Legal English- Numbers Trivia Pairwork

Legal trivia numbers pairwork

Student A

Choose one of the numbers below and change it into a question, e.g. “What percentage of…?” or “How many…?” Listen to your partner’s guesses and give them hints such as “(The real number is) far higher” and “(It’s) very slightly lower” until they get exactly the right number.

Useful language for asking questions and giving hints what percentage               what fraction          what ratio/ what proportion                    what is the… rate (in…)         how often            how long how many/ how much                 when/ in what year   (The real number is) far/ considerably/ slightly/ very slightly + + higher/ longer/ later/ more + lower/ shorter/ earlier/ less/ fewer                   (than what you said)

 

1. In two thousand and three, two point five billion yen in cash was handed into the Tokyo police. Seventy two percent was returned to its owners.
2. Twelve million Japanese people owe money to illegal loan sharks.
3. One million three hundred and eighty two thousand crimes were recorded in Japan in twenty thirteen.
4. There were three thousand yakuza groups with eighty eight thousand members in nineteen ninety.
5. In nineteen ninety the three largest yakuza syndicates controlled sixteen hundred gangs and forty two thousand gangsters.
6. There are one thousand two hundred and fifty kouban (small police stations) in Tokyo.
7. The incarceration rate in the US is seven hundred and twenty four people per one hundred thousand (the highest in the world). In Russia five hundred and eight one people per hundred thousand head of population are imprisoned. The imprisonment rate in England and Wales is a hundred and forty five people per one hundred thousand.
8. A yakuza member was caught smuggling eight point eight two pounds of heroin into Canada. (One kilo equals two point two pounds).
9. In nineteen ninety, sixty five point one percent of all crimes in Japan were some kind of theft.
10. The Japanese police solve seventy five point nine percent of robbery
11. The Japanese police solve ninety five point nine percent of homicide
12. Trial by jury was stopped in Japan in nineteen forty three. A lay judge system was brought into law in two thousand and four and started operating in two thousand and nine.
13. Only one in a hundred Japanese workers say that if they know their company is doing something illegal they would tell anyone.
14. Two thirds of Tokyo women have been groped on a train.
15. A third of all handguns seized by the police in Japan came from America. A seventh of all guns game from China and one in ten came from the Philippines.
16. A half of all yakuza in Japan are associated with the largest group, Yamaguchi-gumi.

Look at both sheets and ask about anything you aren’t sure about, e.g. things in italics.

 

Student B

Choose one of the numbers below and change it into a question, e.g. “What percentage of…?” or “How many…?” Listen to your partner’s guesses and give them hints such as “(The real number is) far higher” and “(It’s) very slightly lower” until they get exactly the right number.

Useful language for asking questions and giving hints what percentage               what fraction          what ratio/ what proportion                    what is the… rate (in…)         how often            how long how many/ how much                 when/ in what year   (The real number is) far/ considerably/ slightly/ very slightly + + higher/ longer/ later/ more + lower/ shorter/ earlier/ less/ fewer                   (than what you said)

 

17. In nineteen eighty nine, the boss of one yakuza group bought two hundred and fifty five million dollars’ worth of railway shares.
18. Two million eight hundred and fifty four thousand crimes were recorded in Japan in two thousand and two.
19. The Tokyo police receive three hundred thousand umbrellas a year.
20. There are seventy nine thousand one hundred people in Japanese prisons.
21. There are sixty six thousand two hundred public prosecutors in the USA. In Japan the government employs two thousand prosecutors. In the U.S., there are four hundred and eighty arrests per year per state prosecutor. In Japan, there is seven hundred arrests per year per prosecutor.
22. In nineteen ninety an illegal Smith & Wesson revolver cost four thousand dollars in Tokyo. In nineteen ninety seven it cost only five hundred dollars.
23. In nineteen eighty nine, there were one point one murders per one hundred thousand people in Japan.
24. In nineteen eighty nine, Japan experienced one point three robberies per one hundred thousand people.
25. In Japan ninety nine point seven percent of all the cases which are brought to court result in conviction. In the US eighty eight percent of all cases in court result in the suspect being convicted.
26. Fourteen point seven percent of people in Japanese prisons have yet to be sentenced.
27. Five point nine percent of the Japanese prison population is female.
28. The first national legal codes in Japan were in written in eighteen eighty and revised in nineteen oh seven.
29. Nine tenths of Japanese people believe that the yakuza shouldn’t be allowed to exist.
30. Japanese suspects can be held for one and a half weeks before the police decide whether to prosecute (and extensions of that time are almost always granted).
31. A third of Scottish thirteen year olds said they had been offered a drug and thirteen percent said they had used illegal narcotics.
32. Between nineteen ninety three and two thousand and two, the violent crime rate in the USA declined fifty four percent and the property crime rate declined by a half.

 

Look at both sheets and ask about anything you aren’t sure about, e.g. things in italics.

 

Pronounce the numbers another way 

Try to think of or remember other ways of saying the underlined numbers. Put a question mark next to any you aren’t sure about. Small changes like just adding “and” (in the correct place) also counts as rephrasing.

Big numbers and dates

23 - In 1989, there were one point one murders per a hundred thousand people in Japan.

7 - The incarceration rate in the US is seven hundred twenty four people per one hundred thousand (the highest in the world). In Russia five hundred and eight one people per hundred thousand head of population are imprisoned. The imprisonment rate in England and Wales is one hundred and forty five people per one hundred thousand.

17 - In nineteen eighty nine, the boss of one yakuza group bought two hundred fifty five million dollars’ worth of railway shares.

18 - Two million eight hundred fifty four thousand crimes were recorded in Japan in 2002.

5 - In nineteen ninety the three largest yakuza syndicates controlled one thousand six hundred gangs and forty two thousand gangsters.

1- In two thousand three, two billion five hundred million yen in cash was handed into the Tokyo police. Seventy two percent was returned to its owners.

3 - One million three hundred eighty two thousand crimes were recorded in Japan in two thousand and thirteen.

 

Fractions

16 - One half of all yakuza in Japan are associated with the Yamaguchi-gumi...

32 - Between nineteen ninety three and two thousand and two, the violent crime rate in the USA declined fifty four percent and the property crime rate declined by fifty percent.

30 - Japanese suspects can be held for ten days before the police decide whether to prosecute (and extensions of that time are almost always granted).

31 - One third of Scottish thirteen year olds said they had been offered a drug and thirteen percent said they had used illegal narcotics.

15 - Thirty three percent of all handguns seized by the police in Japan came from America. One seventh of all guns game from China and a tenth came from the Philippines.

29 - Ninety percent of Japanese people believe that the yakuza shouldn’t be allowed...

14 - Sixty six percent of Tokyo women have been groped on a train.

13 - Only one percent of Japanese workers say that if they know their company is doing something illegal they would tell anyone.

 

Check any which you are not sure about with the original worksheets.

What is the rule for adding “and”?

 

Pronounce the numbers

Try to think of or remember how to say each number written as figures below.

Large numbers

4 - There were 3000 yakuza groups with 88,000 members in nineteen ninety.

19 - The Tokyo police receive 300,000 a year.

2 - 12,000,000 Japanese people owe money to illegal loan sharks.

20 - There are 79,100 people in Japanese prisons.

6 - There are 1250 kouban (small police stations) in Tokyo.

Decimals

9 - In nineteen ninety, 65.1% of all crimes in Japan were some kind of theft.

10 - The Japanese police solve 75.9% of robbery cases.

8 - A yakuza member was caught smuggling 8.82 pounds of heroin into Canada..

Dates

12 - Trial by jury was stopped… in 1943. A lay judge system was brought into law in 2004...

28 - The first national legal codes in Japan were in written in 1880 and revised in 1907.

Check any which you aren’t sure about with the first two worksheets.

 

Pronounce the numbers different ways

Try to think of at least two ways of saying each of the numbers below.

Large numbers

• 100
• 234
• 390,000
• 1,200
• 1,000,000,000
• 1,700,000,000
• 500,000

Small numbers

• 0
• 5
• 23
• 05
• 1/4
• 1/5

Dates

• 2001
• 2010
• 15 Jan
• 7/2/99

Times

• 06:15
• 02:20
• 03:16
• 04:05
• 03:55
• 16:00

Legal English number homework

Choose three of the topics below and find several statistics for each, e.g. spying in different places, at different times and/ or of different kinds. Next week you will explain the statistics without saying the topic and your partner will try to guess which of those things you are talking about.

Suggested legal topics to research data on

(Legal) age of retirement Arrests Bankruptcy Breakup of marriages (e.g. divorce and separation) Bullying Bureaucracy Capital punishment Censorship Children in care Civil cases Compensation awarded Confidence in the police Control of the internet Corruption (e.g. bribery and nepotism) Crime by foreign nationals Data protection problems Discrimination (e.g. sexism, racism or ageism) Domestic violence Drinking and driving Drugs (e.g. hard drugs, soft drugs or prescription drugs such as anti-depressants) (Industrial) espionage (= spying) Fear of crime Forgery Fraud (credit card fraud, online scams, etc) (Legal and/ or illegal) gambling Gun crime Hacking Homicide rate Human trafficking Illegal file sharing Illegal immigration Incarceration rate (= imprisonment rate) Knife crime Length of court cases

Length of jail sentences Level of fines/ Income from fines Members of organised crime groups Missing children/ Runaway children Misuse of prescription drugs Money owed to loan sharks Murders New laws Number of illegal weapons Number of laws on the books Number of police Number of public prosecutors Organised crime (e.g. mafia and gangs) Petty crime like graffiti and other vandalism) Political activism (e.g. protests/ demonstrations, petitions) Political extremism Pornography/ The sex industry Prison population Property crime Recidivism (= Reoffending) Reckless driving Recorded crime School absenteeism School violence Seizures of narcotics Serious crime Sexual harassment (e.g. groping on trains) Smuggling Street drug prices Successful prosecutions Tax evasion Theft Violent crime (assault etc) Whistleblowing White collar crime Youth violence