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photo Tara Benwell Listen to News with Tara Benwell - Instructions:
1. Preview the vocabulary and read the gapfill text.
3. Answer the comprehension questions by writing full sentences.

dateline: 14 May 2013

Kidnapped Women Free After 10 Years

Pre-Listening Vocabulary

  • held captive: kept somewhere against one’s will; unable to get free
  • decade: ten years
  • alert: notify someone of a problem or concern
  • captor: a person who takes and holds a person against his or her will; kidnapper
  • confine: to keep in a small area

Kidnapped Women Free After 10 Years

Three women were freed last week after being held captive in a home in an Ohio neighbourhood for a decade. Amanda Berry, who had been since 2003, found her way to a door while her captor was out and was able to alert neighbours who called 911. Berry was with her daughter who had been born in captivity. When the police arrived, they found two other missing women inside the home. Their captor, a driver named Ariel Castro, was arrested and has been charged with kidnapping and rape. He may also be charged with murdering the women’s children. The women had been chained in the basement and later confined to the upstairs bedrooms.

Comprehension Questions

  1. Where were the women being held?
  2. What did police find when the went to the home that Amanda Berry escaped from?
  3. Why might Ariel Castro be charged with murder?

Discussion Question:
Many of Castro’s family members have spoken to the media about how horrified they are about this crime. In what ways do the family members of criminals often pay for crimes that they did not commit?

show Answers

Written by Tara Benwell for EnglishClub

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