Reading comprehension check

1. Now consider the gaps. Each one is a past participle and part of a passive construction. Consider, or discuss with a partner, which words you think could fill the gaps and write them down.

2. There are ten original words from the text. Look up the meaning of any new words and see where you think each of them best fits: collected, unloaded, described, overlooked, welded, reconstructed, tampered with, concealed, arrested, re-exported.

3. Read the article right through again and then try to answer the following questions without looking back at the text.

1. What country did the ship belong to?

2. What was its route?

3. How did the customs officials discover the drug?

4. Why did they take the container to the shed?

5. Why didn’t the police arrest those 5 people who collected the container at Rotterdam?

6. The operation is called “a triumph of international liaison”. Why?

Assignments

1. If only 20 per cent of the cocaine had come to Britain, it would have created a new market for the drug. This sentence, taken from the text, is a “third conditional” sentence, expressing an imaginary situation in the past. Make more sentences like this, based on the following information. Begin each one with If ...

1. The container’s padlock had been tampered with and so it was easy for the Customs officers to open.

2. The Customs officers reconstructed the container very carefully and so the gang didn’t become suspicious.

3. The Customs officers at Southampton were very alert and so the drugs smugglers were caught.

2. Be ready to discuss the topic of drug-smuggling (trafficking). Be sure that you know such words as: зависимость, наркоман, наркомания, распространение наркотиков, преступная группа, распространить наркотики, виды наркотиков, гашиш, опиум, марихуана, героин, уколоть наркотик, нюхать наркотик, шприц, СПИД. Is this crime regarded by society as one of the most serious? Why? What makes people smuggle drugs? Is this problem acute for Belarus?

Text 3. Red arrows jet crashes into row of houses

A JET belonging to the RAF aerobatics team, the Red Arrows, crashed on to houses in a Lincolnshire village yesterday after hitting a second Red Arrows aircraft.

The houses, two of which were badly damaged, were not occupied at the time, and both pilots parachuted to safety. More than 200 children were playing at a primary school about 250 yards from the crash. The accident happened at lunchtime as a formation of six Red Arrows was practising near the team’s home base at RAF Scampton, north of Lincoln. The exact details of the incident will be established by an RAF board of inquiry, but it appears that as the formation was travelling at about l,500 ft. the flight leader’s Hawk jet was hit by a second jet.

As both spun out of control, the pilots ejected; one jet landed in a field close to the village of Welton, about three miles from the airfield. The other crashed into a row of council houses at the edge of the village, clipping two with its wing tip before crashing into a third.

Last night, the pilots were said to be in a satisfactory condition at Lincoln County Hospital, one with a broken leg and the other with minor chest and back injuries. Neither was named.

Some of those living near the crash were treated for shock; angry residents said that at the time of the accident, hundreds of children were playing outside their schools. The village also has a secondary school with 800 pupils. The Rev Brian Pritchard, chairman of the school governors at St Mary’s, said: “Nobody has been hurt, thank God but if things had been just a bit the other way, a few more yards, it might have been a very serious accident”.

The Red Arrows use the winter to bring in new members, but all are highly experienced pilots. Their Hawks, costing 3.5 m each, are standard RAF jet trainers. The unit has lost 16 aircraft since it was formed in 1965, but there have been no fatalities since 1978, when two pilots died in a crash at their home base.

The accident reported here was quite a serious one, but there were certain features about it that were very fortunate. How many can you find?