Psychic Arrested for $800000 Fraud
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Directed by Nahuel Adhami INCIDENTAL Music Marcelo Andino WORKPACK Ana Laura Zanfranceschi Eugenia Dell’Osa Silvia Montimurro OBRA REGISTRADA LEVEL Note to teachers Our dear fellow teacher, In this workpack you will find a series of activities to be used with your students both before and after watching the BAP play of your choice. You will find that the activities have been graded for intermediate to upper-intermediate and advanced students and labelled from lower to higher level with 1, 2 and 3. In the Index section, you will find a Teacher’s Corner for some of the activities, with suggested procedures, answer keys where appropriate and follow-ups. All these are simply suggestions. You are the one who knows your students, so please feel free to play around with this workpack as much as you want and let yourself flow with your imagination and inspiration. Have a magical BAP experience, and do let us know what worked best for you and your students! All our love, The Teachers Team 2 SYNOPSIS The idea of getting a part-time job once high school is over may make a lot of sense for many, but not for Eric. He’s just had a super creative business idea to make lots of money easily before starting university. The endeavour seems totally worth the while when he sees he has the right charisma for the job: he’s planning to become a fortune teller and medium. The only thing is, every clairvoyant needs an assistant. His best friend, Daniel, is willing to partner up with him. The site is promptly sorted out as well. Eric’s mum has an apartment which is vacant right now. Even if Rose is not willing to make things easy for her son, she understands he’ll need a place to study to prepare for university, or at least this is what they want her to believe. Eric’s dad, Albert, helps persuade her and she finally agrees. Now, Eric and Daniel will have to keep the real use of the apartment secret from Eric’s parents and from everyone else. Once the place is decorated, their outfits picked and the ads placed, the first clients start rolling in. How long can they keep pretending without anyone uncovering the truth? Will their clients find out they’re being conned? moral Sooner or later the truth will come out. Cheaters never prosper. 3 Vocabulary This list of vocabulary will help you enjoy the play more fully. NOUNS accomplishments • tribulations • newly-weds • handyman • endeavors • fortune teller psychic • diapers • income • jerk • scam • medium • charges • tax evasion • hiccups VERBS shiver • flee • cringe • suck • sip • mop • bluff • con • dust • blindfold • wander PHRASAL VERBS ask somebody out • back somebody up • bring somebody down • squeeze somebody in piss somebody off • cut it out • live on (a budget) ADJECTIVES spectral - comfy - impeccable - tearful - tormented - morbid EXPRESSIONS AND IDIOMS Big money • Sixth sense • Turning point • Milky Way • Lead by example • Bring it on Attempted murder • Play hard • Be in for • Have a crush on somebody • Be over somebody There are plenty more fish in the sea • There are none so blind as those who will not see When you got it, flaunt it! • You’re the man! COLLOCATIONS pay a compliment • switch roles • commit fraud • make a living • severe punishment make adjustments • pay the bail • get goosebumps 4 CHARACTERS ROSE ALBERT Eric’s mum. An executive Eric’s dad. who believes hard work is A caring and the key to success spiritual person ERIC a high school graduate who is not certain about going to college right now DANIEL EVE Eric’s friend and a client who wants help to business partner find a boyfriend 5 BEFORE WATCHING ACTIVITIES Levels 1 2 3 6 1 BACKGROUND “THE PRETENDER” by Foo Fighters According to the Longman Online Dictionary of Contemporary English, to pretend means: “to behave as if something is true when in fact you know it is not, in order to deceive people or for fun”. Highlight the song lines below which you feel are connected with the idea of truth and deceit. Keep you in the dark plays? You know they all pretend You’re the pretender Keep you in the dark What if I say that I’ll never surrender? And so it all began Send in your skeletons In time our soul untold Sing as their bones go marching in, again I’m just another soul for sale, oh well They need you buried deep The page is out of print The secrets that you keep are ever ready We are not permanent Are you ready? We’re temporary, temporary I’m finished making sense Done pleading ignorance Chorus That whole defense Spinning infinity, boy I’m the voice inside your head The wheel is spinning me You refuse to hear It’s never-ending, never-ending I’m the face that you have to face Mirrored in your stare Same old story I’m what’s left, I’m what’s right What if I say I’m not like the others? I’m the enemy What if I say I’m not just another one of your I’m the hand that will take you down plays? Bring you to your knees You’re the pretender So who are you? What if I say I will never surrender? Yeah, who are you? (3 times) What if I say I’m not like the others? Keep you in the dark What if I say I’m not just another one of your You know they all pretend 7 2 WORDS, WORDS, WORDS! DECEIT AND CRIME The play you are going to watch deals with deceit and crime. Unscramble the words at the bottom of the page and match to the definitions below: The crime of The crime of stealing stealing personal things of small value. property. A b Someone who uses cards An act of The crime of getting or looks at people’s hands money from people in order to tell them what trying to kill. by tricking them. is supposed to happen to them in the future. C D e The crime of Someone who claims A synonym of to have the power to stealing very receive messages from psychic. valuable things. dead people. f g h To state officially To deceive someone that someone may be in order to get guilty of a crime. money from them. i j 1. MACS 2. TFTEH 3. PTYTE LYANRCE 4. EGRAHC 5. FARUD 6. FOTURNE LLETER 7. CLAIRYANTVO 8. GDRAN LARNYCE 9. MUIDEM 10. ATTEDMEPT MERUDR 8 3 BACKGROUND IN THE NEWS The boys in the play you’re going to see pretend to be psychics. Here is an article about a real case. Six sentences have been removed from it. Choose from 1-6 the one that best fits each gap. She didn’t see it coming: psychic arrested for $800,000 fraud Despite her self-proclaimed clairvoyance, a New York City psychic was arrested by the NYPD, in the latest example of fortune-teller fraud. Psychic Zoe has not had a very good week. On 9 May, sensing a broken heart and a naive nature, quickly the fortune-teller, whose real name is Ann Thompson, took advantage of the woman’s distress and drained was arrested by the New York Police Department on her life savings. D) suspicion of defrauding clients out of over $800,000. She also convinced the victim to spend large sums of You’d think she might have had a premonition that money on spells that would vanquish demons, as well the police would be knocking at her door but, alas, as on building a “golden pyramid” that would protect the future isn’t always crystal clear. her and her loved ones from dying. Needless to say, The police were notified of Thompson after two of her the golden pyramid was entirely fictitious. victims contacted private investigator Bob Nygaard, While Thompson is currently awaiting sentencing, who specializes in psychic scams. A) Nygaard has already helped put a number of fraudulent However, one is a mother in her late 40s from Canada fortune-tellers behind bars. E) who was defrauded of at least $740,000. The second Despite his track record, Nygaard still finds it victim is a professional man in his 30s from the difficult to get law enforcement to take clairvoyant midwest who met Thompson while on business in chicanery seriously. F) However, Manhattan last year, and who was scammed out of Nygaard stresses, psychics conning desperate people $72,000. out of large amounts of money is a serious problem. But what exactly is a “psychic scam”, you might ask? “The prevalence with which these psychic scams are Surely any trip to a psychic involves a large leap of occurring, and the exorbitant amounts of money faith and no guarantees? B) You can, of which vulnerable people are being defrauded, however, charge a psychic for grand theft or larceny not only in NYC but all over the USA, is absolutely when they’ve taken a large fortune from someone via astonishing,” Nygaard told the Guardian. “Police and deception or false promises. prosecutors need to wake up [and] realize that these Thompson’s Canadian victim, for example, initially self-proclaimed psychics are often part of organized went to the psychic because she was having criminal enterprises.” relationship problems. C) Thompson, 1) While he says he “received excellent cooperation from a NYPD detective, in regard to this particular case”, all too often the police tend to treat psychic fraud like a joke.