英语博客(A cup of English):052 A robbery in town!

　　Beginners.

Life in a small town is very quiet, some would say boring. However, one good thing about living here is that there is not a lot of crime. It is something that you get used to. On a few occasions, I have left my handbag in the shopping cart when I am buying groceries. It is not until I get home that I realize what I have done. Thankfully, the times that this has happened, I have been able to drive back to the supermarket and find the bag, still in the shopping cart. When I lived in London, that was not the case. Though most people are good, and mean well, you have to be careful. I suppose it is just one of the many differences between a big city and a small town. When a crime does take place here, it makes the front page of the local newspaper, The Wenatchee World, and the whole town talks about it. A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine told me that there had been a burglary at a pharmacy 1 in town. I don't often read the newspaper, so I was not aware that it had happened. I looked through our pile of unread newspapers and found the February 26th edition, and sure enough, on the front page was a picture of the suspect. The man has not been found yet; the police and crime task force are still looking, and have offered $1000 reward for information leading to an arrest. How exciting! I will keep my eyes peeled.

Grammar notes.

Related vocabulary: crime, handbag, groceries, local newspaper, burglary, pharmacy, reward, task force.

*Would. Ex: Some would say that the governor is wise, but I think he is foolish.

To mean well. Ex: They mean well, but they are very unhelpful.

(Not) the case. Ex: The land was to be protected, but that was not the case.

Advanced.

So there has been a robbery in town, a double one. It's a shock for the community, especially considering that everybody seems to know eachother. The reward has not been claimed, and so far there are no leads. Mind you, the picture in the newspaper is pretty awful. The suspect looks like an alien. I think if there was a creature like that in this town, he would be spotted 2 immediately. Thankfully, no one was hurt in either robbery. It would be very scary to be the one behind the counter who has the gun pointed 3 at his face. I would not like to be in his shoes. Perhaps the criminal will be caught by making some kind of mistake. They are human, so they are prone 4 to errors, just as we are. There are stories of criminals who are not so bright, who give themselves away. Apparently 5, one man decided 6 to rob a quick stop foodmart. The trouble is, he was on his lunch break from work, and he had forgotten to take off his name tag from his place of employment. As soon as he had taken the money and left, the cashier phoned the police and told them the name of the criminal and where he worked. The poor guy, how embarrassing! It must have been his first time on the dark side. It sounds like he was nervous and unprepared. Well, hopefully the embarrassment 7 of the situation stopped him from ever trying it again. As they say here, "If you don't want to do the time, don't do the crime."

Grammar notes.

Related vocabulary: creature, to be prone to .., mistake, error, lunch break, cashier, embarrassing, foodmart.

* Claim. Ex: The lost puppy 8 has not been claimed.

Embarrassing. Ex: His pants fell down infront of everybody. How embarrassing!

Lunch break. Ex: I would not like to miss my lunch break. It's the only time that I have free.