A: Vocabulary Elementary Lesson Pinching Pennies - Man on Trial Pre-Reading Activities

Match the words with their meanings.

I. A drifter is

2. A trial is

3. If someone steals something

4. A prosecutor Is

5. A prison sentence is

6. Taxpayers are

7. A crime is

a. people who pay tax (money paid to the government).

b. something that someone does that is against the law.

c. a lawyer who tries to prove someone is guilty of a crime.

d. someone who moves from place to place without a plan and doesn’t have a home.

e.they take it without you knowing or without paying for it

f. the time someone has to spend inside a prison because they are being punished for a crime.

g. the time in a court where a judge or a jury listens and decides if a person has done something wrong.

B: Discussion

Work in small groups.

How would you punish someone for stealing the different amounts of money below?

Amount of money stolen:

. more than $1,000,000

• between $500,000 and$ 1,000,000 between $50,000 and $100,000

• between $10,000 and $40, 000 between $1,000 and $5,000

• between $100 and $500

• between $10 and $90

• $1

• 50 cents

Punishments

prison for life (a person stays in prison until they die)

• prison for 20 years

• prison for 10 years

• prison for 5 years

• prison for 1 year

• prison for 6 months

• community service ( the person does work for the community without pay)

• other punishment(your own idea)

Reading Activities

A. Reading Quickly

Read today’s article quickly. (Don’t use your dictionary.) Then choose the sentence that gives the best summary of the article.

1. A drifter is on trial.

2. Sam Perelli is the state chairman of United Taxpayers’ of New Jersey.

3. A man is on trial for stealing 58 cents and could have a 10 year prison sentence.

4. In 1999 a man stole some money from a car in New Jersey.

Man on Trial for Stealing 58 Cents from Car

BELVIDERE, N.J. Wednesday March 28 (Reuters) - A drifter is on trial for stealing 58 cents from a car in a supermarket car park on June 6, 1999. His trial and imprisonment could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Prosecutors are pressing for a prison sentence of between five and ten years for the man.

It had already cost taxpayers $16,000 to keep the man in prison before his trial started on Monday, local officials said.

If he receives the maximum prison sentence, local officials said it could cost the taxpayers about $270,000.

“That’s a waste of taxpayers’ money for a crime that wasn’t life threatening,” said Sam Perelli, state chairman of United Taxpayers of New Jersey. “For 58 cents it seems crazy to prosecute him and spend this huge amount of money to keep him in prison.”

B. Questions

Read the article carefully and answer the questions below.

1. Who is on trial?

2. Why is he on trial?

3, What do the prosecutors want?

4. How much did it cost to keep the man in prison before his trial?

5. How much will it cost the taxpayer if he receives the maximum prison sentence?

6. Does Perelli think it is a good idea to put the man in prison?

D: Reading in Detail

Read this sentence from today’s article. Then answer the questions by choosing the best answer.

‘That’s a waste of taxpayers’ money for a crime that wasn’t life threatening.”

1. that means

A The money spent on keeping the man in prison.

b. The 58 cents

2. waste means

a. The money is spent carefully.

b. The money is not spent carefully.

3.life threatening means

a. dangerous

b. not dangerous

E: Listening

You are going to hear your teacher read today article. However, your teacher’s article and your article are not the same. There are 10 differences. Listen and mark the differences on your paper.

Post-Reading Activities

You may do one or more of these.

A: Discussion

Work together in pairs or small groups. Look at the questions below and talk abut the answers.

1. Do you think the man in today article should go to prison for 10 years? Why /why not? 2. What might happen to this man in your country?

3. Why do you think the prosecutors want him to have a long prison sen

B: Using the Language

In today article there were these words: “tax payers’ money”

This punctuation mark’ is called an apostrophe.

Use ‘s or -s’ to write these phrases in another way.

Example:

a dress for a woman

a woman’s dress

1. a name for a boy

2. a school for boys

3. the offices of the new company

4. a room for the children

5. a book for girls

6. the plan of the government

C: Vocabulary

Read the paragraph and fill in the gaps with these words.

waste prosecutors prison sentence taxpayers’ stealing

crime life-threatening drifter maximum trial

A( 1)___ is on( 2)_ for (3)58 cents. The( 4)____want the man to be given the (5)_10 year (6) . Other people say it is a (7)_of (8)_____

money for a (9)_that wasn’t (10).

TEACHERS’ NOTES AND ANSWER KEY

Pre-Reading Activities

k Vocabulary - Answers

1. d 2. g 3. e 4. c 5. f 6. a 7. b

B: Discussion - Notes

If students are from different countries, you may also like to ask this question. “What punishments would be given in your country for crimes like these?”

Reading Activities

B: Reading Quickly - Answers

The best summary is 3

C: Questions Answers

1. A drifter.

2. For stealing 58 cents

3. A 5 - 10 year prison sentence

4. $16,000

5. $270,000

6. No, he thinks it’s crazy to spend so much of the taxpayers’ money to punish someone for such a small crime.

D: Reading in Detail - Answers

E: Listening - Notes

Students can look back at their copy of the article while you read the text below. They can underline or circle any differences they hear. Read the text up to three times.

E: Listening - Text to be read aloud to students

A teacher is on trial for stealing 58 dollars from a car in a shopping mall car park on June 6, 2000. His trial and imprisonment could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Prosecutors are pressing for a prison sentence of between 5 and 20 years for the man.

It had already cost taxpayers $60,000 to keep the man in prison before his trial started on Monday local officials said.

If he receives the maximum prison sentence, local officials said it could cost the taxpayers about $217,000.

“That’s a waste of taxpayers’ money for a crime that wasn’t life threatening,” said John Perelli, state chairman of United Taxpayers of New Hampshire. “For 85 cents it seems crazy to prosecute him and spend this huge amount of money to keep him in prison.”

E: Listening - Answers

(Errors are shown in bold type and brackets.)

1. (teacher) drifter

2. (dollars) ce

3. (shopping mail) supermarket

4. (2000) 1999

5. (20 years) 10 years

6. (60,000) $16,000

7. (217,000) $270,000

8. (John) Sam

9.( Hampshire) New Jersey 10. (85)58

Post-Reading Activities

B: Using the Language - Notes Here are a few rules for apostrophes.

after a singular noun -‘S is used: the boy’s bicycle

after a plural noun the apostrophe is placed like this - s’: (the girls’ bedroom) if the plural noun doesn’t end in —s, then -‘s is added: the men’s breakfast