Reading test: A criminal gang reportedly stole £2 million worth of rare books

In this week's reading test we are going to practise the grammar and vocabulary multiple choice task. To do so, we are going to read the Business Insider article A criminal gang reportedly stole £2 million worth of rare books.

Read the article and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each of the blanks. 0 is an example.

A criminal gang reportedly stole £2 million worth of rare books

A gang of thieves has reportedly stolen over £2 million (0) … of rare books from a warehouse near Heathrow airport in a "Mission Impossible"-style heist, The Mail on Sunday reports. The newspaper reports that over 160 rare books were (1) …, including works by Galileo, Isaac Newton, and Leonardo da Vinci.

Thieves reportedly (2) … the warehouse in Feltham, Middlesex by climbing onto the roof, cutting holes through the reinforced skylights, and then abseiling down into the building. The heist, (3) … took place on the evening of January 29, was captured on the warehouse's CCTV cameras, The Mail on Sunday reports.

Thieves were observed ignoring all other items stored in the warehouse, instead targeting four containers that stored rare books. A source (4) … The Mail on Sunday that the gang of criminals checked the contents of the containers against a list, "throwing (5) … they didn't want away." The books were being stored in the warehouse temporarily as they made their way to the California Book Fair.

The gang then placed the rare books into holdalls and pulled them onto the roof of the building using ropes. The bags were (6) … placed into a van and driven away.

The Mail on Sunday reports that the thieves likely stole the books to order, as it would be difficult to resell the titles. The newspaper says that scientific works of the type stolen in the raid, "are particularly in demand." It speculates that a wealthy collector known as "the Astronomer" (7) … have ordered gangs to steal books for him.

The most valuable book stolen in the raid is a 1566 edition of "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" by Copernicus. The book, (8) … as "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres," set out Copernicus' theory that the Sun is at the centre of the universe, not the Earth.

The owner of the rare Copernicus book stolen in the raid, identified only as a dealer from Padua in Italy, thinks “it was clearly a robbery done to order. It was a specialised gang. They took only books, (9) … ."

The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers has published two separate lists detailing every book believed to have been stolen in the heist. It lists two dealers (10) … have had stock stolen from them: Librario Bado e Mart s.a.s. di Bado R. e C. from Padua, Italy, and Michael Kühn from Berlin, Germany.

(11) … book that is believed to have been stolen is a 1656 Galileo book titled "Opere di Galileo Galilei," another early scientific work about the universe.

A copy of "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" by Isaac Newton was (12) … stolen in the raid. The book was a landmark work covering physics and mathematics.

0 Example:
a) priced
b) value
c) worth

1
a) caught
b) robbed
c) stolen

2
a) entered
b) entered on to
c) entered to

3
a) that
b) what
c) which

4
a) informed to
b) said
c) told

5
a) some
b) the ones
c) whichever

6
a) after
b) first
c) then

7
a) had to
b) may
c) should

8
a) described
b) known
c) translated

9
a) just those
b) nothing else
c) nothing more

10
a) what
b) which
c) who

11
a) Another
b) One
c) Other

12
a) also
b) as well
c) too

KEY:
1C 2A 3C 4C 5B 6C 7B 8C 9B 10C 11A 12A

Extensive listening: Where is cybercrime really coming from?

Cybercrime netted $450 billion in profits last year, with 2 billion records lost or stolen worldwide.

Security expert Caleb Barlow calls out the insufficiency of our current strategies to protect our data. His solution? We need to respond to cybercrime with the same collective effort as we apply to a health care crisis, sharing timely information on who is infected and how the disease is spreading. If we're not sharing, he says, then we're part of the problem.

As a vice president at IBM Security, Caleb Barlow has insight into to one of the largest security intelligence operations in the world. His team stands watch protecting the information security of thousands of customers in more than a hundred countries. On a busy day they can process upwards of 35 billion potential security events across their global operations centers.

You can read the full transcript here.

Woman describes how she was tricked by fake profile

The number of people defrauded in the UK by online dating scams reached a record high in 2016, the Victoria Derbyshire programme has learned.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1. What does Judith Lathlean do?
2. What human qualities did both Judith and John emphasize?
3. Where did John go to work?
4. What did John lose?
5. How many relationships start online in the UK?
6. How much money was lost to cybercrime last year?
7. How much money did Judith send John?

Millions of us use dating websites but not everyone online is looking for love. Every year thousands of single people in the UK are conned by criminals using fake profiles on dating sites.
I woke up in the middle of the night and suddenly realized not only was it a scam but that this so-called John was part of this gang.
Judith Lathlean is a university professor from Winchester. In 2015 she decided to try online dating. John Porter, from London, was her strongest match. Like Judith, he was with a Christian who emphasized honesty and trust.
He sounded wonderful on the phone and so we started getting quite, quite friendly quite quickly really.
John claimed to be working abroad. After weeks of daily messages and phone calls, the conversation turned to money.
When he went to South Africa what he said was, I've got to have a bond of good faith against me not delivering the goods. Well, I have known people who’ve been in business and they’ve had to put up a bond of good faith, again I didn't think it was strange. He lost his passport, this is the story, the man started getting a bit frantic and I immediately, because I was so believing in him, I immediately said, don't worry, John, I can loan you some money.
You're a respected academic, you're clearly intelligent, successful, articulate. Judith, why was your judgment so poor here?
Because I believed in John. I believed that I was helping him and I was completely bowled over by him.
With as many as one in three relationships in the UK now starting online, the internet is becoming an increasingly lucrative place for cybercriminals. We’ve discovered that last year alone almost 4,000 people were conned by online dating scammers with losses amounting to a record 39 million pounds.
They are in foreign jurisdictions. They’re in West Africa, Eastern Europe and places like that and it's very difficult for British law enforcement to take action against them in those jurisdictions.
It was five months before Judith realized she'd been scammed. John Porter didn't exist. The photo was probably stolen. Judith had sent a hundred and forty thousand pounds to an organized criminal gang.
I won't get any of the money back. I have to tell myself that it was a complete fraud so feeling sorry for myself is just not an issue.
You’re dealing with the best salesmen in the world. They don't have a product. They just want to take your money, so they will groom you overtime and, yes, I totally can see why you fall for that.

KEY:
1 She’s a university professor
2 Honesty and trust
3 South Africa
4 His passport
5 One in three
6 39 million pounds
7 140,000 pounds

Airbnb home trashed during wild party

A Calgary family say their home has been destroyed by partying guests who rented it on the popular accommodation website Airbnb.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.



1. The Calgary couple rented their home to two people.
2. It was the first time they were renting their home.
3. The police came round during the weekend but saw nothing suspicious.
4. When the Calgary couple arrived on Monday, everybody had already left.
5. The Calgary couple found their house flooded.
6. The Calgary couple are not living in their own home at the moment.
7. The damage to the house amounts to under $50,000.
8. The police don’t know who rented the house.
9. The fine to the person who rented the house might amount to $5,000.
10. Airbnb has issued a statement saying they cannot take responsibility for the damage.

Would you rent out your home to strangers over the internet? A lot of people do but after renting out their home on Airbnb, a Calgary couple came back to find their place trashed, furniture destroyed, garbage everywhere, chicken drumsticks left in their shoes, that's an odd touch. The couple describing the whole ordeal as unimaginable. Well, Nancy Woods following the story for us with gusto, not that you liked this at all but you're fascinated by the story.
I think like a lot of Canadians is just the worst case scenario for renting out your home and Mark and Star King thought they were renting their home to four people who were in Calgary for the weekend, for a wedding. In fact… and it wasn't their first time renting through Airbnb, they'd done it before and they had pretty good experiences. During the weekend neighbours say a bus pulled up, a party bus with about a hundred people in it and at some point the neighbours got concerned and even called the police but when the police showed up, things didn't seem to be noisy so they didn't even go into the house to see what was happening but when the Kings showed up Monday morning, the party was still going on and they basically had to beg them to leave. There was broken glass, the furniture was wrecked, the hardwood floors were buckling because there were pools of alcohol in them, the toilets were blocked with condoms, food left up to spoil, cigarette butts everywhere. Police say there was some kind of drug-induced orgy that had gone on. Now the Kings have children and they say their home will never be the same for them. In fact, they say they would rather have seen it burnt to the ground than defiled the way it was. Here's Mark King.
For me it was shock and horror and disbelief. I just feel so violated and so… bigger than the physical damage, you know, is just we don't have a home, we’re homeless, we’re you know staying with relatives and this… the sense that our lives are broken.
Such a strong language but I get it that I would not want, I wouldn't want to see this, you know.
They said they had to go away for a day and come back the next day and look at it.
So you, you look at this and you figure that's got to be criminal conduct but it's not a slam-dunk criminal case.
Oh, no. The police say there was about fifty thousand dollars worth of damage done and they say they have a name of the person who rented. They want to talk to him. They say it’s a Calgary man but here's what the constable had to say about it.
Personally, I’d like to speak to the person that rented it. We’d like to hear his side of the story and how went out of hand and who he would… like we just want to speak to him first. He's pretty much our person of interest right now.
Now, that’s Sam Horvat, Constable Horvat says he's never seen so much damage done in such a short period of time, just three days. It even made him angry to see it. And the man who rented the Kings’ house could be charged with mischief to property, over five thousand dollars. Now as for Airbnb, it put out a statement today saying we have banned this guest from Airbnb and our trust and safety team will offer its full assistance to law enforcement in any investigation of this matter. It also says that the King family will be reimbursed because it has insurance fund for this kind of occasion which it says is rare and that it is also giving them accommodations until the house can be cleaned up if a house can ever be cleaned up for something like that.
When the family members say they’d say rather it had been burned to the ground… it feels like no amount of compensation is going to make them feel better but, you know what, maybe it'll get cleaned up until they feel okay.
I hope so.
Nancy thank you very much.

KEY:
1F 2F 3T 4F 5F 6T 7F 8F 9T 10F

The tech helping you stay safe on the streets

BBC Click's Lara Lewington looks at some of the latest personal safety technology.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.



1. You always need to unlock the device before using it.
2. Only your contacts will receive your alert.
3. The alert can be activated verbally.
4. Currently, the police can receive your filming of the incidents.
5. The device is free at the moment.
6. 33% of adults are victims of violent crime.
7. The follow-me function of the device keeps track of your movements.
8. The alerts are not so easy to activate.


So this is what the finished product will look like. To avoid false alarms, you need to unlock it before pressing the buttons. At the point it’s been activated, it will send an alert with your location to the emergency services and also not just to your contacts of choice but the contacts who are closest to you at that point. It will also send an alert to other people who are on the platform who are nearby at that time, who hopefully will have phone signal and internet connection in your hour, well, seconds of need.
An alert can also be activated by a smart watch by simply using a safe word, asparagus.
We’ve got several ambitions for the future. One is that when you see somebody needs your help on your phone, but as you arrive close to where they are, the map on your mobile phone will dissolve and your camera will turn on, so we'll start… you'll start filming the incidents where, where you are and will stream back to the police.
Another shortish-time ambition for us is you want to make this as common as possible because the more people that have it, the more people can come to your rescue, so for us we’re driven by how cheap can we make this or free so when we put it in as many people's hands as possible.
The most recent figures for England and Wales suggest adults have a 1 in 33 chance each year of being the victim of a violent crime. But despite the fact that they’re unlikely to ever need to use a gadget like this, just knowing it's there may give you that extra peace of mind.
You're walking home alone or going out for the day and you want to feel that someone who cares about you is watching over you, well the follow-me function on the React app could come in handy. They’ll be alerted to keep an eye on you and track your GPS location for your chosen duration, hopefully there won't be a problem and once you arrive at your destination, they'll be able to see where you are plus you can actually tell them that you're fine.
Alerts to contact your friends, family or even the emergency services can also be activated any time by pressing this red button on the app or this physical button. This is called the react sidekick and syncs up to the app.
On first testing it seemed pretty glitch, but then it became apparent I needed to have the settings right, which weren’t obvious. You must accept the option to track your location even when not using the app, and you also need to make sure that your chosen contacts are stored with their international dialling code.
So with this and indeed all these devices, it's probably wise to do a test run before you start relying on them.

Key:
1T 2F 3T 4F 5F 6F 7T 8T

Extensive listening: Your smartphone is a civil rights issue

The smartphone you use reflects more than just personal taste ... it could determine how closely you can be tracked, too.

Privacy expert and TED Fellow Christopher Soghoian details a glaring difference between the encryption used on Apple and Android devices and urges us to pay attention to a growing digital security divide.

"If the only people who can protect themselves from the gaze of the government are the rich and powerful, that's a problem," he says. "It's not just a cybersecurity problem — it's a civil rights problem."

Christopher Soghoian researches and exposes the high-tech surveillance tools that governments use to spy on their own citizens, and he is a champion of digital privacy rights.

You can read a full transcript here.

Eagles trained to take down drones

The BBC has been given access to the airbase where Dutch police are training eagles to take down unauthorised drones. It comes amid concerns that drones are increasingly being used to commit crimes.

Self-study activity:
Watch the report and answer the questions below.



1. What is the eagle's name?
2. What is the eagle's only interest?
3. What items are criminals smuggling into prisons through drones?
4. What is the eagle's unique selling point?
5. What is the eagle being trained to do these days?

Her name is Hunter. She's been trained to join an elite squad of airborne crime fighters, and this is their mission: to bring down hostile drones. Once again, look closely. Her talons go into the propellers, and it's instantly disabled.
The people who train these birds describe it as a low-tech solution to high-tech problem.
This is nature.
So, you are tapping into the eagles' killer instinct.
Yes. Its instinct is to catch a prey. It's not interested in people, it’s not interested in other animals, it's interested only in catching that drone and also they are able to land the drones safely on the ground and that’s where we want it.
These drones are increasingly being used by criminals. They have been used to smuggle sim cards, mobile phones and drugs into prisons, and there are concerns they could be used by terrorists, too.
The police already use radio intercepts and nets to tackle drones. This bird's unique selling point is its eagle-eyed vision.
What we cannot see, it can see. His vision is five times better than a human. Don’t forget they are born hunters. They miss nothing.
Animal welfare charities have raised some concerns. The police say they are researching ways to protect these talons, and we’ve been assured no birds have been harmed during training. But plenty of drones have been.
And this is the part they are still working on teaching the eagle where to drop the drone.
We are just approaching this baby eagle. What do you have to do in order to recover this drone?
Shot it my face. We always try to keep it safe, because it could be a member of the public looking at what is going on, it can be a dangerous drone, unless someone weird, or it doesn't know, it just flies off. I show some meat, and then he is like I’ve got this drone, I’m protecting it, but it’s not really, and then I’ve got something better and then it will jump to me.
A huge chunk of fleshy meat in exchange.
Yeah we can be proud of him.
London's Scotland Yard is so impressed it’s looking into emulating this innovative use of nature.
Anna Holligan, BBC News, Balkan Bird airbase.

Key:
1 Hunter
2 Catching the drone
3 Sim cards, mobile phones and drugs
4 Its perfect vision 
5 Where to drop the drone

Startling number of mental patients behind bars in US

The UK's prison problems, with many inmates suffering from mental illness, are mirrored around the world. In America there are thought to be three times more psychiatric patients in prison than in hospital. BBC correspondent Aleem Maqbool was given special permission to film inside Cook County Jail, Illinois, and to speak to the prisoners at this Chicago prison.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video below and answer the questions.



1. What is the percentage of American inmates suffering from mental problems?
2. What has Robert been charged with?
3. How many inmates live in the same room?
4. How much bigger is the percentage of incarcerated people with mental problems compared to patients in mental hospitals?
5. What are some of the words André uses to describe the hard life in prison?
6. Is there some provision for psychological treatment in the prison?
7. How can the problem of the massive number of inmates with mental problems be resolved?

This is what checking into America's largest mental health institution looks like. It's not its official role, but when 30% of people being shuttled around from cell to cell and locked away in this jail are thought to have psychiatric problems, that, by default, is what it's become.
We watched as this man was processed into the jail, having his mugshots taken. He was charged with criminal trespass, sleeping on someone else's property 42-year-old Robert is homeless and he has schizophrenia. We saw as he shuffled off into what is a tough world.
In parts of the jail, up to 400 inmates are kept in a single room, where they eat, sleep and live all together. Many, of course, have committed far worse crimes than Robert. Those we spoke to complained of the conditions they lived in, but didn't want to be recorded for fear, they said, of repercussions. But the number of those among the prison population with mental health problems appears to be ever-increasing. It's now thought there are more than three times the number of psychiatric patients incarcerated in America than are in hospitals.
People like Andre. He's been locked up because he stole groceries that he said he needed to eat. He, too, is schizophrenic.
Being incarcerated is no way to live. Not only being kept from your freedom, but surrounded with the people that's here, the people that's here, the violence, the ignorance, the incompetence, the mentality of the individuals that you're locked up with. It can really get hard, it can be dangerous.
There are some areas of the jail that do have the look of a treatment center. Those running this facility have at least recognised that mental health provision needs to be a huge part of what they do. The new warden of the jail is even a psychologist. But what they can't change is a system that means so many people who should be treated in the community end up being in a place like this.
We have people who are sick, not criminals, they’re sick, no different than if they had diabetes, but they have a mental illness. It’s not being treated. Why isn’t it being treated? Well, guess what States throughout the country, throughout the United States, have decimated the mental health programmes, so there are none, people scramble to find anything. So where do these people end up then in mass, in the jails, in prisons. And it's been going on now for decades.
There does seem to be recognition that too many people in America are going to jail, particularly those with psychiatric problems. That can only be resolved with fundamental changes in the justice system here and improved mental health provisions outside prison. But both those things feel a long way off.
Aleem Maqbool, BBC News.

Key:
1 30%
2 criminal trespass, sleeping on someone else's property
3 up to 400 inmates 
4 three times bigger
5 violence, ignorance, incompetence, mentalityof the individuals
6 yes
7 by introducing changes in the justice system and improving mental health provisions outside prison

Victims of acid attacks rebuild their lives

Every year hundreds of Indian women are victims of acid attacks and reported incidents are on the increase. Very often men throw acid at women who reject their marriage offers or attempts to start sexual relationships. One charity has devised a strategy to help survivors regain their confidence and rebuild their lives.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 Which job do the victims of acid attacks do in Sheroes café?
2 What consequence did the acid attack have for Rani?
3 Why did the boy get angry with Rani?
4 What plans did Rani have for herself at the moment of the attack?
5 Apart from earning a living, what are the victims trying to gain while working at the café?
6 How old was Dolly when she was attacked?
7 What was Dolly's mom's attitude towards her after the attack?


Faces scarred irreversibly, lives changed forever by acid attacks. But these women are very much survivors, not victims, and part of their recovery process is to tell their stories to the outside world.
In the shadow of the Taj Mahal, they found a sanctuary of normality in Sheroes café, set up by a local charity.
Like any other waitresses, they take orders from tables and chat to the steady stream of backpackers who pass through town. Rani, who’s 20, is the newest arrival. The story of her attack which left her blind is all too familiar.
There was a boy. He loved me. It was one-sided love and he used to follow me around. One day he accosted me in the street and tried to force himself on me. I slapped him. That made him angry, so after a few days, he attacked me with acid. My family blamed me. They wanted me to agree to that man and let him do as he pleased. But I didn't want to be involved in the trappings of love or marriage. I wanted to study.
Rani says the women at the café have given her the strength and support she didn’t get from her own family.
Working here at Sheroes isn't just about earning a living, it's also about regaining a life and because many of the women here were scarred when they were very, very young, rediscovering their confidence is part of the key to survival.
These women have already become local celebrities. Here, they're filming a video for the café website. Dolly was just 12 when she was attacked, yet another case of a rejected suitor. She recalls the moment she first saw her face.
After seeing the mirror, I cried and howled and screamed so much. I said things like my face has been ruined and it would have been better if I had died, why did you save me? But my mother told me that I'm still beautiful. I don't cover my face any more. I live my life my way. I like that I have a job here at Sheroes. I like that my parents feel pride in my work and in the fact that I’m standing on my own feet.
As evening falls, Dolly and her colleague chat and laugh about the places they would like to go and the things they want to do. Their advice to other women who've been scarred is try and look forward, not back. Disfigured once yes, but empowered now too.
Naomi Grimley, BBC News, Agra.

Key:
1 waitresses 
2 it left her blind
3 because she slapped him
4 she wanted to study 
5 their confidence
6 twelve
7 she has supported her, she feels proud

Why are so many Americans behind bars

More people are in prison in America than anywhere else in the world. President Obama and politicians from both parties want to change that. Rajini Vaidyanathan looks at how the US prison population got to record levels.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 Which country has the world’s largest prison population?
2 How much money does American spend on incarcerating people?
3 How much time have the 46 non-violent drug offenders whose sentences president Obama commuted served?
4 How much time had they been sentenced to serve?
5 When were tougher penalties for non-violent drug offenders introduced?
6 What race is the largest proportion of non-violent drug offenders?
7 What does ‘$31,000’ refer to?

America has the world’s largest prison population. More than half of those in federal prisons are serving time for non-violent drug offences. Many people think that’s too harsh a penalty, including President Obama.
Over the last few years a lot of people have become more aware of the inequities in the criminal justice system. The fact is that we spend over $80 billion a year incarcerating people, oftentimes who have only been engaged in non-violent drug offences.
The president commuted the sentences of 46 non-violent drug offenders who’ve served more than a decade, bringing the total to nearly 90 throughout his presidency.
These men and women were not hardened criminals, but the overwhelming majority had been sentenced to at least 20 years, so their punishment didn’t fit the crime.
What the president is doing he is sending a strong message to the American public that we need to rethink how we deal with drug offences.
This is the change of course for America’s war on drugs in the 1980’s, when tough penalties were introduced for non-violent drug offenders. This graph shows how the prison population rocketed after many states introduced three-strikes policies and mandatory minimum sentences, putting more people behind bars.
And race placed a big part. The largest proportion of non-violent drug offenders is black.
The war on drugs had a tremendous impact on African-American community, turning of the public’s eye to how those incarcerations have negatively impacted the community as a whole, not just the African-American community. It’s a big important step that the president has taken.
Another big reason people are pushing prison reform is money. It costs around $31,000 a year to house every inmate, and with Republicans and Democrats struggling to balance budgets, President Obama believes now it’s the time for reform.
But I believe at its heart America is a nation of second chances, and I believe these folks deserve their second chance.

Key:
1 America
2 $80 billion a year
3 (more than) a decade
4 (at least) 20 years
5 in the 1980's
6 black / African-American
7 money spent on each inmate every year

Extensive listening: Song redemption

John Legend is on a mission to transform America's criminal justice system.

Through his Free America campaign, he's encouraging rehabilitation and healing in our prisons, jails and detention centers, and giving hope to those who want to create a better life after serving their time.

With a spoken-word prelude from James Cavitt, an inmate at San Quentin State Prison, Legend treats us to his version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song." "Won't you help to sing these songs of freedom?"

Talking point: Prison life

This week's talking point is prisons. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

What do you think life in a typical prison is like?
What does an inmate do on a typical day?
What do you know about the cells, food, facilities, activities for prisoners?
Do prisons have any ‘advantages’?
What disadvantages can you think of?
Should prison be more about punishment or rehabilitation?
What alternative to prisons can you think of?
Can crime be prevented or is it inherent to human nature?
Have you heard of programmes like restorative justice (where the criminal comes face to face with the victim)?
Does justice change much from one country to another?

Decide on a fair form of punishment for these criminals:
1 A 90-year-old man who is found guilty of income tax evasion over a period of 50 years.
2 A woma who is found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. She swerved to avoid a pet cat and caused the death of a motorcyclist.
3 An airport employee who stole valuable items from suitcases that were left on carousels. She sold them for cash, or gave them away as presents.
4 A 17-year-old who has been caught shoplifting trainers. It’s the first time he’s been caught, but at home the police find a large collection of sportswear.

To illustrate the point you can watch this short video on Halden Prison (Norway), the most humane prison in the world.

Dangerous dog offenders to get harsher sentences in UK

Pet owners convicted of dangerous dogs offences will face harsher punishments under new sentencing guidelines in England and Wales.



This is the charming view as seen by a guide dog but it's not always so picturesque. Tony Brown Griffin's guide dog has been attacked by other dogs three times in the last year. She's now resorted to attaching a video camera to Hetty’s collar to capture any attack.
Please, can you get it away?
Tony, who's blind, says her family was left traumatised by last year's attack by a Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
It just went from being asleep to flying across five metres of pavement locking onto her face and I then had to try and beat it to get it off her, that left her with wounds to her face and it was extremely distressing for all of us.
Under the new guidelines, attacks on assistance dogs such as guide dogs will become an offense for the first time as well as attacks on private property, and the maximum sentence where someone is killed by a dangerous dog will increase from 2 to 14 years.
What this says is anybody that sets their dog on anybody else or, or, or even guide dogs, that won't be tolerated. I think that sends an important message to anyone in criminal gangs or who's, who just is using their dog in an anti-social behaviour way, that you could find yourself in prison.
Tony says toughest sentences for irresponsible owners are badly needed.
These attacks do not need to happen. There is no reason to not have proper control of your dog and if you've got a dog that is a risk or has got bad behaviour, then do something about it, at the very least put a muzzle on it.
The new sentencing guidelines will come into force in July and it can be expected that dogs and dog owners alike will welcome them as well as providing pause for thought on regulating dangerous dogs.

Extensive listening: The reporting system that sexual assault survivors want

We don't have to live in a world where 99 percent of rapists get away with it, says TED Fellow Jessica Ladd.

With Callisto, a new platform for college students to confidentially report sexual assault, Ladd is helping survivors get the support and justice they deserve while respecting their privacy concerns.

"We can create a world where there's a real deterrent to violating the rights of another human being," she says.

Jessica Ladd is using technology to advance sexual health in the US.

You can read the full transcript for Jessica's talk here.

Extensive listening: How hackers steal your ID

Hackers have stolen the personal details of millions of customers from companies like Talk Talk. So how do cybercriminals get hold of our data? BBC Reporter Daniel Foggo meets the hackers who can break into any website and finds out how criminals profit from our information.

Talking point: Law and order

This week's talking point is law and order. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas flow more easily when you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

What are white-collar crimes?
Which of these can be considered white-collar crimes?

bribery-arson-insider trading-burglary

shoplifting-selling information-cybercrime

Do you think white-collar criminals should do time in jail?
Can crime ever be justified?
How can young people be protected from cyber bullying?
What can we do to protect ourselves from online crime like phishing?
Do you think the victims of crime get enough help from the justice system?
How effective do you think prisons are?
What alternatives to prisons can you think of?
Do you think there are too many laws or regulations governing our lives?
Are there any new laws you would like to introduce?
What laws do you consider unfair and how would you change them?
Does gun ownership make society safer?
Which are the requirements to own a gun in your country?
Can you  think of suitable punishments for these crimes?

1 Mugging
A teenager was walking home late at night after a party, when three men jumped out from behind a wall and hit him in the face. As he fell to the
ground, they took his phone and his wallet from his pocket and ran into a nearby house.

2 Fraud
A man from London received a desperate email from his friend. Apparently, the friend was on holiday in the USA when all his money and
possessions were stolen. He asked for £500 cash to be sent as soon as possible. The man sent off the money, and was just coming back from the
post office when he saw his friend coming out of a shop. He hadn’t even been in the USA.

3 Burglary
A wealthy woman returned to her home to find that the back door had been smashed with an axe. All the drawers and cupboards had been opened, and her things were thrown everywhere. However, she was amazed to discover that none of her valuable jewellery had gone. All that was missing was a single antique vase.

To illustrate the topic watch this news clip about a crime.




It was a property scam in which a criminal gang made millions of pounds by effectively stealing people’s homes. At the heart of it was a trio of corrupt officials: A land registry clerk, a solicitor, and a bank manager who for legal reasons can’t be identified.
Surjeet Chana worked at the land registry and provided title deeds and owner signatures so they could be forged.
"She’s is now with a very serious depression…"
Her daughter said she was now very ill.
"The thing is she’s not well because even she is not talking to the family either."
Solicitor Charles Spiropolous did the conveyancing using his office to complete the illegal house sales and collect money. The bank manager helped the gang hide their profits.
"Can I talk to you about the case on Friday?"
"Which case?"
He left them use his bank to launder the money they made, nearly four million pounds. The gang searched for homes like this, neglected or abandoned, their owners dead or in care.
The old lady who owns this house died and left it in her will to five different charities. While that complicated legal situation was being sorted out, the house was neglected and became an obvious target for the gang. They boarded it up, changed the locks, then erected an official-looking sign urging the owner to get in touch. If none did, they went ahead and sold the houses, a quick cap price sale usually to an unsuspecting developer. Police don’t know how many they sold.
"The arrogance with which is some way this is carried out… they wouldn’t get detected. But this is not seen as a serious crime but yet when you look at it we have elderly victims, in care homes, whose homes are left there and suddenly being sold underneath them."
The gang leaders at first used a barber shop in Surrey to launder the drugs profits. Then they developed for more sophisticated property fraud. The gang sold this home in Croydon for £140,000. Owner Ann McKendrick said “I have lost my past, much of my identity and reason for existing.”  This house in Wimbledon went for £190,000. Owner Frida Gallagher said she’d been left very confused and in total shock. But at times the gang were moving hold-alls of cash through the corrupt bank manager’s branch. He got 5% on each illegal house sale, when he should have been reporting the gang for money laundering.

Martin Brunt, Sky News, South London.

BBC Animated Travel Shorts -Barcelona

Find out what happens when you out an eccentric con artist in Spain.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.


BBC Travel Shorts, Ep1: Barcelona from Dacapo on Vimeo.

1 What was the relationship between the protagonist and Kate, his wife, at the time this story happened?
2 What time of the year was it?
3 Why did Kate want to buy a couple of these marionettes?
4 How did the marionettes work, according to the vendor?
5 What did the protagonist shout when he noticed how the marionettes really worked?
6 What did Kate do after the commotion? 

There's a great museum in Barcelona devoted to Pablo Picasso, a Museo Picasso, and Kate, my wife, although she was my girlfriend at the time, and I had just walked out of that museum and noticed a crowd of people standing around watching a street vendor. And we moved closer, as if pulled in by some kind of tourist tractor beam.

What the guy was selling were these dancing cardboard cut-outs. They were in the image of Disney characters and other cartoons, and each cut-out had two legs made of coloured yarn and little black magnets for feet. And they were dancing to the tune of the beat coming out of his cassette boombox. They were cute, these little cardboard Bart Simpsons and Pokemons, bopping back and forth and he demonstrated them - when he stopped the music, they stopped dancing. When he started the music, they started again.

It was right before Christmas. He was making a killing with these magical copyright-flaunting stocking-stuffers. The people in the semicircle around him were thrusting money at the guy.

"Homer Simpson, por favor!"

"Yo quiero SpongeBob SquarePants!"

But when Kate reached for her wallet to get a couple of them for her brother, I told her to hold on. But how did they work? I asked her. How could cardboard with string legs dance? She shrugged. Not interested.

The vendor didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Spanish but that didn’t stop me from asking him how they worked and he picked one of his little miracle marionettes up and showed us the back of it. There was a little plastic hook. “Vibration”, he said.

“Vibrations”, Kate repeated, and at a tone that marked my ignorance of basic physics. “It’s science”, she said, and then she went back to her wallet.

Well, that makes no sense. Vibrations? My eyebrows furrowed and I crossed my arms like a cross between Indiana Jones and a Jedi, which is how I like to think of myself. Then I squatted down and squinted at the cardboard cartoons as they jerked on their little string legs to the beat of the music. And suddenly, I was staring at the guy's legs, so I looked up.

"No, no, no, no!", he shouted at me. He waved his finger in my face. That's when I knew something was rotten in Denmark. I might have given up if he hadn't done that, but it was the glove slap across the cheek, the gauntlet thrown down - I now had to prove it was a scam.

He walked off to go help an eager buyer throwing cash at him, and I gingerly stepped to the edge of the semicircle of people. And I put my head so close to the wall that I could see behind the dancing Disneys - and behind his boombox. Behind the boombox, a little plastic stick moved back and forth. And from the end of the stick I followed a nearly invisible line of fishing wire to where it attached to the wall. Lisa Simpson and SpongeBob were hanging on the wire, the stick moved to the beat of the music. It was as ingenious as it was fraudulent.

I stood up and shouted above the music and the tourists and announced, "It's a scam!” "They're dancing on fishing wire, it's a scam!" The crowd froze in place, except for the motion of reinserting euros back into their wallets, and the scammer angrily stopped the music and threw his tiny dancers to the ground in a huff. He angrily stared at me as I walked across his little stage area, smugly smiling back at him and into the crowd.

No-one thanked me, but that didn't hurt. What hurt was that when I looked around for Kate and that look of admiration I expected on her face, she had gone. She ran off. When I later caught up to her, she told me that the scam artist was so angry that she thought he was going to hit me or attack me or something, so instinct told her to run.

"Let the Wookiee win," that's her philosophy.

Talking point: Digital security

This week's talking point is digital security. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas flow more easily when you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

Are you fond of social networking sites?
Do you use a different password for every website account?
How often do you use a debit/credit card?
How often do you buy things online?
How careful are you about the information you provide to website?
Do you let anyone use your electronic devices?
If someone looked at the information about you that exists in cyberspace, what kind of things would they find out about you?
Why do you think the issue of privacy receives a lot of attention these days?
What does 'cyber threat' mean?
How many different types of threat can you think of?
What (recent) news stories on internet scams or another type of cybercrime have you heard recently?
How can we increase our personal online security?

Do you agree with these statements?
1 A certain amount of surveillance and invasion of privacy makes us safer.
2 You should never shop online because you leave yourself open to crime like identity theft.
3 Companies should be allowed to monitor online activity and sell their databases.

To illustrate the topic you can watch this Europena Union video on cybercrime.

Extensive talk: This is what happens when you reply to spam email

British comedian and writer James Veitch delivered this talk at TED just a few weeks ago.

Suspicious emails: unclaimed insurance bonds, diamond-encrusted safe deposit boxes, close friends marooned in a foreign country. They pop up in our inboxes, and standard procedure is to delete on sight. But what happens when you reply? Follow along as  James Veitch narrates a hilarious, weeks-long exchange with a spammer who offered to cut him in on a hot deal.

You can read the transcript here.

Listening test: Cocaine chicken

You will listen to part of a BBC radio programme where two reporters, Rob and Jennifer, discuss a crime. In each of the spaces given in the sentences below, complete the missing information with up to THREE WORDS (numbers count as one word). 0 is an example.



0. Roast chicken is traditionally eaten with potatoes and vegetables as well as stuffing.

1. The Nigerian man used to work as ………….………….……. in Brazil.

2. The value of the drug he wanted to smuggle was …………………………..……………… .

3. The investigators found the drug in packages which looked like ……………….……. .

4. The Nigerian man had planned to ……………….…….  with the money made from the drug sales.

5. Nigerian authorities have recently found drugs inside ……………………………………, wigs and stethoscopes.

6. Three years ago a man on his way to Detroit was spotted with a bomb hidden in …………………………………………  .

7. The chicken is the ………………………………………… to an extinct species, the gigantic and terrifying tyrannosaurus rex!

Jennifer: Hello and welcome, I'm Jennifer and with me today is Rob.
Rob: Hello there.
Jennifer: Now, Rob, are you a fan of roast chicken?
Rob: Definitely. There’s nothing better than a lovely roast chicken on a Sunday, with all the trimmings, of course!
Jennifer: Here in the UK, people traditionally eat roast (0) potatoes and vegetables with their chicken, as well as stuffing.
Rob: Stuffing is a mixture of breadcrumbs and herbs which is stuffed, or pushed, inside the roast chicken. And it is delicious!
Jennifer: Well, you might be surprised to learn that today’s story is about stuffing roast chickens with something rather different…  Let’s return to our story now, which is all about a failed attempt at drug smuggling in Nigeria. Our story is about a Nigerian man, living in Brazil, who was struggling to earn a decent living. The man had been working as (1) a mechanic in Brazil, but decided he could earn more money if he smuggled drugs to sell back in his native country of Nigeria. Let’s listen to the first part of a report by BBC correspondent Leana Hosea. How did the mechanic try to smuggle drugs into Nigeria?

A Nigerian mechanic has been caught by the Drug Enforcement Agency in Lagos airport, Nigeria, attempting to smuggle (2) $150,000 worth of cocaine in roast chickens. Investigators say they found over 2.5kg of the unusual stuffing, wrapped up in tin foil, (3) [eggs] egg-shaped packages.

Jennifer: He was very inventive as he hid the drugs in egg-shaped packages.
Rob: It’s certainly risky, though. So why did he try to bring drugs into Nigeria?
Jennifer: Well, it seems he had a plan for the money. Here’s the second part of Leana Hosea’s report:

They called it a remarkable seizure, saying they never expected to find thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs in roast chickens. The suspect had flown in from Brazil, where he had been allegedly struggling to make a decent living for years. A spokesman for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency says this was the suspect's retirement plan, and he had been hoping to (4) start a business with the drug sales.

Jennifer: Smugglers are using increasingly imaginative ways to conceal their drugs.
Rob: Recently the Nigerian authorities have found drugs hidden in the lining of (5) suitcases, in wigs and even in a doctor’s stethoscope!
Jennifer: Let’s listen to the final part of the report.

Nigeria is a major transit point for drugs, but the authorities have made efforts to improve security after a Nigerian man was discovered on a plane to Detroit, attempting to explode a bomb in (6) his underpants three years ago. The Nigerian authorities say airport body scanners have helped identify more than one hundred drug carriers last year.

Jennifer: It’s really an ongoing battle, but they are trying to improve security, particularly at airports.
Rob: Thankfully the drugs hidden inside the chickens did not make it into the country this time.
Jennifer: Indeed. Now, speaking of chickens, the chicken is the (7) closest relative to an extinct species. The chicken is actually the closest living relative of the gigantic and terrifying dinosaur, the tyrannosaurus rex!
Rob: I’ll never look at a chicken, or eat a chicken, in the same way again!
Jennifer: Bye for now!
Rob: Bye.