When you are away from home Using the postcode for marking valuables

Eight out of ten burglaries occur when a house or flat is empty. So don’t advertise your absence when you’re on holiday, or even out at work or shopping. Instead, fit time switches – available from DIY shops – to turn your lights on after dark. Don’t leave valuable items such as a TV or video visible through the window. During the day, keep the items out of sight; at night, draw the curtains. Ask a friend or neighbour to keep an eye on the house while you are away on holiday – to collect mail left in the letterbox, sweep up leaves, even mow the lawn and generally make the house looked lived in.

Thieves look for portable, high-value, easily saleable goods. One excellent way to protect items is to mark them with an indelible identification showing your postcode, the number of your house or flat or the first two letters of its name. Put a sticker – available from police stations – in a front window to tell thieves that your property is marked. The sticker will make them think twice. The marking makes it harder for a thief to sell your property to a dealer, and easier for the police to return the property to you if it is found. Keep a list too of the serial numbers of your television, video and hi-fi equipment. The numbers will be useful if you need to make an insurance claim.

Task 1. Search the text for the synonyms to the following words and word combinations.

To happen –

To demonstrate, to show –

Somewhere you can’t see –

To watch carefully –

To pick up and take away –

To consider very carefully –

To try to find –

Use the synonymous expressions you have found in sentences of your own.

Task 2. Use the adjective from the text to say the same in one word.

For example: Something you can wash without damage. → It is washable.

Something that is difficult to read. → It is unreadable.

Something you can sale. →

Something you can see. →

Something that costs a lot of money. →

Something you can use, buy or find easily. →

Something you can’t remove. →

Task 3. Summarize the text by putting the main instructions as heading, with brief explanations below them.

For example: Don’t advertise your absence when you’re on holiday.

– Fit time switches to turn on the lights.

Task 4. Someone is telling you about a friend who is going on a business trip abroad for 2 weeks. Recommend him / her to do or not to do certain things to protect his / her property while he / she is away. Use the information from the text and your own ideas.

For example: Let him fit time switches to turn on the lights after dark. (Пусть он …)

Don’t let her leave valuable items visible through the window. (Пусть она не …)

Task 5. Translate the sentences into English using the vocabulary of the text:

1. Даже если вы вышли за покупками, не афишируйте свое отсутствие.

2. Большинство квартирных краж происходит, когда квартира пустая.

3. Воры, как правило, берут ценные вещи, которые легко унести в руках и которые легко продать.

4. Попросите родственников присмотреть за вашей квартирой, пока вы в командировке или в отпуске.

5. Не оставляйте на виду драгоценности, храните их подальше от посторонних глаз.

6. Хороший способ защитить свою собственность – установить в квартире сигнализацию (burglar alarm).

7. Такие системы сигнализации имеются (доступны) в специализированных магазинах.

8. Полиция советует сделать на домашней технике несмываемые надписи, где можно указать свой почтовый индекс, номер дома или квартиры, инициалы.

9. Составьте список серийных номеров бытовой техники и аудио/видеоаппаратуры, храните его – он может понадобиться полиции и страховой компании в случае кражи.