Surveillance technology

Click here to watch an old post about the same topic.



Click here to watch another video about other completely different things that security cameras record around the world.

Crime and punishment

Watch the video and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments".




1. What are the five high school students accused of?
2. What have they been charged with?
3. Who's being held in jail?
4. How are they being tried?
5. What did their lawyers enter?
6. How old was the victim?
7. What did the victim do?
8. Did the victim have children?
9. When did it happen?
10. What happened?
11. What did the suspects do after the incident?
12. How do the teenagers (the defendants*) feel according to their lawyers?
13. What do the defendants face?
14. Is this the only crime they have committed?
15. How does the news reader describe the story?

*Defendant: the person in a trial who is accused of committing a crime, or who is being sued by another person

Squatting

This is the video about squatting in Spain. The answers to the exercise in the photocopy are in "comments".

 

Copyright infringement

Stephen Fry denounces the overly aggressive strategies of the copyright industries as stupid in his speech at the London iTunes festival Summer 2009.

The answers to the exercises in the photocopy are in "comments".

Vocabulary and ideas for your opinion essay (Squatting)

Squatters who live in an unoccupied property should not be forced to leave it 

Vocabulary

Well-organised movement

Alternative lifestyle

Anti-political movement

A new class of squatters

Act out of necessity

Rise in unemployment

Cuts in social welfare programmes

To undergo a repossession

High rents

Lack of affordable houses

Empty / vacant / unoccupied houses

Derelict / Run-down buildings

Deprived areas

Property speculators

Homeowners

Evictions / to evict

To report / to file a report / a police report

Housing is a right and a need / an issue of human rights

Click here to read an article about Spain's housing crisis.

Another article about the Corrala movement in Spain. 

Here the latest news about the new laws in Spain.

Ideas and vocabulary for your opinion article (DOWNLOADING)

Downloading music or films without paying is as much of a crime as stealing from a shop

Some vocabulary:

File-sharing networks

A victimless crime

Get free access to

Copyright infringement

Intellectual property

Protect creators’ rights to profits

Audio streaming platforms (eg. Spotify)

A monthly fee / Pay a fair price / a subscription

Legitimate sources of entertainment online

Loss of jobs

The music industry

Some ideas

-          There is a drop in music sales.

-          A loss of jobs in the music industry.

-          It denies musicians the right to profits.

-          There is no incentive to produce new things

-          Illegal downloading places your computer at high risk. Infected files can result in loss of data, slow Internet connection and even identity theft.

-          CDs are obsolete and too expensive- not everyone can afford them

-          You cannot restrict access to ideas, expression, culture

-          Musicians become more popular and more demanded (concerts, shows, merchandising).

-          It is for personal use, you are not redistributing it.

-          It is very convenient.

London and the rise of violent crime

Watch the news report and fill in the gaps. Check your answers in "comments".

1. 17-year-old Tanesha Melbourne became last night the fifth person _______________   _______________   in the 

capital this year. 42 others have died of knife _______________. 

2. One woman told the reporter privately her son had told her about the postcode wars going on between 

_______________   in the neighbourhood.

3. A local man showed her where his car had been _______________   by a _______________   last year.

4. He says even the police can`t _______________   it.

5. 22-year-old Kobi Nelson was _______________   yards from his home.

6. Also a 16-year-old boy became the sixth _______________    _______________   this year.

7. The local MP has talked to Newsnight about how _______________   have impacted local policing.

8. She says she has stood up in parliament and _______________ and pleaded ministers to give them the police officers 

they have lost to get community intelligence.

9. The number of murders in London have led to _______________   comparisons with New York, a city which has 

dramatically cut its _______________   numbers since the 90s.

10. New York City and London have very similar numbers of officers and _______________.

11. As part of a new serious violence strategy the government recently launched a series of adverts aimed at 

_______________   _______________   crime.

12. It’s also looking into new laws against defensive _______________.

13. The person in charge of a community boxing club says that none of the latest victims were _______________   

_______________ gang members or criminals.

14. He also says it’s easy to blame the government or the parents but it takes a village to _______________   a child.

Crime and Punishment

I. Click here to see vocabulary about this topic.

II. Vocabulary and examples here

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3



Listen to an exchange between a police officer and a criminal and answer the multiple choice questions. 

Listen to another audio passage and answer the multiple choice question.

How to talk about breaking the law

How to sentence offenders

Crime- news items

Click here to do another listening activity about crime. 

News bulletin

Listen to the news bulletin. Match the five people with a word from the list. There are three words that you will not need. 

burglar, pickpocket, mugger, drug dealer, bank robber, victim, shoplifter, witness

1.       Jeremy Maguire was a ________________.

2.                 Stephanie Flamstead was a ________________.

3.                 Penny Green was a ________________.

4.                 Sally Green was a ________________.

5.                 David Clarke was a ________________.

Listen again and try to collect as much information about the cases as you can.

Click here to read the script.

Crime vocabulary

Vocabulary 1

Vocabulary 2

Surveillance

Watch the video and answer these questions. Check your answers in "comments".

1. How many cameras does Britain have?
2. What do advocates say?
3. What do privacy campaigners like Big Brother Watch say?
4. How many cameras has Britain got in relation to the whole world?
5. What are sensitive locations?
6. How often will you be filmed in London?
7. What does the campaigner from Big Brother think?
8. What does the first passer-by think?
9. What does the second passer-by think?
10. What does the third passer-by think?
11. What does Britain remain?

Click here to watch a TED video about how to avoid surveillance with your phone. You can watch it without subtitles first and then check your ideas with the script or watch it with the subtitles.

Crime and Punishment

Vocabulary 1
Vocabulary 2

Click here to listen to a podcast about crime and punishment. They pose some questions and then answer them.

The perfect crime
Watch the video and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments".
1. What are they celebrating?
2. What does Henry tell her?
3. What does she tell the police she was doing?
4. What do the police think has happened?
5. What do the police need to do immediately?
6. What do they all need?
7. What does she offer her guests?
8. What does her friend wonder?



Listen and answer the questions. Check your answers in "comments"

Victim

1. Why didn’t she see what the man looked like or his clothes?
2. How did she feel?
3. What did he grab? 

Witness

1. Where was he?

2. What did the thief look like?

3. What was he wearing?

4. What does he think can be seen in the photo he took?

Accused

1. Where does he say he was?
2. Who can verify it according to him?

Lawyer

1. What does he ask the court to take into consideration?

-          The accused is __________________________________.

-          The accused had few _________________________________.

-          It’s the first time he ________________________________________.

He’s clearly sorry for what ____________________________ and he deserves to be given    ______________________________.

Judge

1. What has Mark Johnson been found guilty of?

-

-

2. What does the judge sentence him to?

-

3. How long is the sentence suspended for?

4. What will he be required to do?

-

- 

Crime and Punishment

Exercise 1

Click here to do a listening activity about a funny robbery. 

A video activity: 
Before watching the video have a look at some vocabulary.

VOCABULARY 

1 RED HERRING - a clue or lie to mislead someone from the truth (comes from training hounds to scent 
with a herring which is a red fish)
2 AGAINST HIS WILL - against a person ability to decide for him / herself 
3 INTRIGUE - (n) a plan or plot of something harmful or illegal
4 FRAMED - (v) produce false information against an innocent person, a plan to unfairly blame
5 BREAKNECK SPEED - a person moving so fast that he may have an accident and break his neck
6 NORTH BY NORTHWEST - a compass reading [i.e. the needle points to the middle between N (North) and W (West)]
7 SINISTER - (adj) very evil, harmful
8 APPARENTLY - easily understood, obviously
9 PERFORMANCE - (n) (from the Arts) acting a scene, an artist displaying his art
10 PLAY DEAD - (from the Arts) acting as if dead, pretending to be dead
11 ROLE - (n) (from the Arts) a character in a scene, movie etc. (e.g. Rocky, Dracula etc.)
12 SUSPENSE - an excited state or feeling of uncertainty about what may happen (as in a movie)



1. Watch the video and fill in the gaps. Check your answers in "comments".

"I'm an advertising man, not a RED HERRING. I've got a _______________ (1), a secretary, a _______________ (2), two ex-wives, and several bartenders dependent upon me. And I don't intend to _______________ (3) them all by getting myself slightly _______________ (4)." ... 
Cary Grant becomes a _______________ _______________ (5) AGAINST HIS WILL propelled at gunpoint unto the highest level of international INTRIGUE and FRAMED for _______________ (6). Cary Grant, running for his _______________ (7), searching for a man who doesn't exist, and a _______________ (8) nobody knows and finding a _______________ (9) who has all the answers. ... "Hello there." "Tell me, why are you so _______________ (10) to me?" "Shall I climb up and tell you why?" ... At BREAKNECK SPEED they race together toward the excitement that lies dead ahead NORTH BY NORTHWEST. ... "How do I know you aren't a _______________ (11)?" "You don't." ... Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason as the man of SINISTER surprises. ... "APPARENTLY, the only PERFORMANCE that will satisfy you is when I PLAY DEAD." "Your very next ROLE and you'll be quite convincing I assure you." ... The perfect setup for SUSPENSE with the perfect _______________ (12) and the perfect _______________ (13) as Alfred Hitchcock takes you North by Northwest. ...

2. Do this vocabulary activity. Check your answers in "comments".

Fill in the blanks with the most correct word or words.

against his will___breakneck speed___Apparently ___performance___suspense.

1 I won't know my final grades until next week. The __________ is diving me crazy!
2 You have a new dress! It's pretty! __________ you came into some money.
3 Jason's father is angry with him because Jason married __________.
4 That wild taxi driver drove at __________ all the way to the airport!
5 Daniel played "Romeo" in the school play. He gave a fine __________.