The prisoners tried to barter with the guards for items like writing paper and books.

囚犯们试着从看守那里换取稿纸和书之类的东西。

《牛津词典》

One of the guards showed her a piece of paper.

其中一个护卫出示了一张文件。

youdao

Paper cutting window guards occupy an important position in the wedding.

剪纸窗花在婚礼中占有重要的地位。

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What to us and the guards may look like a scrap of paper becomes for him a tiny piece of his ticket to freedom.

FORBES: The Prisoner's Dilemma: The Key to Creativity

He then is said to have tied Geoghan's hands behind his back, gagged him and wound a sheet around the former priest's neck, tightening it with a shoe before beating him severely until prison guards realised what was happening and intervened, the paper said.

BBC: 'Priest killer' faces charges