Requests with imperatives and modals

Turn the TV down.	Can you turn the TV down?
Leave the door open.	Could you leave the door open, please?
Please keep the noise down.	Would you please keep the noise down?
Move your car, please.	Would you mind moving your car?
Please don’t park here.	Would you mind not parking here, please?

5. Rewrite the requests using one of the patterns below.

Examples:

Pass me that book.	Can you pass me that book?
	Could …
	Would …
	Would you mind passing me that book?

a) Don’t smoke in the room. ...

b) Take this form to the office. ...

c) Close the cupboard. ...

d) Don’t leave the door open. ...

e) Don’t put your feet on the desk. ...

f) Let me share your book. ...

g) Don’t eat in the classroom. ...

h) Don’t come to class late. ...

Shootings, stabbings, murder

murder, homicide, knifing, stabbing, shooting, firearm,

handgun, Saturday Night special, pack a piece, drive-by shooting

Killing someone intentionally is murder, often referred to in law as homicide.

Victims may die as the result of a knifing or stabbing, where a knife is used, or a shooting, when a gun is used. Guns are also firearms. Guns such as pistols and revolvers are called handguns. Being armed with a handguns known, very informally, as packing a piece.

Cheap, easily available handguns are called Saturday Night Specials, even if people do not always use them at that time of the week.

Where people are shot from a moving car, they are victims of a drive-by shooting, or a drive-by.

Gun culture. The transcript below is from National Public Radio. The program presenter speaks twice, introducing contributions from two outside specialists, who each speak once. At what two points of the transcript, indicated by numbers, does the presenter start speaking and at what points do each of the two specialists start speaking? (Not all the numbers indicate a change of speaker.)

Packing a Piece

1. The popular image of urban homicide is one of the urban gang battles and drive-by shootings. But half the people who kill each other also know one another. Many are members of the same family. Jerry Glidden is director of the Chicago Crime Commission, a non-profit organization that monitors why people commit violent crimes.

2. They have a lot of pressure on them, put on them by various agencies – whether it’s probation (испытание) or social work or the landlord (арендодатель) or the police whoever.

3. And if the wife goes out and does something, or if the husband goes out and gets drunk (напивается) and there’s a big argument (бурная ссора), and then sometimes one of them will wait till the other one goes to sleep and shoot them or stab them.

4. The gangs – it’s over street turf (территория, контролируемая уличными гангстерами) or to show just how tough (сленг «крутой», представитель преступного мира, модный, эффектный, неординарный) they are.

5. Sometimes they’ll shoot a group on the corner just to see if – see how the gun works. Makes no sense at all. The availability of a gun often makes a big difference between a mere argument (собственно ссора) and a shooting. And the deadlier the weapon, the more likely it is that someone will die.

6. Gwen Fitzgerald, of Handgun Control, says criminals know this and they’re looking for the most powerful guns they can find.

7. One veteran law enforcement officer (участковый инспектор) said, you know, 20 years ago when he started, all criminals were not armed.

8. And then, you know, in the 60’s and 70’s, yeah, they were armed with the Saturday Night Special handguns – very small, easily concealable (легко маскируемый) handguns, usually a few rounds, maybe six or eight rounds. Now not only all the criminals carry guns, but they’ve got semi-automatic technology.