tekst:
At 6.50 pm on 7th August 1963, a special mail train left Glasgow in Scotland on its way to London. The train consisted of 12 coaches and carried 72 post office staff, whose job was to sort out the mail during the night as the train travelled towards London. One of the coaches was known as the HVP coach, the high value package coach, and it was full of money. At three o’clock the next morning, the driver stopped the train at a red light about 50 kilometres north of London. He didn’t realise that the light was not a real signal but part of a plan to carry out the biggest robbery in British history, which became known as The Great Train Robbery.
A gang of 15 criminals from London had planned the robbery and several gang members quickly entered the HVP coach. To their surprise, there were no security guards on board the train so they were able to remove 121 sacks containing banknotes and other valuables and to transfer them quickly to a waiting truck. The robbers then disappeared into the night. They had stolen £2.6 million in cash, which is the equivalent of about £35 million (€40 million) today. But the gang were not able to enjoy the money that they had stolen for very long. Between August and December 1963, most of the gang were arrested.
In January 1964, 11 of the robbers were put on trial and all of them were found guilty. Seven were sentenced to 30 years in prison. And what about the money? Well, most of it has never been found and, as many of the gang members are now dead, perhaps we will never know what really happened to it.
Read the text and choose the correct answers.
1 Where was the train going? a) To Scotland. b) To London. c) To Glasgow.
2 What was the high value package coach loaded with? a) Post office stuff. b) Cash. c) Robbers.
3 Who was involved in the robbery? a) Some criminals. b) Some security guards.
c) The train driver.
4 How much money did the robbers take? a) £2.6 million. b) £35 million. c) £40 million.
5 How many robbers were found guilty in 1964? a) Thirty. b) Seven. c) Eleven.
