节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-08-09
难易度:Medium
关键字:detective, suspicious, exception, anniversary, mastermind, plastic surgery

Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And you're joining us for the second day of our lesson about The Great Train
Robbery.
So far we have learned about how some robbers got on a train called the Night
Flyer, and they tried to get away with 2.6 million pounds.
Back in 1963, of course that was a lot of money.
That's almost US$50 million today.
So we're going to continue this story.
Now a train... a train might transport lots of different kinds of things, of
course.
We learned about the High Value Packages on the train yesterday.
What other things might trains transport?
Carolyn?
Well, they can really transport anything.
They can transport people, of course.
Lots of people like to ride on trains to get from one place to another very
quickly.
But you know, trains can also be used to carry anything from toys to chemicals,
to coal, to even car parts.
I know that the company Porsche uses trains to transport a lot of their car
parts, not a full car but pieces of it.
That's a good point.
Trains carry a lot of different kinds of cargo, not only people but food,
liquids, gases...
Lots of different kinds of things are transported by train.
What are some things that you can think about?
Well, we're going to continue this story - The Great Train Robbery.
Let's do that now.
(Music).
The Great Train Robbery.
The Hunt.
In response to Britain's biggest train robbery, Scotland Yard assembled a team
of detectives called the Flying Squad.
They received a call about suspicious activity at a place called Leatherslade
Farm.
It turned out to be the thieves' hideout.
"The whole place is one big clue," one detective said.
They made the first arrest the following day, but the last wasn't made until
1968, when mastermind Bruce Reynolds was finally caught.
Most of the robbers received 25 or 30 years of jail time, though all were
released by 1978.
(Music).
OK. Most of these robbers were caught by this time.
But we're going to learn later about someone else who got away for a little bit
longer.
First, let's go back to the beginning of this section called The Hunt.
Now we're not talking about hunting animals, right, Carolyn?
That's right, Gabe.
Today we are talking about hunting for people.
Now it's not quite the same as hunting for an animal.
Here we are using this word to mean to look for, to be very serious about trying
to find something.
That's right.
So these people, the police, the government is very serious about hunting for
these 15 robbers.
All right.
In response to Britain's biggest train robbery, Scotland Yard assembled a team
of detectives called the Flying Squad.
OK. So let's go back to the beginning of this sentence.
We see the phrase "in response to." OK.
So the biggest train robbery happened, and now there is a response.
I might also use this phrase in another way.
I could say, "In response to my new request for a pay raise, my boss just
laughed." That was her response.
Well, that is one response.
But this response was to send out detectives.
And "detective" is a word from our Word Bank.
Now a detective is a person who investigates or tries to solve a crime by
gathering clues.
And this person is usually a police officer, doesn't have to be, but here we're
talking about Scotland Yard.
So these would be very well-trained police officers.
And it makes me think of Sherlock Holmes, who was a very great detective in a
series of books.
That's right.
That's probably the most famous detective in fiction - Sherlock Holmes.
But of course it also makes me think of a TV show now called Monk.
He is a detective trying to solve different problems.
I think stories involving detectives are quite popular.
There are so many out there.
So a team of detectives called the Flying Squad went after these 15 robbers.
And how does the story continue?
Well, it does continue, but the Flying Squad is also one of the most famous
British detective groups.
So they handle some of the most dangerous crimes and trying to catch the most
dangerous criminals.
Now we do continue.
They received a call about suspicious activity at a place called Leatherslade
Farm.
So they got a call about suspicious activity, Gabe.
Yeah. I wonder what's going on there.
Maybe you see something suspicious, and you are curious about that.
OK, let's look at that word from our Word Bank.
It is the word "suspicious." If something is suspicious, that means you're not
sure about it.
You're not sure if it's good or bad.
Maybe it seems bad, but you're not sure, so it's suspicious.
That's right.
So it's something that you question because you don't know what is going on.
I was a little bit suspicious of Gabe the other day because I could hear him
saying my name.
But it turned out to be nothing.
He was actually just trying to get ahold of one of my friends.
Exactly, Carolyn.
Nothing suspicious was going on.
Well friends, you might see signs at certain public places if you go traveling
to the West.
And they might say: Report anything suspicious to the police.
For example, if you see a bag just sitting around and nobody is with it, that
might be a suspicious bag.
It might be a bomb or something else.
Report that to the police.
It is a suspicious item.
Well, we do want to make sure we pay attention when things seem suspicious.
And so these detectives got a call about suspicious activity happening on this
farm.
It turned out to be the thieves' hideout.
So this is where the thieves were staying.
And what happened next, Gabe?
Well, we see a phrase there in that sentence: it turned out.
Let's look at that.
You're not sure about something, but then in the end, you find out the real
reason.
So you could say it turned out to be this way.
They thought it was suspicious.
And as it turned out, it was the thieves' hideout.
But you could use this in other ways, too.
I knew that Marty was smart.
Well, as it turns out, he's the smartest guy in our class.
Well, we will continue on in the story.
"The whole place is one big clue," one detective said.
So they're very excited to have found this farm because the whole house, the
whole grounds is a clue.
It was one clue.
And so they made the first arrest the following day.
It didn't take them long.
They made the arrest the following day, but the last wasn't made until when?
Until 1968 when mastermind Bruce Reynolds was finally caught.
So they caught most of the robbers, but the mastermind, maybe the person who
organized the robbery, he was finally caught in 1968.
So it took them almost five years to find the person who organized the robbery -
Bruce Reynolds.
Now most of the robbers received 25 or 30 years of jail time, though all were
released by 1978.
So even though they received rather lengthy sentences, 25 to 30 years in the
court, they were actually let out of jail by 1978.
That's right.
If you remember, the robbery happened in 1963.
If they were caught and they were given 25 to 30 years in jail, then they were
actually let loose only... well, only within 15 years.
So I think the government was actually being a little bit nice to them.
They were released by 1978.
Now it's time for us to learn something new with Michelle in the Language Lab.