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Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes

The Red Headed League

Exercises

A cura di Francesca Veneziano

Testi di Alessia Manoiero

Correzione bozze: Sara Berretta, Annalisa Damonte

Supervisione grafica: Alessandro Agostino

Voce narrante: Nicholas Brandon

Illustrazioni e copertina di: Lorenzo Calamano, Simone Cavazzoni, Lorenzo Lombardi

Si ringrazia per la collaborazione l’Istituto Istruzione Superiore G. Caboto Chiavari – GE e in particolare la professoressa Alessandra Vano

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NOME STUDENTE: ___________________________________

CLASSE: ____________________________________________

ISTITUTO: __________________________________________

CONTENTS

Exercises CHAPTER ONE p. 5

Exercises CHAPTER TWO p. 8

Exercises CHAPTER THREE - p. 11

Exercises CHAPTER FOUR p. 15

EXERCISES - Sherlock Holmes, The Red Headed League

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Exercises - CHAPTER ONE

1.1 - Mark these sentences true or false

T F

1) When Watson went to visit Sherlock Holmes he found him alone.

2) Mister Wilson was a writer.

3) Mister Wilson was a workman before.

4) Mister Wilson had lived in Japan in the past.

5) Mister Wilson had a particular tattoo you can only find in China.

6) Vincent Spaulding was young and loved photography.

7) The Red-Headed League gives jobs only to people from London.


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1.2 - Match the following words to their definitions

a. Cellar 1. slim

b. Advertisement 2. any public notice in a newspaper, film on

television, announcement on radio to publicize an event, etc

c. Sleeve 3. a person who owns or manages a shop or

small store

d. Thin 4. emitting or reflecting light; shining

e. Bright 5. the part of a garment covering the arm

f. Shopkeeper 6. an underground room of a building,

usually used for storage

1.3 - Topic – Hobbies

Vincent Spaulding is interested in photography. Do you have any

hobbies? Write about your hobby. Here’s a list of questions that may

help you:

1) When did you start your hobby?

2) Why did you choose it?

3) Do you practice it with your friends?

4) Where do you practice your hobby?


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Exercises - CHAPTER TWO

2.1 - Before reading the text listen to the first part of the chapter

and fill in the gaps.

‘I decided to ask Spaulding to ___________ with me to the Red

Headed League’s offices’, said Mister Wilson. ‘So I closed the shop for

the day and we ___________ to Fleet Street. Spaulding was

___________ to have a holiday.’

‘Fleet Street was full of men with red hair, but few men had shining

red hair like mine. Spaulding ___________ through all the people and

we got to the office. There was little furniture – two uncomfortable

chairs, a kitchen ___________ and a book case. A small man with

shining red hair sat at the table and spoke to many men with red

hair. He said ‘no’ to all of them and then he ___________ to me. He

was friendly and closed the office door behind us.’

‘This is Mr Jabez Wilson’, said my ___________, ‘and he would like

the job in the League. ‘

‘His hair looks fine’, the man said, ‘but is it ___________? We must

be very careful!’

2.2 - Now check your answers in the text


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2.3 - Mark the following sentences true or false.

T F 1. Mr Wilson closed the shop for a day because he went on

holiday

2. Duncan Ross was the secretary of the League

3. Mister Wilson’s job at the League was writing the

Encyclopaedia Britannica beginning with the letter “A”

4. Vincent Spaulding was about thirty years old and had a

white mark under his left eye.

5. Pope’s Court looked like ‘a basket of oranges’ because

all the houses in that area were orange.

2.4 - Write a summary for chapter 2

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2.5 - Read the description below. What is the word for each one?

The first letter is already there.

1) something that is impossible to understand m_ _ _ _ _ _

2) the opposite of fat t _ _ _

3) a situation which is not safe d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

4) something which isn’t clear c _ _ _ _ _ _ _

5) a person who breaks the law c _ _ _ _ _ _ _


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Exercises - CHAPTER THREE


T F

1. Saxe Coburg Square is a very nice part of the City.

2. Inside the shop there was a sign with the name Jabez Wilson painted on it.

3. Watson and Holmes saw a bakery, a newspaper shop, a restaurant and a shop of the City and the Suburban

Bank.

4. Watson didn’t feel confused at all about the case.

3.2 - Listen to the first part of the chapter and fill in the gaps

‘Well, Watson, said Holmes when our ___________ left, ‘What do

you think of this unusual case?’

‘I don’t know.’ Then Holmes sat back in his ___________, closed his

eyes and started smoking his pipe.

Holmes seemed to be asleep. But then he ___________ jumped up

and put his pipe down on the table.


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‘There is a ___________ of classical music at St James’s Hall this

afternoon, let’s go.’

‘Yes, I’m free today’, replied Mr. Watson.

‘Good! Put on your hat and come. I ___________ to have some lunch

first.’

They went to Saxe Cobourg Square. It’s a very poor and ugly area of

the city.

There was some ___________ in the middle of the square and old

houses ___________ it. One of them had a shop window, a shop

door and a house door.

Outside the shop there was a sign with the name JABEZ WILSON

___________ in big white letters. This was Mister Wilson’s shop.

3.3 - Write the infinitive of the following verbs taken from the text.

Left ______________

Jumped up ______________

Had ______________

Painted ______________

Stopped ______________

Knocked ______________


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Walked ______________

Met ______________

3.4 - Match the following words taken from the text with the right

definition

a. Unusual 1. repulsive or very

unattractive

b. Ugly 2. to carry, to take

c. Square 3. a weapon with a metallic

tube or barrel

d. Bring 4. an open area in a town,

sometimes including the surrounding buildings

e. Gun 5. something uncommon

3.5 - Watson said that he felt confused. How would you feel if you

were him?

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Exercises - CHAPTER FOUR

4.1 - Match the following verbs or words with their meaning

a. To go through 1. A vacancy

b. Stick 2. Quickly, without any warning

c. Magnifying glass 3. Informed of current

developments

d. Cracks 4. To excavate

e. Thief 5. Consequently

f. Aware 6. To turn off

g. To switch off 7. A person who steals something

from another

h. To shoot 8. Stealing money from a bank

i. Hole 9. a convex lens used to produce

an enlarged image of an object

j. Bank robbery 10. a long piece of wood that helps

you walk

k. To dig 11. a break or fracture without

complete separation of the two parts

l. Suddenly 12. to move or to proceed

m. Therefore 13. to fire a weapon


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4.2 - Write the infinitive form of the following verbs in the past

taken from the test

1) Sang ______________

2) Went through ______________

3) Said ______________

4) Saw ______________

5) Switched off ______________

6) Climbed down ______________

7) Had ______________

8) Spent ______________

GRAMMAR BOX

The word handcuffs is the plural of the word handcuff. In English you

form the plural of a noun by adding -s or -es . You form the plural of a

word according to its end. Most words form their plural just by

adding -s at the end of the word.

For example:

Glass – Glasses

Dish – Dishes

Cat – Cats


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The words that end in –y form their plural in –ies:

Family – families

The words that end in –ey form their plural in –eys

Donkey – Donkeys

The words that end in –f/fe form their plural in –ves

Wife – wives

Leaf – leaves

Knife – knives

Some words have an irregular plural:

Woman – women

Man – men

Child – children

Tooth – teeth

Foot – Feet

Some words don’t change in the plural:

Sheep – Sheep

Fish – Fish

Deer – deer

Some words are only plural:

Scissors: a pair of scissors

Trousers: a pair of trousers

Shorts: a pair of shorts


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4.3 - Write the plural form of the following words taken from the

text:

Journey __________

Street __________

Door __________

Box __________

Thief __________

Glass __________

Hand __________

Face __________

Gun __________

Bank __________

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE BIOGRAPHY

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1859. He came

from a wealthy catholic Irish family who had an important position in

the world of Art. When he was 22 he married Mary Foley. She loved

books and was a master story teller. His father was a chronic

alcoholic and that’s why his family started to have some money

problems.

When he turned 19 the wealthy members of his family offered to pay

for his studies and so he moved to England in order to study in a

Jesuit Boarding School. Arthur absolutely hated the bigotry


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surrounding his studies and rebelled at corporal punishment, which

was very common and brutal in most English schools at that time.

Conan Doyle was very close to his mother. His only moments of

happiness during the years he spent in England were when he wrote

to his mother and when he practiced sport, especially cricket.

During those years in England, Arthur realized that he had a talent at

storytelling. Once he said: ‘Perhaps it was good for me that the times

were hard, for I was wild, full blooded and a trifle reckless. But the

situation called for energy and application so that one was bound to

try to meet it. My mother had been so splendid that I could not fail

her.’

Anyway he decided to study medicine and during his studies he met

many of the future authors who were also attending the university,

such as for example James Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Anyway, the man who most impressed and influenced him, was one

of his teachers, Dr. Joseph Bell. The good doctor was a master at

observation, logic, deduction, and diagnosis. All these qualities were

later to be found in the persona of the celebrated detective Sherlock

Holmes.

He became a doctor in 1882 and he opened his first practice. Since he

didn’t have many patients, he started writing his first Sherlock

Holmes story: A study in Scarlett. It was a great success and so the

magazine The Strand asked him to write 6 Sherlock Holmes stories.

The Sherlock Holmes stories became very popular in Britain.

Conan Doyle became tired of Sherlock and he wanted to concentrate

more on historical novels and so in 1893 he wrote a story called “The

final problem” and killed Holmes. His readers were very disappointed


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and so he wrote another story called: The hounds of Baskervilles. He

then continued to write Sherlock’s stories until 1927.

He died in England on 7 July 1930.


T F

1. Conan Doyle was born in Dublin.

2. His father was an alcoholic.

3. He studied English literature at University.

4. He wrote ‘The last problem’ in 1893.

5. He died in 1930.

arthur conan doyle - englishlive.tv · arthur conan doyle sherlock holmes the red headed league...

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