Sherlock Holmes in Simple English: The Copper Beeches E-Book

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• Herausgeber: A L Stringer
• Kategorie: Fremdsprachen
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Miss Hunter is too poor to refuse a job as a governess in English country house, even when the conditions are very strange. Her new employer is friendly and funny, but why does he keep a large and dangerous dog, and what is in the locked room? It isn't long before she turns to Sherlock Holmes for the answers to her questions.

This book is a graded reader. The story has been retold in modern English for students of English as a foreign / second language at intermediate level (CEFR B1) and younger native speakers.

Features

• Comprehension and vocabulary tasks
• Summary of the story
• Endnotes for difficult words, place names and cultural references
• Word list at the end of the book

Leseprobe

About graded readers

Graded readers help language learners improve their skills through reading for pleasure. They use grammar and vocabulary that are appropriate for learners at different levels.

Graded readers can help learners to

•

remember key vocabulary;

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improve their understanding of grammar;

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remember common phrases and expressions; and

•

enjoy great stories that would be too difficult to read in the original.

This graded reader is suitable for non-native learners of English at intermediate level (CEFR B1) and younger native speakers (US 6th grade). Stories at this level keep close to the original but are retold in modern English using high-frequency words. Less common words, place names, and points of cultural and historical interest are explained in the endnotes.

Features

•

Comprehension and vocabulary tasks

•

Summary of the story

•

Endnotes for difficult words, place names and cultural references

•

Word list at the end of the book

Introduction

The Copper Beeches

Miss Hunter is too poor to refuse a job as a governess in English country house, even when the conditions are very strange. Her new employer is friendly and funny, but why does he keep a large and dangerous dog, and what is in the locked room? It isn't long before she turns to Sherlock Holmes for the answers to her questions.

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by the British author and former doctor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930). He lives in a flat in Baker Street, London with his friend Dr Watson. He works because he enjoys solving mysteries, rather than for money, and only investigates cases that he thinks are interesting. He is best known for his powers of logical reasoning, his ability to use disguises, and his forensic skills (he is the author of a book on different types of cigar ash). Conan Doyle once explained that Holmes was based on real doctors he had known when he was a medical student in the late 1870s.

Holmes is interesting because his personality has many contradictions. He is methodical in his work but untidy in his private life: he keeps his tobacco in the end of a slipper and rarely answers his letters. He is a man of science but also a heavy smoker. He is hard working when he is on a case, but when he has nothing to do, he is bored and lazy. He is an expert in certain fields related to his detective work, but completely ignorant about many other things. He once claimed that he didn’t know the Earth revolved around the Sun because it wasn’t relevant to his work. His interests are mostly intellectual, but he also plays the violin and is an expert at boxing and sword fighting.

Holmes is a loner and has no time for family, social life or romantic relationships. The only woman he admires is Irene Adler, and that is because she manages to outwit him;however, he is always charming to his female clients. As a person, he often seems unemotional and cold, ‘a thinking machine’, but he gets excited when he is in the middle of an investigation and he likes to show off his skills. He is particularly happy when he can solve a case that has defeated everybody else.

Doctor Watson

Most of the stories, including this one, are told by his friend Dr John Watson. Watson is an army doctor who was wounded in Afghanistan and sent back to England to recover. He meets Holmes when he is looking for a place to live and they agree to share a flat at 221B Baker Street. They become friends, and Watson eventually becomes an unofficial assistant to Holmes and writes up his cases. Watson later marries and moves out of Baker Street, but he stays in touch with Holmes (see A Scandal in Bohemia) and later, after his wife dies, he returns to share the Baker Street flat once again.

The Copper Beeches

It was a cold morning in the early spring, and we were sitting after breakfast by the cosy fire in the old room in Baker Street. There was a thick fog in the street outside and you could hardly see the houses opposite. On the breakfast table, the plates shone in the gas light, for the table had not yet been cleared. Sherlock Holmes had been silent all morning, looking through the advertisements in the morning papers until at last he looked up. He was clearly in a bad mood.

‘Criminals have no imagination these days, Watson.’ he said. ‘My detective business is becoming an agency for finding lost pencils and giving advice to schoolgirls. And now I think I’ve hit the bottom. Look at this!’ He threw a letter across to me. ‘Read it!’

It was postmarked London and dated the previous evening. It read:

Dear Mr Holmes

I am very anxious to ask you whether I should accept a job as governess[1] which has been offered to me. I shall call round at half-past ten tomorrow. I hope that is not inconvenient.

Yours sincerely,