English Exercises: Alcatraz: Reading and Listening Comprehension

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Alcatraz

Who were the Inmates of Alcatraz?

Write in the missing words and you will find out the answer. Choose from the words in the box. There is an extra word that you do not need.

transferred family rules institutions sleeping activities medical escape prisoners years working daily refused

While several well-known criminals, such as Al Capone or George "Machine-Gun" Kelly, did time on Alcatraz, most of the 1,576 were not well-known gangsters, but prisoners who to conform to the rules and regulations at other Federal , who were considered violent and dangerous, or who were considered risks. Alcatraz served as the prison system's prison - if a man did not behave at another institution, he could be sent to Alcatraz, where the highly structured, monotonous routine was designed to teach an inmate to follow and regulations.

At Alcatraz, a prisoner had four rights: food, clothing, shelter, and care. Everything else was a privilege that had to be earned. Some privileges a prisoner could earn included , corresponding with and having visits from members, access to the prison library, and recreational such as painting and music. Once prison officials felt a man no longer posed a threat and could follow the rules (usually after an average of 5 on Alcatraz), he could then be back to another Federal prison to finish his sentence and be released.

Watch a video about Alcatraz and do the exercises.

Decide whether the following statements are True, False or Not Mentioned in the video.

1 Alcatraz got its name after a bird.

2 The first prisoners arrived at the island in 1913.

3 Joleine Babyak was born on Alcatraz.

4 She was the daughter of an inmate.

5 She went to school on Alcatraz.

6 People were afraid of Alcatraz.

7 Alcatraz was thought to be extremely safe because of its geographical position.

8 There were not any escapes before and after 1962.

9 The escape took place at night.

10 Four inmates escaped from the Rock in 1962.

11 Joleine thinks that the escapees could not survive because of the bad weather.

Watch the video again and concentrate on the part where Joleine speaks about the night of the jail break. Choose the words that she uses.

We were living here the 1962 escape. It was pretty . I was late for school that day but I had a really good . We all slept through it because the escapees put the on their beds.

I couldn’t that there was an escape although I knew in the of my mind that it had to be. I never heard the before. And I put my robe on, I ran down the stairs and my met me on the stairway and said: ”Get , we have to search the house.”