A Monthly Newsletter for Teachers of English

May 2009

© Pearson Longman 2009 PHOTOCOPIABLE

- 1 -

S

TARTING OFF

Discuss the questions below with a partner:

1. What kind of books and films do you prefer? Have you read or seen anything especially good recently?

HORROR

SCIENCE-FICTION

COMEDY

THRILLERS

WESTERNS

CRIME STORIES

WAR STORIES

HISTORICAL FICTION

2. Which film or book characters are the most memorable for you? What makes them so memorable?

B

EFORE YOU READ

What do you know about Sherlock Holmes? Look at the words and phrases below and work with a partner. What

do the words and phrases refer to?

DOCTOR WATSON

221B BAKER STREET

PROFESSOR MORIARTY

SCOTLAND YARD

REICHENBACH FALLS

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

F

IRST READING

Read the text quickly to check your ideas.

A C T I V I T I E S S H E E T

April 2009

© Pearson Longman 2009 PHOTOCOPIABLE

- 2 -

S

ECOND READING

Look at the sentences below. Work with a partner and, without looking at the text again, try and decide together

if the sentences are true (T) or false (F).

1. There have been nearly 200 Sherlock Holmes films.

T ☐

F ☐

2. Doyle killed Holmes because he stopped being popular.

T ☐

F ☐

3. His fans demanded that Holmes be brought back to life for more adventures.

T ☐

F ☐

4. Holmes was a detective with Scotland Yard.

T ☐

F ☐

5. Holmes believed that nothing was just coincidence or luck.

T ☐

F ☐

6. Holmes believed in the supernatural.

T ☐

F ☐

7. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle worked as an amateur detective many times.

T ☐

F ☐

8. You can still visit Holmes‟ home in London.

T ☐

F ☐

V

OCABULARY

1

Find words in the text to match the definitions below. The definitions are in the correct order.

Part One - Introduction

1. Simple or basic (ADJECTIVE)

…………………………..

2. A short well-known phrase associated with a famous person (NOUN)

…………………………..

3. Something which is very confusing, so you cannot understand it at all (ADJECTIVE)

…………………………..

Part Two - The Famous Detective

4. An opponent or enemy that is likely to be impossible for you to defeat (NOUN)

……………………………..

5. An angry protest by a lot of ordinary people (NOUN)

……………………………..

6. When yo

u have no choice about doing something, you are… (ADJECTIVE)

……………………………..

Part Three - The Real Holmes

7. Much greater than ordinary powers or abilities (ADJECTIVE)

……………………………..

8. Take the necessary action, especially in order to solve a problem (VERB)

……………………………..

9. Impossible to explain by natural causes, involving magic of some kind (ADJECTIVE)

……………………………..

10.Belonging to the highest class or rank (PREFIX)

……………………………..

11.Ordinary, not interesting, exciting or special (ADJECTIVE)

……………………………..

Part Four - Doyle the Detective

12.Try to find out the truth about something such as a crime, accident, or problem (VERB)

……………………………..

13.A question or problem that is dealt with by a law court (NOUN)

……………………………..

14.An official decision in a court of law, usually about a crime of some kind (NOUN)

……………………………..

15.Completely, not less than (NOUN)

……………………………..

A C T I V I T I E S S H E E T

April 2009

© Pearson Longman 2009 PHOTOCOPIABLE

- 3 -

V

OCABULARY

2

Use the words to complete the sentences below. You may need to change the form to suit the sentence. Be careful -

there are twelve sentences, so three of the words are not needed.

1. No-

one could solve the puzzle, though many tried. It was completely …………………………..

2. The judge announced his ………………………….. with a solemn face. “Guilty”, he said.

3. The new design was terribly unpopular. In fac

t, there was such an ………………………….. that it was withdrawn.

4. “I ………………………….. support you”, he said. “You can count on me”.

5. I hate my job. It‟s so boring and pointless. Everything is just so …………………………...

6. It‟s not complicated, to be honest. You just need an ………………………….. knowledge of science.

7. Ghosts? Monsters? No, I don‟t believe in them, or in the ………………………….. at all, in fact.

8. I have to get some money quickly. I don‟t want to sell the car but the bank is ………………………….. me.

9. No-one has been arreste

d yet but the police are ………………………….. the situation.

10.It was hard to believe anyone could pick up a car like that. His strength must be …………………………...

11.He was a fantastic athlete, but his colleague was always his …………………………… He could never beat his

teammate.

12.This is a big problem. I hope you

can ………………………….. it. Good luck.

V

OCABULARY

3

In the third column there are six words describing kinds of crime. Can you find them?

Use your dictionary to check the meanings of the words, then work with a partner and think of as many other crimes as

you can in three minutes. Your teacher will time you.

S

PEAKING

Work in small groups and discuss the questions below.

1. How much crime is there in your town?

2. Is your town generally a safe place? Which parts of your town are more or less dangerous?

3. What are the best ways to cut crime? Which of these ideas would you be happy to see in your town?

more monitoring (closed-circuit TV cameras)

more police on the streets

more private security firms

the right to keep a gun in your house

harsher sentences for criminals

better lighting on the streets and in the parks

A C T I V I T I E S S H E E T

April 2009

© Pearson Longman 2009 PHOTOCOPIABLE

- 4 -

‘Elementary, my dear
Watson…’ The
catchphrase of the
great detective as he
solved yet another
baffling mystery has
been said by
hundreds of actors in
more than 260 films.
Sherlock Holmes is
surely the most
famous detective in
the world, but how
much do you know
about Holmes and the
man

who

created

him?

The Famous Detective
Sherlock Holmes was the
creation of the novelist Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle
wrote over 50 novels and
collections of short stories but
it is for the great amateur
detective that he is best
remembered. In fact, Holmes
was so popular with his
readers that Doyle was
unable to write anything else
and decided on a dramatic
solution: Holmes was killed at
the Reichenbach Falls, falling
to his death while fighting his
nemesis, the

criminal

genius Professor

Moriarty.

Unfortunately for
Doyle, but

fortunately for
Homes‟

fans, his

popularity

was

such
that

there was a
public outcry
and Doyle was
forced to bring
him back to life.

The ‘Real’ Holmes

Holmes was not a

policeman, though
he sometimes
worked with

Scotland

Yard
(the
police

headquarters in London).

He always made it clear
that he was „an amateur
detective‟, working
independently. Holmes‟
great gift was his ability to

use logic and an almost

superhuman intelligence to

solve mysteries. For

Holmes, nothing happened

by chance; everything had

a cause and an effect, if

only one could see it.

Holmes used his talents

to solve crimes of all kinds,

from forgery to fraud,

kidnapping to blackmail,

robbery to murder. His

cases sometimes dealt with

the supernatural - a ghostly

dog in The Hound of the

Baskervilles and a vampire

in The Sussex Vampire -

but, of course, Holmes the

arch-rationalist could not

accept any supernatural

explanations and always

looked for, and found, a

more mundane truth: a real

dog painted with luminous

paint, or poisoned darts
blown at a boy‟s neck.

Doyle the Detective

Arthur Conan Doyle not

only wrote about amateur

detectives - he was also

one himself! Doyle

investigated two cases in

which he believed innocent

men had been imprisoned;

both times he was

successful in reversing the

verdicts, though in one

case it took him fully

eighteen years! Doyle was

never as famous as his

fictional detective, whose
„home‟ at 221b Baker St. is
now a museum and one of
London‟s most popular
tourist attractions.