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Practice 8 FEAR IS IN BOOkS
Ludic and literary environment
SOCIAL LANGUAGE PRACTICE: Read fantasy or suspense literature to evaluate
cultural differences.
by Arthur Conan Doyle
(retold by Clare West)

The speCkLed Band

1
Helen's Story

My name is Dr. Watson and I am going to tell
you about a difficult case when I was still living at my friend
Sherlock Holmes's flat on Baker Street in London. Very early
one morning, a young woman, dressed in black, came to
see us. She looked tired and unhappy, and her face was very
white. 'I'm afraid! Afraid of death, Mr. Holmes!' she cried.
'Please help me! I'm not thirty yet and look at my grey
hair! I'm so afraid!'
'Just sit down and tell us your story,' said Holmes kindly.

'My name is Helen Stoner,' she began, 'and I live with
my stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott, near a village in the
country. His family was once very rich, but they had no
money when my stepfather was born. So, he studied to be
a doctor, and went out to India. He met and married my
mother there, when my sister Julia and I were very young.
Our father was dead, you see.'
'Your mother had some money, perhaps?'
asked Sherlock Holmes. stepfather (n.):
padrastro
'Oh yes, mother had a lot of money, so my
stepfather wasn't poor anymore.'

'Tell me more about him, Miss Stoner,' said Holmes.
'Well, he's a violent man. In India, he once got angry with his
Indian servant and killed him! He had to go to prison because
of that, and then we all came back to England. Mother died

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