Text 7. Burglarproof your home

Can you imagine anything worse than returning home to find that burglars have broken into your house? Unfortunately, this happens to about one million people in Britain annually. The chances that your house may be burgled are increasing rapidly. However, if you want better protection against burglars, there are several things you can do. To improve security, check all the locks on your doors and windows. The installation of lighting all around the house will make sure a burglar is unable to hide in the shadows. An alarm system is another good preventative measure you can take. When leaving the house, double-check that all doors – including sheds and garage – are locked. If you have a phone answering machine think carefully about the message you leave. Don’t suggest the house is empty – merely that you are busy.

Starting a neighbourhood watch group is also a very effective way to prevent crime in your area. Since most burglaries take place when people are away on holiday, this is when your neighbours’ help is most valuable. Ask them to collect your mail, open and close your curtains every day, switch your lights on and off and even mow your lawn to make your house look occupied.

Unit 5 text 8. Suspect jailed for shaving off eyebrows

A suspected burglar who shaved off his eyebrows to thwart a police identity parade was jailed for six months yesterday for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Paul Gilhaney, 28, asked police if he could shave his stubble before the parade but when he emerged from the police station bathroom his eyebrows were missing. He told the supervising officer he had a medical condition. The officer said, “You had them earlier – when did they fall off?”

No one picked him out as the suspected house breaker and police took no action because of lack of evidence. But at Cardiff Crown Court yesterday, Gilhaney admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice and was also ordered to serve 122 days from a suspended sentence for burglary.

The court was told Gilhaney took to the razor in panic because of the previous conviction.

(from “Current”)

Text 9.

There was nothing notable about him, except a slight contrast between the holiday gaiety of his clothes and the official gravity of his face. His clothes included a slight, pale grey jacket, a white waistcoat and a silver straw hat with a grey-blue ribbon. His lean face was dark by contrast, and ended in a curt black beard that looked Spanish and suggested an Elizabethan ruff. He was smoking a cigarette with the seriousness of an idler. There was nothing about him to indicate the fact that the grey jacket covered a loaded revolver, that the white waistcoat covered a police card, or that the straw hat covered one of the most powerful intellects in Europe. For this was Valentin himself, the head of the Paris police and the most famous investigator of the world; and he was coming from Brussels to London to make the greatest arrest of the century.

(after G.K.Chestertone)