On Wednesday, a man working in an Auckland Dairy, Janak Patel, was killed by robbers. This has caused a huge concern in New Zealand for several reasons.
The first concern is that shop owners have been asking for protection from robbery for some time. There is government funding to help protect shops with things like bollards and fog cannons, but business owners have had trouble getting their applications granted. The owner of the dairy that was robbed on Wednesday had applied for a fog cannon, but been turned down. The government says that they will investigate to find out how this happened.
The other concern has been reported by Auckland newspaper, the New Zealand Herald. They say that one of the three robbers was deported from Australia recently. We don’t know all of the facts yet, but since 2014 the Australian government has been deporting criminals who were born overseas even though they have lived in Australia for most of their lives. Because many New Zealanders live in Australia, this is creating a lot of problems for New Zealand. Many troubled people are arriving here because of this. The name of the Australian law that allows this is called “Section 501”. You may hear people talking about section 501 quite often when they are discussing the relationship between Australia and New Zealand.
Since Wednesday, people have been gathering around the Auckland dairy to pay their respects. On Sunday, Janak Patel was farewelled in an Auckland funeral, and people will also be holding a silent vigil between 12:30pm and 2:30pm today. The vigil will be outside the office of the Prime Minister in Mt Albert, and the office of the Deputy Prime Minister in Wellington, as a form of protest. People will gather outside other government offices around the country. Shops and dairies will also be closing around the country during this time.
Vocabulary:
dairy: (NZ) a convenience store
rob: (v) to use violence to steal
robber: (n)someone who robs
robbery: (n) the act of robbing
huge: very big
funding: money for a special purpose
bollard: a heavy post that stops someone from being able to drive a car into an area, but people can still walk through
fog cannon: a machine that makes fog. If a shop worker is being robbed, they can press a button to turn on the fog cannon. It will make it easy for the shop worker to run away.
application: a document for making a request, or asking for something.
(application) granted: (passive verb) If you make an application and the decision is “yes”, then your application is granted.
(application) turned down: (passive verb) If you make an application and the decision is “no”, then your application is turned down.
Investigate: get more information
Deport: force somebody to leave the country
even though: even though is similar to but. For example: I like him but he is rude. I like him even though he is rude. “Even though” has more emphasis on the contrast of the two facts.
creating: making
troubled: having problems
farewell: say goodbye, goodbye
funeral: a ceremony to say goodbye to someone who has died
vigil: a gathering to remember someone who has died
Look at this paragraph. How many different tenses can you find? Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the *answer.
The first concern is that shop owners have been asking for protection from robbery for some time. There is government funding to help protect shops with things like bollards and fog cannons, but business owners have had trouble getting their applications granted. The owner of the dairy that was robbed on Wednesday had applied for a fog cannon, but been turned down. The government says that they will investigate to find out how this happened.
a. 5: Present simple, future perfect continuous (progressive), past perfect, future simple, future continuous (progressive)
b. 4: Present simple, present perfect simple, past perfect, future simple
c. 3: present continuous, past perfect, future simple
d. 6: Present simple, present perfect continuous (progressive), future continuous, future simple, future perfect, past perfect
* the answer is b