This is easier than I thought!

This week's story is an example of one of the most dramatic of all news stories: a person is taken away against his will and held in a secret place. The captors demand money for his release. (Sometimes they have other reasons - like forcing the government to release some of their friends from prison.) They threaten to kill their victim unless their demands are met and we follow the story anxiously until we find out what happened to the victim.

Our story takes place over three different days. As you read, you will gradually be able to answer the questions below. You will be able to answer many of them from the first report, but you will continue to add details from the stories which follow. You will quickly notice that much information is repeated from day to day and the last story will seem easier than the first. Below is your list of questions and the story as it appeared on the first day.

• What is the name of the crime?
• Who was the victim?
• How many criminals were involved?
• What was the motive (reason for the crime) of the criminals?
• What methods did they use to carry out the crime? Explain in detail.
• Where did they take their victim and what were conditions like there?
• How did they treat their victim? Did they hurt him? Did they care for him well? Explain.
• Did the crime succeed?
• What happened to the victim? Explain in detail.
• Were any suspects (people suspected of being involved) named?
• Was anyone arrested? If so, who was arrested and how did police find him/them?
• Give any additional information that you think is important.

Activity

Now read the next two instalments of the story and add as much information to your answers as you can. Try to build up your vocabulary by considering the following:

• As you read, look for the various ways the writer describes this particular victim. And what are victims of this type of crime generally called?
• One word used to describe the criminals in this type of crime is "captors." Find at least two more.
• What are some of the words used to describe the action of taking away a person against his will?
• The word "squalid" is used often in the story. Look for examples that help you guess what it means.

July 16, 1998 Kidnap victim vows not to end business Recalls his experience as hostage of gang Wassayos Ngarmkham The Taiwanese entrepreneur who freed himself from 135 days of detention by a group of kidnappers has vowed to carry on running his business in Bangkok. "I will stay in Thailand for my business. I'm not afraid of Thailand. But I will not stay overnight at my office, or the gang could return and hurt me again," said Hsu Chung I, a 56-year-old construction contractor and food concentrate producer. The Taiwanese millionaire was abducted from his office at Uchine Perfumery Chemical (Thailand) Co plant on Rama III Road on March 1. He was detained for over four months in a three-story shophouse in the Tao Poon area, Bang Sue. He escaped to freedom on Monday. Recalling his experience during the detention, Mr Hsu said in Bangkok yesterday that he was frightened the gang might cut off his ears and fingers and send them to his family in Taiwan, to prove that it was holding him for ransom. "That is the normal practice of kidnappers in Taiwan," he said. Conditions in his room in the shophouse were squalid. Mr Hsu said he had to live with his accumulated excrement all the time he was chained to a table there. However, the kidnappers did not torture him during the detention. One of them hit him only once with his elbow upon the abduction when he took him at gunpoint to the shophouse. Later the kidnappers, with their faces always masked, gave him one meal a day as well as diabetic medicines to treat his ailment. "The gangsters did not want me to die. They found my medicines in my trousers and bought more for me after I had had the first lot," he said. Mr Hsu said he killed time by drawing with a pen the gang left and looking at pictures in Thai comics. Recalling his escape, Mr Hsu said the gang was reckless: it left the key of his chain in the room on Monday. While alone there, Mr Hsu managed to get the key. He freed himself from the chain and used it to climb down from the third floor of the shophouse. It was raining heavily at the time. He then called a taxi, without a baht in his pocket, and reached his office, and the return shocked his employees.

July 19, 1998 Alleged kidnapper arrested by police Suspect's wife knew the victim Wassayos Ngarmkham The suspected kidnapper of a Taiwanese businessman, who was held hostage for 135 days, has been arrested. Bancha Wanichbancha, 57, was seized by police on a sports field at Chulalongkorn University in Pathumwan district, on Friday. Officers are still looking for Nirut Srisarakham, 18, and Berm (surname not known) who Bancha said were his alleged accomplices. Hsu Chung I, 56, was kidnapped by two armed men while sleeping at his Uchine Perfumery Chemical (Thailand) Co on Rama III Road on March 1. He was handcuffed, covered with a bag, and taken to a three-storey shophouse in Soi Pracharat 10 in Bang Sue. He was held there in squalid conditions and only given one meal a day for four and a half months, before he managed to escape on July 12. Mr Hsu's information led to the arrest of Bancha. Pol Col Chaturong Phumarin, investigation chief with Metropolitan Police Division 5, said the kidnappers sent 14 letters in Chinese, Thai and English to Mr Hsu's relatives in Taiwan demanding a $1 million (40 million baht) ransom. He said Bancha allegedly registered a pager in the name of a nine-year-old boy which Mr Hsu's relatives could contact. The officer said Bancha had been writing a letter to the relatives in English on the Internet and opening an account with a foreign bank in which they were to deposit the ransom shortly before the arrest. Bancha allegedly knew Mr Hsu because his wife had handled Mr Hsu's shares, bank accounts and expenses. He had even dined with Mr Hsu at his company. Knowing of Mr Hsu's wealth, Bancha and Berm met at Lumpini Park to work out a plan to kidnap him, the officer said. As part of the kidnap preparations, Bancha allegedly rented the shophouse in Bang Sue for 4,000 baht a month, where Mr Hsu had been detained. Bancha allegedly confessed to kidnapping but accused Berm of being the mastermind. They failed in a first attempt, he said. Bancha said Mr Hsu had been held for so long because he could not reach a settlement with his relatives on the amount or how to hand over the money.

Exercise

You have probably learned a lot of English from your our three-day look at the exciting experiences of the unfortunate Mr Hsu. I'm sure you noticed that much of the information was repeated each day. The reason, of course, is that the writer knew some of his readers were reading the story for the first time, so he had to bring them up to date on what had happened so far.

Even though the information was repeated, however, the writer managed to use fresh ways of describing it. Look at the two sentences below. For each word in boldface type, find another word or phrase from one of the stories that can be used instead.

Hsu Chung I, a Taiwanese businessman was detained for 135 days by a group of abductors for 135 days. The 56-year-old tycoon was only allowed one meal a day during his detention.

In the next exercise, try to fill in the blanks without looking back at the three stories.

When Mr Hsu was first captured, he was _____1_____ and taken to a shophouse where he was _____2____ to a table. There, Mr Hsu was held in _____3______ conditions in a room which ____4____ of rotten food and waste.

His _____5________ demanded a ____6______ of $1 million. Although they did hit him once, they did not ____7_______him during his detention.

Mr Hsu was able to escape because his captors were ______8________, leaving a key in his room which he used to free himself.

Police arrested one man and are now looking for his ______9_______. The man arrested has apparently ____10______ to the crime, but has accused another man of being the _____11_______.

My purpose this term is to help your students get started on developing the skills necessary to actually read the Bangkok Post. In other words, I'm serious. That is why I am not just taking single stories, explaining a few words and asking some questions. Your students will never learn to read at advanced levels that way.

But that doesn't mean I have to use difficult stories and difficult activities. In fact, the newspaper is considerably easier to read than most other authentic reading materials and in this lesson you can help your students understand why. Unlike most stories they are accustomed to from their textbooks, news stories often continue for many days. And since so much information is repeated, they get progressively easier to read.

Once again, I would have the students work in small groups, especially since the question list I have provided should generate quite a bit of discussion. Be sure that your students understand the purpose of the exercise - to illustrate that following the same story over several days makes the story easier to read and is an excellent technique for improving their English.

The activity I have designed is quite straightforward and I will only suggest additional things that you might try. Notice that news writers have a very clear method in covering a continuing story. Each day, the story begins with something new (the news). It may be a whole new development or a significant new detail, but it will definitely be something fresh.

Before long, however, the writer starts to bring readers up to date on what has happened before. Interestingly, new information on one day often becomes background information on the next. Our three stories contain some good examples of this. You might want to use the "what's new, what's old" in analysing them and with similar stories that you find on your own.

One nice thing about using continuing stories is that students can very quickly learn to identify vocabulary items and the sequences of events that are common to the type of story they are reading. The stories in this lesson, for example, are good examples of kidnapping stories in general with words and phrases like kidnap, hold hostage, detain, and ransom as well as a description of each stage of the crime from the abduction to the arrest of one of the kidnappers.

Follow-up answers entrepreneur; held hostage; kidnappers; millionaire
1. handcuffed 2. chained 3. squalid 4. stank 5. kidnappers (abductors, captors) 6. ransom 7. torture 8. reckless 9. accomplices 10. confessed 11. mastermind

•This lesson was prepared by Acharn Terry Fredrickson, BA Stanford, MA (TESL) University of Minnesota, Manager of the Educational Services Department at the Bangkok Post and general editor of this programme.