures with the appropriate words:

robbery -- speeding -- shoplifting -- credit card fraud -drink driving -- graffiti -- murder -- mugging -- burglary

3.a) Which crimes are the most serious? Number them in order.
3.b) Which of these crimes is more frequent in your country?
3.c) Can you think of other crimes?

4.Read the introduction to an article and answer these questions.

What did the man do wrong?

What was his punishment?
What is alternative sentencing?

Make the punishment fit the crime

A man is caught stealing books from a bookshop. The judge asks why
he did it, and the thief says he loves books. What is the mans
punishment? A prison sentence? A big fine? No. The man is sent to
read stories and books to hospital patients. He enjoys the job and
continues to do it for many years!
Welcome to the new world of alternative sentencing programmes.
Instead of traditional punishments, criminals get the punishments
that fit their crimes.
5.What alternative sentences can you think of for the crimes
mentioned in activity 1?
6.Now read the rest of the article and see if any of your ideas are
mentioned.

What other examples of alternative sentencing are there? Two boys

were caught writing graffiti on a wall. The normal punishment for
this is a fine, but in this case the boys were told to do community
service. They cleaned seventy walls in three weeks.
A shoplifter was caught shoplifting three times in one year in a
small town in the United States. What was her punishment? She was
sent to speak to shop owners. She gave advice on how to stop
shoplifters. In one month she spoke to the owners of forty shops. She
told them all about shoplifting and the techniques that shoplifters use.
It was a great service to the community because after that shoplifting
almost disappeared from the town.
What about more serious crimes? Is alternative sentencing possible
for crimes like theft or credit card fraud? It depends on many things.
Who are the criminals? Are they young? Is this their first crime? Can
they change their way of life? One recent story suggests it is possible.
A thief stole a lot of camping equipment. He loved hiking, mountain
climbing and other sports. Instead of going to prison, he was told to
keep all the equipment and to take groups of schoolchildren and their

teachers camping and hiking every weekend. He loved it, the children
loved it, and now its his job.

Extracted from Speakout Pre-intermediate Students book p.100 with an

educational purpose

VOCABULARY: crime and punishment.

7. a) Match the words in bold from the text with definitions 1 9.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)

a person who steals things: thief

time that is spent in prison:
writing or drawing on public walls, doors, etc.:
doing unpaid work to help your town/city:
stealing things:
a person who steals things from shops:
cheating someone to make money from them:
stealing things from a shop:
an amount of money that you have to pay:

7.b) Put the words in the correct place in the table.

criminal

crime

punishment

Think of alternative sentences for the following crimes:

1) Laura Walters, 32, is a very good painter. She forged a painting made by
a famous artist and she sold it for a lot of money. An art expert saw the
painting and realized it was not the original one.
2) Stenven Hunter, 25, is a famous American football player. He was
stopped by the police because he was speeding his car near a school. It
turned out he had been drinking alcohol some minutes before driving his
car.

PRACTICE:
8. Make passive sentences using the verbs in brackets. Use the
present simple or simple past.
1.
2.
3.
4.

When I was a child I __________________(tell) many stories.

I __________________(call) Jim by my friends.
I __________________ (tell) that I am like my father.
When I was younger I __________________ (help) by many teachers.

5.
6.
7.
8.

Last holidays my friends __________________(take) to Disneyland.

Last Christmas I _________________ (give) an iPod.
My employees __________________ (pay) every month.
I _________________(choose) as captain of my football team when I was at school.

Extracted from Speakout Pre-Intermediate Students book, p.101 with an

educational purpose.

9.a) Complete the following stories using the PASSIVE form of the
SIMPLE PAST.
STORY 1
Two boys aged nine and eleven __________________(arrest) for robbing a
sweet shop. They used a gun which was actually a water pistol with black
tape around it. When the shop assistant started laughing, the boys ran
away, but they _______________(stop) five minutes later by the police. The
police arrested them, but said that the gun didnt have any water in it!
STORY 2
A woman _____________ (send) to prison for internet fraud. Leila Krieff had a
website called heroesfund.com, which asked the public to send money for
exsoldiers. But Krieff didnt give the money to the heroes. Instead, she
bought two homes, a Porsche, a Mercedes and a boat.
STORY 3
Tony and Gretel Rivera were arrested for art theft. Between 1999 and 2007
they stole hundreds of paintings from art galleries in the USA. One painting
_________________(take) by the Riveras from a gallery in Santa Fe.
The Riveras __________________ (catch) when they tried to sell the painting to
Joachim Cohen in California. Cohen recognised it immediately; he owned the
art gallery in Santa Fe.

MORE PRACTICE: passive voice.

Use the following verbs in the past passive to complete the
sentences.
build (x2) -- invent -- practise -- write -- discover
The television ______________________ by John Logie Baird.
The American Constitution _______________________ in 1787.
Penicillin _________________________by Ian Fleming.
The first aeroplanes ______________________ by the Wright brothers and
Alberto Santos Dumont.
The Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower ____________________ by French
architects.
Surfing ____________ first ________________ by Australian sportsmen.

Extracted from Speakout Pre-Intermediate Students book, p.101, 106 with an

educational purpose.