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Reading and Writing Portfolio 11
Reading a story
Writing verb forms in narratives;
getting ideas; a narrative
Review Past Simple; Past Continuous;
crime
Telling a story
1 Read the first part of the story and put pictures A–F in order.
2 Read the story again. Are these
sentences true (T) or false (F)?
1 Detective Inspector Carr knew
the man on the phone.
2 The man told Carr what the
thieves planned to steal.
3 The police immediately knew
who the robbers were.
4 The thieves were planning to
steal some diamonds and £200
million.
5 There were three people
involved in the robbery.
6 The real diamonds were not
in the Dome at the time of the
robbery.
HELP WITH WRITING
Verb forms in narratives
3 a Match these verb forms to
sentences a–c from the story.
1 Past Simple
2 Past Continuous
3 Past Simple passive
a But what were the thieves planning
to do?
b On 1st September, three of the
suspects were seen in the Dome.
c The police immediately started an
investigation.
b Read the story again. Which are
the two most common verb forms
in the story? and
c Underline three examples of the
most common verb forms in the story.
3
3
A B
D
C
E 1 F
Operation Magician: The Robbery of the Century
It was a warm day in the middle of summer, when Detective Inspector
Sam Carr’s phone rang. The man on the phone was speaking quietly,
but Carr recognised his voice.
“There’s going to be a robbery near the River Thames,” the man said
quietly. “The thieves are going to use a boat to escape.”
Carr rang his boss and told him about the strange phone call. The
police immediately started an investigation*. They called it ‘Operation
Magician’. For the next few weeks, they watched many different
places near the River Thames, including banks and also, of course, the
Millennium Dome.
A few weeks later, Carr knew that the Dome was connected with the
robbery. He also knew the names of the suspects. But what were the
thieves planning to do? The police put cameras inside the Dome and
started filming all the visitors.
On 1st September, three of the suspects were seen in the Dome. They
were looking at the diamond exhibition in the Money Zone and they
were especially interested in the Millennium diamonds – a collection
worth over £200 million.
For the next month, Carr and his officers watched six suspects
carefully. The men were testing a JCB digger* and a boat. But Carr still
didn’t know the time of the robbery. On 6th November, Carr decided to
change the real diamonds for fake* ones.
At 3.00 am on 7th November, Carr arrived at the Dome and spoke to the
200 police officers who were waiting inside.
Six hours later, the Dome was open. It was unusually busy for that time
in the morning – Carr and his officers weren’t wearing uniforms. They
were dressed as tourists, cleaners and other workers.
*investigation = when the police try to discover the facts about a crime
*JCB digger = a large machine used to move earth
*fake = not real

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4 Read the end of the story. Fill in the gaps with the correct
form of the verbs in brackets.
A few minutes after 9.30 am, while Carr and his officers
1were walking (walk) around the Money Zone, a JCB digger
2 (crash) into the side of the Dome. Three men
jumped out* of the digger and 3 (break into) the
glass case* with the fake diamonds.
Carr and his officers moved quickly. They took their guns out of
the bags that they 4 (carry) and then they
5 (arrest) the men in the Money Zone. Outside,
another man 6 (wait) in the boat. The police
quickly arrested him. Operation Magician was a complete
success. No one 7 (shoot) or seriously hurt. Carr
and his officers 8 (be) amazed and very pleased.
After the robbery, police 9 (find) the receipt for the
boat. What 10 (be) the name on the receipt?
‘Mr Diamond’, of course.
*jump out = get out of a car, lorry, etc. suddenly and quickly
*(glass) case = furniture used for displaying something, for example, in a museum
HELP WITH WRITING
Getting ideas
5 a Read the first sentence of the story. Can you
remember the answers to questions 1–3?
It was a warm day in the middle of summer, when Detective
Inspector Sam Carr’s phone rang.
1 Who was on the phone?
2 What did he tell Carr?
3 What did Carr do next?
b Read the beginning of the story in 1 to check
your answers.
c You can get ideas about writing a story by thinking of
questions about the first line. Look at this first line and
notice the questions we can ask to get ideas.
First line of the story: As soon as Ashley walked into the room,
she knew something was wrong.
Some questions: What was wrong? What could she see?
What did Ashley do next?
TIP • The first sentence of a story is important because it should
interest the reader.
5
6 Match the first lines of stories 1–3 to
questions a–c.
1 Ian first met Nicole at a police station
in central London.
2 Suzie recognised the writing on the
letter immediately and suddenly felt
very nervous.
3 Laurie had a problem, but he knew who
to speak to.
a Who wrote the letter? Why did she feel that way?
What did she do next?
b Why was he there? Why was she there?
What happened?
c What was his problem? Who was he going to
talk to? What did he do next?
7 a Choose one of the stories in 6. Then
answer the three questions in 6 to get ideas
for the story.
b Write a story beginning with one of the first
lines in 6.
● Use your notes from 7a.
● Use the Past Simple and Past Continuous in the
story.
● Write about 100–150 words.
● Read and check for mistakes.
● Give your story to your teacher in your next
class.
Tick the things you can do in English in the
Reading and Writing Progress Portfolio, p88.