Real Exam English Season 4 – Crime
Hello and welcome to Real Exam English. This episode is about crime. We have speakers from the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia and from Spain, all answering questions about their countries and what crimes are committed there. It´s amazing how different it is in each place. We have loads of super crime vocabulary and some excellent adverb usage so make sure to check out the transcript, which is available on the Real Exam English website, realexamenglish.com
Ok, let´s go with the questions.
Is your country a safe country?
Absolutely not. We have ridiculous availability of firearms throughout most of the country. It's sick and demented and utterly unnecessary. I luckily live in a part of the country where we have very strict laws accessing and using firearms, so I feel safer here than I would in most other places in the country.
Should police in my country be stricter or less strict?
It is not really a question of strict here, it is a question of the level of appropriateness and whether police are using their level of force fairly or appropriately. And too many places people of color are injured or killed without reason because of the nature of white supremacy and structural racism in this country and there are not the appropriate resources to actually meet the needs of public safety.
Ok, no prizes for guessing which country this speaker is from, the US of course! I love the adjectives and adverbs in the first answer, absolutely not, ridiculous availability of firearms, it´s sick and demented and utterly unnecessary, I luckily live in a part of the country with strict laws. So a wide range of language there, which is, of course, important. This adverb utterly is great, it has a similar meaning to completely or absolutely and has some common collocations, like utterly ridiculous, utterly convinced or utterly useless.
In the second answer she speaks about racial issues in the USA. A lot of people aren´t sure how to speak about race in a politically-correct way and this language varies a bit from country to country and what is acceptable changes over time too, so it was interesting to hear her say people of color. She also mentioned white supremacy, which of course is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and should dominate them. And she also referred to structural racism, which is when the whole society is structured in such a way as to favour one race and to be unfair to others.
What do you think the most common crime in your country is?
Are we talking about the UK or are we talking about Spain?
Say Spain.
Well, I'd say in Spain, in the tourist areas, I would say pickpocketing and stealing from people's person, you know, purses. And there was a time where there was a lot of motorbike robbing where tourists would be walking along the street and two, there'd be two guys on a on a motorbike or two girls, whatever, and they would snatch the woman's handbag and that was maybe 10 years ago there was a spate of that, but now I think mainly it's pickpockets in big cities like Barcelona and Madrid, you've gotta be really careful. I think more than anything else, it's probably that. I don't think there's really mega, mega, serious crime or I'm not aware of it where I live.
Do you think that young criminals should be sent to prison for serious crimes?
Well of course. How can the answer not be yes? I mean, what what….young criminals, at what age? I mean, if it's a young criminal of 10 years old, then that's another thing, they should be sent to a juvenile detention center where they try to reeducate them. But in general, if they're young, 17/18 year olds and they know what they're doing, then of course they should go to prison. It depends on the crime as well, so you need more information, don't you? To be able to give a good a good reason why you would send them, but yeah, if they've done something bad, then yeah, they should go to prison. And if they're too young then they should go to juvenile detention. Of course, you should be punished for what you do.
A lovely London accent there of one of my fellow Cambridge examiners here in Spain. We heard a few different crimes being mentioned, robbing, stealing and pickpocketing, this last one is where some takes something from your pocket or bag without you noticing. As she said it´s very common in touristy areas and she said that sometimes people snatch a woman´s handbag, which is to take it by force. Another example would be, I had my mobile phone snatched while I was walking down the street. She mentioned that there was a spate of these snatchings, this word spate is great, it means large number of unpleasant things happening around the same time, like there was a spate of burglaries on my street or the police are investigating a spate of muggings in the city centre.
Lastly, she talked about juvenile detention centre, which is where youngsters who are not yet 18 are sent as punishment, rather than prison, which is for adults.
Is your country a safe country?
Well, we live in Australia and I would definitely say it's a safe country. But you know, like anywhere, if you go out to some places at night, you know you need to take extra caution. But I think that's just being sensible, so.
Do I think criminals can change?
It's not really a subject that I know a lot about. I'd like to think that there is the possibility, of course, that they could, you know, change and learn things. But you know, like, because there's a lot of re-offenders then that's probably just not a realistic belief of mine.
Ok, so she starts here second answer with it´s not really a subject that I know a lot about. This is a really handy sentence for an exam. Very often, particularly in C1 and C2 exams, you get asked questions which you really haven´t thought about before or you might not have much knowledge of the topic. This doesn´t mean that you still can´t give a good answer however, so you can start off with something like this, it´s not really a subject that I know a lot about to be honest and follow with a short and sweet speculative answer, like I suppose that or I imagine, something like that. And then wait for the next question where hopefully you can give a longer, more detailed answer.
In this case, the speaker expands her answer with I´d like to think that there is a possibility they can change. This, I´d like to think that, is a super chunk of language. You use it when you hope something is true, but you are not really sure that it might be. For instance, I´d like to think that my business is going to be successful, or I´d like to think that my daughter always tells me the truth.
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What do you think the most common crime in your country is?
Goodness, I don't know. I stay out of the way here. If I was in the UK, I'd probably say something like speeding or maybe smoking some exotic herbs. But yeah, I'd say in the UK, I'd say speeding. Over here, everyone's quite well behaved. It's Germany so you know they, they they like to stick to the rules.
Do you think that video games encourage young people to commit crimes?
No, I think we had this, didn't we? We had this when I was young. Music encourages young people. This encourages young people. That encourages young people, I think…some young people don't need any encouragement to commit crimes, some middle-aged people don't need any encouragement to commit crimes. I think that's down to the individual rather than any outside influence. You know, we, you know, I mean, I've watched horror movies all my life and I've never once chopped someone up with a chainsaw.
Not yet anyway
No, not yet no, the day is young, it’s only midday.
Some British humour there for you! He starts his first answer with goodness, which is a very polite substitute for saying God. He mentions speeding, which is driving your car too fast, and smoking exotic herbs, speaking about marijuana of course. Like in most languages, I guess, there are numerous ways of talking about marijuana, the most common ones in English are weed, grass, pot, dope, ganja, Mary Jane, reefer, and the list goes on. Whether or not smoking weed is a crime, depends on the country these days of course, but it looks like the general trend is towards legalization, including in Germany, where this speaker was recording from. Interestingly he said that he finds people well-behaved in Germany, that they stick to the rules, which I guess is a bit of a stereotype most outsiders have of Germany, where true or not.
Is your country a safe country?
Yes, our country would be predominantly a safe country. You have to keep your wits about you and be mindful of other people and to not go out alone, for example. But I can easily get the train, the DART, the a taxi home alone without being in fear of being mugged. If you go into our city center it might be a little bit more on the rough side with more people that are poor, which is unfortunate. However, generally it is safe enough to walk through the city center as long as you are being considerate of those around you.
Do you think that young criminals should be sent to prison for serious crimes?
I think that it depends on the crime. I think that they should go into some sort of rehabilitation and have a Big Brother type organized situation for them. I think that their background and history needs to be looked at as well, because a lot of it could be to do with education and so maybe through lack of education they may not know a better route in life, so I think they need to be helped first and foremost, if at all possible.
This speaker said that her country, which is Ireland by the way, is predominantly a safe country. This adverb predominantly is nice isn´t it, it´s like a fancier way of saying mainly, or mostly. Like, India is a predominantly Hindu country, or the school focuses predominantly on science.
Then we have this excellent expression, you have to keep your wits about you, which means you have to be alert and vigilant in case there is any danger. Like, as a solo backpacker, you have to keep your wits about you at all times.
She mentioned being mugged, which is to attack someone and steal their possessions. And that the city centre can be a bit more on the rough side, which means it’s a bit more dangerous and dodgy.
Lastly, she recommends some sort of rehabilitation, where the criminals return to a good way of life again, using education first and foremost. Nice.
Well on that positive note we’ll leave it for today. Gladly, you have chosen the path of education and that´s why you are here, listening to this podcast. Hopefully, you found the episode useful, keep an eye out for most episodes in the near future.
All the best!
Trevor