Read the first part of a Sherlock Holmes story. What do you think happens next?

W h e n I called on Sherlock Holmes on the second m o r n i n g after Christmas, he was lying

on the sofa next to some newspapers. On a chair, there was a very dirty old hat and a
magnifying glass.
'I suppose,' I said, 'that there is a story about that hat which will help you solve another
mysterious crime.'
'There's no crime,' said Sherlock Holmes laughing, 'just a strange little incident.
Peterson, the door attendant, found the hat. At about four o'clock in the morning,
he was coming back from a party w h e n he saw a tall man carrying a goose.
Suddenly, two thugs appeared. O n e pushed the man and the other thug tried to
take the goose. Peterson went to protect the man but seeing someone in uniform,
he dropped the goose and ran away. All the attackers disappeared so Peterson was left
with both the goose and the old hat. There was a card with the goose saying 'For Mrs H e n r y Baker' and the
initials 'H.B.' inside the hat, but there are a lot of H e n r y Bakers in London. Peterson did not k n ow what to do
with either the hat or the goose so he brought both to me on Christmas morning. I kept the hat and Peterson
had the goose for his Christmas dinner.'
'So can you find any clues about the man from this old hat?'
'What can you see, Watson?'
'Well, it is an ordinary black hat. T h e lining is made of red silk and there is no elastic. There is some dust on it
and several spots. Someone has tried to cover all of the spots with ink. But I can't see any clues.'
'Well, Watson, the hat tells us a lot about the hat's owner. He used to be quite rich but something must have
happened to him, probably problems with drink. His wife no longer loves him. He is middle-aged with grey
hair - which he has had cut recently. He doesn't do m u ch exercise and he hasn't got gas in his house.'
'You must be joking Holmes. H o w do you k n o w all that information?'
'Elementary, my dear Watson...'

Find out what happens next in the story
and check your guesses to Exercise 1 on
page 134.
Reference ( 1 ) : Determiners
Grammar Summary, page 149.
4 Answer these questions.
1 Why does the text say the sofa but a chair in the description
of Holmes's room? (line 2)
2 Could we use o instead of the in this context? How would the
meaning change?
3 The text first mentions a man and a goose (line 8) and later
the man (line 9) and the goose (line 10). Can you explain why?

Translate the expressions in red in the 5 Cross out the examples in the table which are incorrect.
text into your language. Use the examples in the text to help you.

Match the determiners (1-3) with the

situations (a-c).

1 the second there is a choice of

only two people or
things
2 another it doesn't matter how
many people or things
there are
3 the other the things or people
are clearly ordered

More practice, Language Powerbook page 12.